‘Controlling the minds of the people translates to the control of the body’ Through a close analysis of Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ and George Orwell’s ‘1984’ how far do you agree with this statement? Totalitarianism is a common theme in both 'The Color Purple ' and '1984 ', where each protagonists seem to be 'suspended ' and 'Were lost in a period that offered no hope of progress ' . Alice Walker and George Orwell offer a society where there is complete control and oppression, by the ruling elite. This eventually “translates to the control of the body”. It could be seen that both the black females and proles such as Celie are the proletariat of society who are refused freedom and are never truly free because 'As long as the mind After the weeks, months, years of torturing Winston becomes ‘hollow”; this could be interpreted that Winston has had all of his individualism expunged and Orwell’s characterisation of Winston perhaps reflects the true capacity and influence the party has on their people, creating a bleak and sadistic tone for the remainder of the novel this is juxtaposed to the start of the novel where there appears to be slight optimism with the finding of The Brotherhood. Furthermore, after torturing him or ‘curing’ him, he no longer hates Big Brother “We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them”. The party “Changes” their enemies, instead of wanting to “destroy” them. The party controls their people and bends them to their own will, reflecting the theme of oppression and The cumulative effect of diminishing ‘the range of thought’ allows the party to create an impressionable society that will disable any possibility of insubordination; this is a clear example of the party’s coercion and autocracy over individual expression. Another example of society becoming submissive, are the children. Winston has a hatred for children ‘Nearly all children nowadays were horrible’ children are susceptible to easy manipulation, especially when left in ignorance. Children are malleable, therefore, enables the party to shape them into conformity, this is due to the fact if you control the youth of society you are able to control the future. Therefore they will engage in acts that will support the hierarchy, for example, towards the start of Orwell’s novel, Parsons children exclaim that Winston is the enemy of the party and throws objects at him through a catapult and from Walker’s novel where Harpo throws the rocks at Celie when she becomes Albert’s wife “He picks up a rock and laid my head open”. Harpo even at a young age supports the black patriarchy that contributes to the control of
Returning to his diary, Winston then expresses his emotions against the Party, the Thought Police and Big Brother himself; he questions the unnecessary acts by the Party and continuously asserts rebellion. Winston soon realized he had committed the crime of having an individual thought, “thoughtcrime.” The chapter ends with a knock on Winston’s door. Significant Quotes “From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 7). “But there was a fraction of a second when their eyes met, and for as long as it took to happen Winston knew— yes, he knew!
Winston commits “thoughtcrime” leading to his arrest and questioning at the Ministry of Love, the communities jail center working with matters pertaining to war. His comrade O’Brien begins torturing him in an underground room and calls it the “learning stage”. He teaches Winston the truth about the Party and their slogan; eventually he explains that “Freedom is Slavery” is easily reversed as “Slavery is freedom. Alone- free- the human being is always defeated… if he can make complete, utter submission… [and] merge himself in the Party… then he is all-powerful and immortal” (264). The Party uses this statement to illustrate that when one acknowledges the collective will, they become free from danger and desire. Those who are surrendered to INGSOC, including O’Brien, assume that when an individual has freedom they become subjugated to their senses and emotions. Moreover, Winston continues to be starved and tortured until he appears to be nothing but skin and bones when his opinions transition to align with the governments. He now accepts everything that O’Brien has expressed to him including that he is crazy and two plus two equals five. While he thinks about what he has been taught he thinks about “How easy it all was! Only surrender, and everything else followed… he hardly knew why he had ever rebelled” (278). In a sense, Winston is now free, only in a
Winston is confronted with struggle throughout the entirety of George Orwell`s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Living within a totalitarian regime subsequently causes Winston to seek approaches for dealing with such abundant oppression; he finds liberation through self-awareness, understanding and ultimately rebellion. First, Winston realizes that “if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself”, alluding to the notion of thoughtcrime (162). This recognition exemplifies the complete cognizance that Winston has regarding the oppressive society displayed throughout the novel. Next, Syme states “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words”, alluding to the idea of Newspeak (28). This statement directly correlates to Winston speaking with other party members to gain knowledge about how others feels about policies deployed by the government. This information-seeking also connects with Winston`s rebellion, as he actively searched for others to join his uprising, which is shown when Winston tells O’Brien “We want to join [The Brotherhood]” (171). Winston’s attempt to join a rebellious organization exhibits his evident desire to release his suppressed emotions. Winston devises a very methodical approach to deal with the problematic society he resides in.
Firstly, O’Brien, a member of the inner party, uses technology to accomplish complete control over the public through the means of telescreens, hidden microphones and torture machines, ‘Any sound that Winston made… could be picked up by [the telescreen]. [Winston] could be seen as well as heard’. This emphasises to the reader the extent of control that the party can exercise over the public, enabling them to eliminate any potential rebels. Furthermore, this loss of freedom and individuality exterminates any real friendship, family or love forcing the public to turn to Big Brother for companionship. This in turn minimises the chance of rebellion as everyone views Big Brother as a figure of comfort and security, ‘As he seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector…’ O’Brien also uses a torture machine on Winston, ‘[He] had never loved [O’Brien] so deeply as at this moment’. This machine enables O’Brien to manipulate Winston’s views, personal opinions and even feelings. O’Brien is able to make Winston view the world as he wants him to, even to the extent of making Winston love him, his tormentor, the person inflicting the pain. ...
... middle of paper ... ... When oppressed by a Party that takes away basic inalienable rights, publicizes false information, and each individual has a common knowledge of consequences that they might receive from thinking, it is extremely difficult to maintain a sense of reality. Orwell proposes that when an individual faces all of these prohibitions, they are easily manipulated into psychological enslavement.
