Things to know: 1984 was a book written about life under a totalitarian regime from an average citizen’s point of view. This book envisions the theme of an all knowing government with strong control over its citizens. This book tells the story of Winston Smith, a worker of the Ministry of Truth, who is in charge of editing the truth to fit the government’s policies and claims. It shows the future of a government bleeding with brute force and propaganda. This story begins and ends in the continent of Oceania one of the three supercontinents of the world. Oceania has three classes the Inner Party, the Outer Party and the lowest of all, the Proles (proletarian). Oceania’s government is the Party or Ingsoc (English Socialism Movement), which has four ministries; the Ministry of Truth (minitrue), the Ministry of peace (minipax), the Ministry of plenty (miniplent) and the Ministry of Love (miniluv). Minipax is in charge of the affairs of war, Miniplent is in charge of food, Minitrue is in charge of controlling and regulating media information and Miniluv is in charge of torturing and interrogating prisoners or violators of thought crime and the violators will be rendered unpersons. Thought crime is any real or imaginary negative claim (made against the Party) that can be said out loud or in your mind and the Thought Police is the biggest fear of all. As Smith wrote in his journal “Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death.” The Thought Police monitors people’s thoughts, movements or dreams by two-way monitors called telescreens, hidden microphones and secret spies. Children are the most feared spies; from birth they swallowed the Party’s doctrine and were taught to spy and inform any and all thought criminals, espec... ... middle of paper ... ...examples can be seen in such works as: The Giver by Lois Lowry, 2002 film Equilibrium and the 1999 film The Matrix. Does the author write about population, migration, culture, language, religion, ethnicity, development, economy, agriculture, industry, services, resources etc? Orwell mainly talks about culture. The culture of the people in Oceania and culture of the Proles (which Smith thinks they are the future). The Proles retain the spirit of music, the sense of family and their ideals of community that the Party has thrown away and disgraced. The official language of Oceania is Newspeak which shortens the vocabulary instead of expanding it.
In the superstates of Oceania, ignorance is bliss. The story of Winston Smith’s struggle with being stuck in a factually incorrect world and the ignorance surrounding him and the entirety of 1984 provide a cautionary tale. This cautionary tale is what happens when human rights are violated on the most basic of all levels and no one is around to stop that defilation of these rights. There may be conscientious objectors to the many atrocities that the world throw at them but in a world of control, disagreement is akin to death. In a world where difference of opinion causes you to be tried for treason, that is a world that is truly corrupt to the highest of calibers. 1984 not only provides a cautionary tale of what could and would have happened if Stalinism would have gone unchecked, but also when the majority opinion stops listening to the majority of one. In this world of 1984, nothing is free, not even a
The novel 1984 is written by George Orwell post war as a depiction of the future. Only three superstates exist: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The novel takes place in Airstrip One, Oceania, which is the novel’s version of present day London. The superstate Oceania is a totalitarian state and is dictated by an enigmatic figure named Big Brother, who may not even exist. A group called the Inner Party works for Big Brother and everything they do is part of the effort to gain total control over the inhabitants of Oceania. With no liberty, rights, or independent actions, the citizens of Oceania become less human and are instead more like faithful robots of the Party. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the citizens of Oceania are deprived of individualism as a result of the manipulation the government exerts to gain control over the individuals physically, emotionally and psychologically.
1984 tells the story of Winston Smith who lives in Oceania, a dystopian nation ruled by a strictly totalitarian government know only as ‘The Party’. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even people's history and language. It uses telescreens which are everywhere-you can’t speak, breathe or sneeze without the government knowing about it. The Party even enforces a new language to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts, known as thoughtcrime, is illegal: "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death."
George Orwell has created two main characters that have conflicting traits believe in the idea of love in a world where it is forbidden. Although both are secret rebels of the Party and share the same hatred for the Party’s totalitarian power, Julia and Winston display a remarkable number of differences between each other. The differences between them include their morality, their motivation towards the rebellion, and their personalities.
It is said that 1984 is one of the greatest books ever written, a literary work that remains as transcendent as ever since its publishing date sixty-four years ago. It is a grimly realistic story crafted together by George Orwell, who takes upon particularly effective literary elements, such as the limited third-person point of view, to follow the life of Winston Smith, the average everyday, resentful civilian who attempts to fight against the seemingly omnipotent and ubiquitous powers of the Ingsoc Party. The Ingsoc Party, a totalitarian government that governs the fictional country of Oceania, holds a casket of brilliantly intelligent individuals, some of who are members of the terrifying Thought Police and the notorious Inner Party, who employ informal language against the uneducated masses of Oceania civilians. Symbolism is also a key literary element in the novel, for anything ranging from ubiquitous telescreens to the infamous Big Brother ultimately contribute to Winston’s realization of how unbreakable the power of the Ingsoc Party truly is. All throughout 1984, George Orwell exercises the elements of diction, point of view, and symbolism to bring out the novel’s theme of how futile resistance is against established totalitarian governments.
Thinking back into history, many important events have occurred in history since the publication of 1984 by George Orwell in 1949. In no specific order there would be the Holocaust, The creation of the United Nations, NATO (North Atlantic treaty Organization), and even The Iron Curtain being established. After 1984 was published huge events also occurred in history. There was the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Korean war, the Vietnam War, the creation of the Berlin Wall, and the destruction of the Berlin wall, Joseph Stalin dies, and Khrushchev gains power....etc, etc. No matter when a book is published the events in history will always surround it, such as this book.
