Answer:
Eric Arthur Blair adopted the pen name George Orwell to avoid embarrassing his parents and to hedge his bets against failure.
Step-by-step explanation:
The real name of the author we know as George Orwell was Eric Arthur Blair. He adopted the pseudonym George Orwell in 1933, when he published his first book, "Down and Out in Paris and London."
A few reasons why he chose to do this are:
- He wanted to avoid embarrassing his parents. His father was a civil servant in the British Raj, and Blair felt that his writing would be more successful if it was not associated with his family's social status.
- He wanted to hedge his bets against failure. He was not sure if he would be successful as a writer, and he did not want to damage his family's reputation if his books did not sell.
- He disliked his birth name. He thought that the name Eric was "common" and "undistinguished." He also felt that it reminded him of a prig in a Victorian boys' story.
The name George Orwell came to him after he read about the River Orwell in East Anglia. He liked the sound of the name and thought it was a good round English name. He used the pseudonym for the rest of his life, and it is now synonymous with his work.