In George Orwell’s novel 1984, he illustrates how those who are being oppressed by totalitarian power, soon become isolated and emotionally modified by society, resulting in their loss of individuality and personal expression. Overall, Big Brother was the largest oppressive power of the society, and all of the citizens’ right’s were taken from them, due to this overwhelming government. Orwell’s warning was to alert those that if we are not careful with our decisions of who runs our country, then this terrifying event could have possibly occurred during 1984. War, is not peace, and freedom, is not slavery.
”The values, beliefs and attitudes of George Orwell’s can easily be seen in the novel 1984, as no text is neutral. These values attitudes and beliefs have shaped the novel to reflect socio-cultural context and by the use of certain discourses, ideologies, and historical influences support the idea that) “The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or women who produced it “Bathes Roland (1977).
The argument that’s made by Winston is that a society like this would disintegrate due to lack of vitality, and as a result, would commit suicide. Some may argue that if people were mass fed lies, that a society like this couldn’t fail, and in the short run that may be true, but in the long run, it would crumble. The first thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power so far as he ceases to be an individual. You know the Party slogan: "Freedom is Slavery".
War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. The party slogan of Ingsoc illustrates the sense of contradiction which characterizes the novel 1984. That the book was taken by many as a condemnation of socialism would have troubled Orwell greatly, had he lived to see the aftermath of his work. 1984 was a warning against totalitarianism and state sponsored brutality driven by excess technology. Socialist idealism in 1984 had turned to a total loss of individual freedom in exchange for false security and obedience to a totalitarian government, a dysutopia. 1984 was more than a simple warning to the socialists of Orwell's time. There are many complex philosophical issues buried deep within Orwell's satire and fiction. It was an essay on personal freedom, identity, language and thought, technology, religion, and the social class system. 1984 is more than a work of fiction. It is a prediction and a warning, clothed in the guise of science fiction, not so much about what could happen as it is about the implications of what has already happened. Rather than simply discoursing his views on the social and political issues of his day, Orwell chose to narrate them into a work of fiction which is timeless in interpretation. This is the reason that 1984 remains a relevant work of social and philosophical commentary more than fifty years after its completion.
Charles Whitaker questions the fact, “Is this the Alice Walker, the alleged fire-breathing feminist, or "womanist" (to use her term) whose Pulitzer Prize Winning novel, The Color Purple, has, for many, come to symbolize Black male bashing at its worst? This novel that Walker has created is certainly a masterpiece, but as Whitaker shows with his questioning, this novel strikes immense amounts controversy among it’s readers and leaves most confused and concerned about Walker's intentions. On a more important note, it is important to consider the fact that this book has been banned all over the country by various schools and libraries due to its controversy. See, the problems with humans is that when they confront something they don’t understand or don’t agree with, the first thing they do is simply remove it. Very often does humanity take the effort to understand the things they don’t agree with, but quite often those ideas are crucial in our race's
In the novel 1984, George Orwell elaborates on the idea of an autocratic government. This novel describes Orwell’s views on the dark, twisted form of government that he believes will develop in future years. The culture he created for this story was the most horrifying, troubling place a person could reside. The goals of the Party consisted of keeping the citizens squared away and oblivious to the unethical actions taking place around them. This unrealistic society gave Orwell the opportunity to create a vision of what a future communist nation might resemble. The purpose of this work is believed to be informative to citizens of how the government impacts our way of thinking, living, and believing. Fear from the citizens is used as manipulation by the government; this means the government shapes the citizens that will not conform to their society. Throughout this writing, the author remains in a dark, cold mood; thus, creating the feeling of negativity and opposition to the government. Ethical appeal is revealed in this
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.
What does it mean to be human? Is it the millions of cells that you’re composed of, or is it something more? In George Orwell’s book 1984, through the use of his protagonist, Orwell looks at what it really means to be human. In a world that is built on destruction and manipulation, Orwell takes a look at how a totalitarian government affects humankind and a person’s ability to stay “human”.
In this case, the government has to use severe actions to ensure they will never act in this way again. Winston Smith, is a minor member of the ruling Party and is aware of some of these extreme tactics. Since Winston is not completely brainwashed by the propaganda like all the other citizens, he hates Big Brother passionately. Winston is one of the only who realize that Big Brother is wiping individual identity and is forcing collective identity. He is “conscious of [his] own identity”(40-41) . Winston continues to hold onto the concept of an independent external reality by constantly referring to his own existence. Aware of being watched, Winston still writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(21) in his diary. Winston believes whether he writes in his diary or not, it is all the same because the Thought Police will get him either way. Orwell uses this as a foreshadow for Winston's capture later on in the novel. Fed up with the Party, Winston seeks out a man named O’Brien, who he believes is a member of the ‘Brotherhood’, a group of anti-Party rebels. When Winston is arrested for thought crime by his landlord, Mr.Charrington, who is a member of the Thought Police. Big Brother takes Winston to a dark holding cell, to use their extreme torture strategy to erase any signs of personal identity. Winston's torturer is O’Brien, the man he thought to be apart of the brotherhood. Winston asks
At the end of the novel, Orwell describes Winston as a cured patient who has over come his metal disease. “He had won the victory over himself: he loved Big Brother” (Part 3, Chapter 6). Both Freud and Orwell break down the components of a person’s mind in the same way. Orwell’s character, Winston, depicts the different parts of the human mind so described by Freud. In Orwell’s 1984, he uncovers the same components of a human mind as seen by Freud, the instinctual drive of the id, the perceptions and actions of the ego, and the censorship imposed by the morality of the superego.