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Orwell's imagined dystopian society
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1984 follows the life of our protagonist, Winston, and his attempt to save humanity from the dystopian world they now inhabit, created by the new government called The Party. This new government is completely power-hungry and does whatever it can to keep its citizens working for them by repressing freedom of speech, emotion, and even thought. The Party also brainwashes citizens into believing that whatever the government says is the truth, no matter what the people think. This theme of repression is a pervasive element seen throughout the story and serves as a huge point of conflict in Winston's struggles, as well as the struggles that we see other people face. The Party manipulates and represses the people's feelings and instincts to control …show more content…
In the book, we learn that the Party has repressed all sexual activity and even created something called the Junior Anti-Sex League to teach kids and young adults to refrain from acting upon sexual desires. This causes all sorts of issues for Winston, including severe trust issues paranoia. Before Winston gets to know Julia, one of our supporting characters whom he ends up having an affair with, he hated her, as the book says, "It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about with her. He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. (Orwell Kindle Locations 206-208),” Later, however, the book says that “...he realized why it was that he hated her (Julia). He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her and would never do so, because round her sweep supple waist, which seemed to ask you to encircle it with your arm, there was only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity (Kindle Locations 280-283),” This sexual repression imposed by the Party is clearly detrimental to its citizens, seen in Winston’s hatred of almost all women and the pent-up sexual desires that lead to said hatred. Furthermore, when Julia asks Winston what he thought of her before she confessed her feelings, he says, “I hated the sight of you...I …show more content…
We see that there is a level of mistrust between family members caused by the propaganda that children have known for their whole lives. After the Party captures Winston after exposing him from his Thought Crimes and begins brainwashing him, the man responsible for his capture says that they will live in a world in which, “No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend... (Orwell Kindle Locations 4120-4121),” He also says “There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy (Orwell Kindle Locations 4123-4124),” This is, without a doubt, the Party controlling people by manipulating their feelings, instincts, and desires, all for the Party’s benefit. Manipulating people so that they cannot trust the people they live with and love is sure to cause many problems in the normal person’s day to day life. It's not only families that are constantly watched; everybody is constantly monitored. There is the constant reminder of this in the various billboard the Party puts up, with Winston describing it as “…one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. Big Brother Is Watching You, the caption beneath it ran, (Kindle Locations 86-88).” And with the Party’s invention of
In “1984,” Orwell uses Winston to portray a single individual’s attempt to take action against a powerful government, culminating in his failure and subjugation. His individual efforts failed tremendously due to the overarching power of the Party to control every aspect of social life in Oceania. Orwell uses Winston’s deeply seated hatred of the Party to portray his views on power and social change. Winston’s actions show that even in the direst of situations ...
The government completely altered the entire idea of a family to change its citizens’ views on it. “No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer” (Orwell 267). Embedding this mindset into their brains changes the way they view the opposing sex especially; husbands couldn’t trust wives, mothers couldn’t trust sons, fathers couldn’t trust daughters, and vice versa. “His mother’s memory tore at his heart because she had died loving him, when he was too young and selfish to love her in return” (Orwell 30). Unlike many children in the book, Winston felt deep regret for not loving his mother when he was a child. Most children in the book were little spies; they’d watch their parents and report them to the Thought Police if need be. Regarding marriage, Winston’s relationship with his wife Katharine was a prime example of a marriage the government would set up. While Winston wanted sex, Katharine only felt the need to have a child for the Party. She even referred to it as “our duty to The Party” (Orwell 67). This put an unbearable strain on their relationship, and even brought Winston to have thoughts of murdering her before she disappeared. In synthesis, the fear that the government implanted in its citizens regarding trust in their families put serious strains on their opinions of and ability to trust the other
In the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, there is a place called Oceania where the government is Big Brother. The government, the Party, and the Thought Police are constantly oppressing the citizens of Oceania. Most of the people don't know that they are being oppressed, but the two main characters, Julia and Winston, realize the oppression and don't stand for it. Winston and Julia absolutely hate the Party, and are constant breaking its “rules”. Julia is self-centered and resists the Party by doing rebellious acts that only affect her in a positive way. Similarly, Winston also does small acts of rebellion in the beginning of the book in ways that only relate to him. Later, Winston rebels for a greater cause, joining the Brotherhood to
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."
Throughout history, it is obvious that our actions will affect the future, however in this horrible society that Winston lives in, his job is to erase the past. People argue that high school students should not read a book if it contains any sexual themes. Orwell mentions a lot of things that are related to sex, along with describing very explicit detail on how Winston feels about Julia sexually, “Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it. “ (Orwell pg.
