He wrote The Road to Wigan Pier to reflect what he saw there, the real poverty of people of the Lancashire Town of Wigan, and published it in 1937 (Ball, 1984).

             1937 was the year that Orwell who for some time had been describing himself as "pro-socialist" (BALL, 1984) joined the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. When the Communists attempted to eliminate their allies on the far left, he fought against them and was wounded in the fighting, later was forced to flee for his life. His experience in this war was to have the most significant impact on his political thoughts and his later works.

             In 1938, Orwell wrote Homage to Catalonia, which recounts his experiences fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. One of his best-known books reflecting his lifelong distrust of dictatorial government, whether of the left or right, Animal Farm, a modern beast-fable attacking Russian Revolution, Stalinism and totalitarianism, was published in 1945, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopian novel setting forth his fears of an intrusively bureaucratised state of the future was published in 1949. His first fame was brought by these two novels and they were the only ones which made a profit for him as a writer (Ball,1984).

             Orwell died at the early age of forty-seven of a neglected lung ailment in London, Jan. 21, 1950.

             His Time: Political Background.

             In his essay "Why I Write", Orwell (1947) says:.

             I do not think one can assess a writer"s motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in-at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own - Taking Orwell"s his own words into consideration, in order to get a better understanding of his works and particularly of his political satire Animal Farm, we should look at his political convictions, and the historical context which influenced Orwell and inspired him to write.