The unique characters of 1984 and Animal Farm and the Burmese Days George Orwell, a pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, is known for the books 1984 and Animal Farm. In both, as in most others, he seems to enjoy using vivid and entirely believable characters, easily believable because of their obvious and tragic flaws. Another similarity appears to be the consistent use of irony, a stylistic choice that plays large in Burmese Days and many other works. Furthermore, Blair enjoyed placing his characters in out-of-the-ordinary situations and settings, constantly reversing or changing roles. It is a sign of talent that he is able to use all these aspects so effectively, making us believe the incredible and accept the incredible at the same time that makes us empathize with the characters and see similarities between them and ourselves, a long time after they were written. Blair's penchant for extremely well-crafted, entirely believable and understandable characters is shown in both his major works and his lesser-known early piece of fiction, Burmese Days. In 1984, the focus of the story is Winston Smith, a member of the Normal Party living in 1984, except for his dislike of everything the Party stands for and his distrust of its message. Of course, these qualities, questioning of authority and subtle disloyalty to unjust persecutors, are considered good by the public today. In the book, however, these abilities were destroyed, stifled, and erased by careful means, and anyone who possessed them was branded crazy, dangerous, and antisocial. Therefore, the author creates an immediate connection between us and the suffering main character by showing a little person against Big Brother (Blair is the first person to use the word). "The Thought Police would have caught him anyway. He had committed, even if he had never put pen to paper, the essential crime that contained within itself all the others. Psychocrime, they called it. Psychocrime could not be hidden forever. You could dodge it with happened for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you" (Orwell 166). This passage, especially the final sentence, slowly builds the reader's bond with Winston. He is persecuted because he is innocent, because he thinks, and this persecution makes him seem even more likeable. The final and perhaps most interesting part of Winston's development in 1984 is towards the end of the novel.