The novel, 1984, by George Orwell, depicts a dystopian society where no freedom exists; not even the freedom of thought. The scene takes place in Oceania, a society in which the ruling power called “the Party” strictly controls everything people do: from the way they speak, to how they move, to their very own thoughts. Winston Smith, the main character of 1984, struggles through the day to day life of having to blend into the brainwashed citizens of Oceania, where monitors called telescreens record and analyze every little movement. Anyone not showing signs of loyalty and homogeneity become vaporized, or in other words, cease to exist and become deleted from history. Tired of his constricted life, Winston decides
By removing the stimulus of sex, the Party members are then given more opportunities to devote their loyalties to Big Brother. This influence is made evident in Winston’s reactions to Julia. Her “white and smooth” body “aroused no desire in him” (32). The Party has trained its members to become unresponsive to romantic feeling. The stigma of sex has been altered to such a degree by the Party that Winston views sex as an almost political act since it has become so closely related to Big Brother. In order to ensure true devotion to the Party, romantic connections are forbidden because becoming involved in such a relationship would mean devotion to another person other than Big Brother, and is therefore considered a threat to the Party’s power. Despite Winston’s relationship with Julia, he ultimately abandons his ties to her over his ‘love’ of Big Brother - thus his connection with Big Brother replaces his romantic
Totalitarianism is one of the main themes in 1984. In WWII Europe, Oceania became the ruling power with the so called “Party” ruling everybody and have the “Big Brother” at its head. Some examples of totalitarianism is how they make people workout, they put tele-screens everywhere to monitor the peoples actions, also they refuse to allow any sexual intercourse outside of marriage. “Winston kept his back turned to the tele-screen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing” (Book 1, Chapter 1). This quote represents how fearful Winston is that he ...
To start off, Orwell's sole inclusion of women who base their relationships with men exclusively on sex demonstrates Orwell's negative beliefs about women. Despite Julia's claims to love Winston, their relationship is not about “the love of one person, but the animal instinct”(132). Julia has been in similar relationships to her and Winston's “hundreds of times”(131), relationships that look only at the sexual side and never at the emotional. She refuses all of Winston's attempts to expand their relationship, having “a disconcerting habit of falling asleep”(163) whenever he persists in talking. And although Winston cares for Julia more than he cares for Katharine, Katharine also bases her relationship with Winston completely on sex. When Winston reflects on their time together, he thinks, “he could have borne living with her if it had been agreed that they remain celibate... It ...
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
1984 is a dystopian novel set inn Airstrip One, which used to be Britian. Oceania is always at war with another superpower, and their main goal is to achieve the most power throughout their world. The main character is Winston Smith, a man who works for the party and is supposed to change history to match what the party has told him. Winston lives in a society where he is constantly listened to and watched by telescreens and microphones to make sure he is enthusiastic about hate, and to make sure he doesn’t commit any crimes. Everywhere Winston goes he always sees posters that say, “Big Brother is Watching You.” Big Brother is the party leader that may or may not be real. The official language of Oceania, the country where Airstrip one is located, is Newspeak. Newspeak is the only language in Oceania that lessens it’s words each year so that it is harder for people to commit thoughtcrime. Winston is a dedicated worker, but often thinks about rebellion against Big Brother. Winston idolizes a man named O'Brien that he thinks is part of the Brotherhood, a terrorist group who constantly sabotages the party. Winston begins to like a woman named Juli...
“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity” (Nelson Mandela). Throughout the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, there is a severe lack of humanity. During the course of the novel, the level of humanity is tested through the challenges Winston and Julia face in their war against the Party. In 1984, humanity has been impacted by the Party’s control over its members, its lack of control over its members, and its war against love.
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.
One example of rebelling against the party is that of Julia’s sexual escapades. She plots and plans to have sex with many of the different party members in order to find release in her otherwise boring lifestyle and by doing so she increases the amount of mass personal rebellion within the party’s regiment. After Winston and Julia are done having sex in the woods for the first time, he asks her how many other men has she done this with. She told him that she had done it with “scores” of other men and Winston is delighted to hear the good news. He feels that the more men she has had sexual encounters with makes the party weaker because those men don’t really feel committed to their party. Julia does not dream of rebellion against their oppressors as Winston does. However, she accepts her role in society and goes about life enjoying herself when she can.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell predicts the world’s future, when human rights, such as freedom of speech, do not exist anymore. Everyone has to obey the government. The government controls its citizens’ lives. No one speaks up against the government yet because they do not even have a chance to make up a thought about it. The government dominates the citizens’ thoughts by using technologies and the thought polices to make sure no one will have any thoughts, that is against the government. George Orwell wrote:“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows,” (Orwell.2.7.69) the government tries to control Winston knowledge and change it to fit into the purpose of the Party. To Winston, O’Brien said: “Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.” (Orwell.3.2.205). As a citizen, no one get to look at or tal...