Richard Wright (1908-1960) – is the author of Black Boy/American Hunger, Native Son, Rite of Passage and Uncle Tom’s Children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South African History – Background to The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI Sophomores: Those of you who are hard at work perfecting your historical reports may find it helpful to mention Orwell’s experiences during the Spanish Civil War. His disenchantment with Soviet-style communism can be traced this period (1937-1938) when he fought for the anti-Franco forces under the P.O.U.M. alongside a rag-tag coalition of socialists, anarchists, Marxists and other anti-fascist,

anti-monarchist groups. At first Orwell assumed that the Republican side of the conflict was made up of entirely of “good guys,” but later learned that he was being targeted as a “Trotskyite” by factions loyal to Stalin. This in-fighting among people supposedly on the same side of the war left a bad taste in Orwell’s mouth and it was here that he first had thoughts of exposing Stalin’s brand of communism as a fraud. Ironically, when Orwell came to finally write his book in 1945, Stalinist Russia was considered an ally of Britain and America, thus making it hard initially for Orwell to get his message across.