In the novel 1984, Orwell produced a social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia that made the world pause and think about our past, present and future. When reading this novel we all must take the time to think of the possibility that Orwell's world could come to pass. Orwell presents the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control of the people of Oceania. The reader experiences the emotional ride through the eyes of Winston Smith, who was born into the oppressive life under the rule of Ingsoc. Readers are encouraged through Winston to adopt a negative opinion on the idea of communist rule and the inherent dangers of totalitarianism. The psychological manipulation and physical control are explored through Winston's journey, and with Winston's resistance and ultimate downfall, the reader is able to fully appreciate O'Briens reasoning, "Power is not a means, it is an end."
George Orwell’s 1984, contains a large number of characters, each with their own set of traits that make them unique to the story, however, the protagonist, Winston Smith, despite being a regular person, shows the bravery, fatalism, and passion that no other character in Orwell’s novel does.
Since the beginning of time man has tried to build vast empires to control the globe. Manifest Destiny has been sown into our human nature creating in us the desire to conquer. In the United States, we are accustomed to a safe democratic government where everyone has a voice and freedoms, but what if it all changed? What would it even look like for America to be stripped of all our freedoms, rights, and liberties? We think this is crazy and could never happen, but George Orwell illustrates, throughout his novel 1984, the possible dangers of complete government control. Even though this exaggerated society seems farfetched, many of his fictional governmental qualities are starting to line up with our government today.
1984 is a powerful work of George Orwell, but one of the key components to the book is the dream of Winston and how that dream relates to the book overall. Winston dreams of the deaths of his mother and sister. They were sinking in water, sacrificing their lives in some tragic, loving way to keep Winston alive. The dream then changes to the "Golden Country," an idyllic setting. A girl runs towards him, carelessly tearing off her clothes in defiance of the Party. Winston wakens with "Shakespeare" upon his lips.
The author of the novel 1984, George Orwell, is a political critic. Therefore, he used very precise descriptions of situations and words to provide the reader a clear understanding of the entity he is criticizing. When Winston describes the destruction of past records to create new ones to Julia, he says: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” (pg. 162). Here, instead of only saying “Every record has been destroyed or falsified”, Orwell describes in-depth which materials exactly were destroyed. This provides the reader a better picture of the situation in Oceania because instead of only thinking that paper records were rewritten, now the readers know that even street names were constantly rewritten, which makes the people’s lives more problematic due to the learning curve involved with new street names. This description of rewriting of records really shows to what extent the government is willing to go to achieve full control of the past and gives the reader a very scary feeling on a totalitarian system. Orwell also uses some unique word choice to express the feelings of his characters. When Winston describes Syme, he alleges that he is a “venomously orthodox” (pg. 52). Instead of using an adjective like ‘extremely’, Orwell takes it to another extent by applying the adjective ‘venomously’. Use of this adjective provides a darker feeling about Syme because the word venom is usually associated with ...
To start, 1984 is a dystopian novel that is set in Airstrip One and a province of Oceania. They are in an everlasting war with Eurasia and their very own citizens who somehow have their own opinion. This novel is based off the future and the use of new technology. The world of 1984 is being divided into three main class systems: the inner party, the outer party, and the proles. At the top is the most respected class known as “Big Brother” which only makes up two percent of the population. The inner party is the ruler of Oceania who makes policies, decisions and commandments. The outer party is the category which Julia and Winston live in.
In Conclusion, 1984 is a novel that represents a called government. The government is taken over by “The Party”. The Party seeks to gain complete obedience from the people of Oceania. The main goal of the Party is to eliminate independent thought. The book is surrounded by psychological manipulation. Everything that happens throughout the book is government related and tends to manipulate some people of Oceania. Since their government is totalitarian they seek absolute power towards their people. This shows warning of what might happen id our government becomes too powerful, the party is trying to avoid any sort of rebellion from the people.
The novel 1984 is a futuristic portrayal of the world in the year 1984. The main characters Winston and Julia fall in love with each other but are caught and purified of all their wrong doings. In the end they betray each other because of the pressure of the party. The party is a group that controls society in these ways: Manipulation of Reality, Invasion of Privacy, and Desensitization.
The idea of the future has been explored for as long as writers have been writing. The interesting concept about the future is that it will always remain a mystery. The future is always changing and never ending. In George Orwell’s 1984, Orwell ruminates on his thoughts and ideas of what the future will be like. Orwell wrote the book around 1950 during the writing era of postmodernism. Postmodernist books often expressed thoughts of the future, as well as other themes. 1984 describes the future as a place where the Party has taken over and controls everything and everyone. The residents of Oceania have no control over their bodies, their relationships, or even their thoughts. Oceania is a place of war and control. The protagonist in 1984 is a middle-aged man named Winston. Winston is one of the only living people who realize that the party is changing the facts, and he wants to do something about it (Orwell). Winston deals with the struggles of hiding from the law and who to trust. In 1984, George Orwell uses the themes of physical and mental control, forbidden love, and a “big brother” figure to exhibit characteristics of postmodernism.