George Orwell’s 1984, published 1949, has become infamous for its terrifying description of a dystopian society in the year 1984. His decision to set the book in the near future and allude to real past events placed it definitively in time. Orwell was able to place 1984 in time by extrapolating from events that occurred around him. He looked at the pattern of history happening during his lifetime and followed it from 1944 to 1984, attempting to envision the future based off the past and present. This is why the book has remained relevant to this day: because it is based off our past. Because it is based in the past, the elements of Orwell’s dystopia and his reason for writing it cannot be completely understood without examining the world events happening around the time that 1984 was written. The early 1900s brought great change in political systems and technology, especially during World War II. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia attempted to implement new political systems, socialism and communism, and the world watched as they grew into totalitarian governments using developing technology to maintain and expand power. In writing 1984, Orwell took this growth and allowed it to continue past the actual fall of these governments until the year 1984 to see the way society would exist. In this paper, I look at the development of technology and politics in early 1900s Germany to show how Orwell extrapolated from this development to create 1984’s society. Although there are many aspects of history in 1984, Nazi Germany embodies most of them and is used as a paradigm case for the sake of brevity.
In Orwell’s version of the year 1984, the world is split into three factions: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. The countries are controlled by ide...
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... would be no different than Winston, unable to accurately document the present. 1984 serves as Orwell’s documentation of a present that never ended up happening, but one that seems forever looming due to its roots in a history the world is familiar with.
Works Cited
1"Nazism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2013
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3Bellis, Mary. "Science of the 1940s." About.com Inventors. About Inventors, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
4Quipp, Edward. "The Canon: The Language of the Third Reich by Victor Klemperer." Times Higher Education. Times Higher Education, 17 June 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. .
Orwell, George. 1984. London: Secker and Warburg, 1949. Print.
1984 by George Orwell is an extremely negative outlook on a futuristic, seemingly utopian society. People inhabiting the land of Oceania are enslaved to the government, most without even realizing it. The Party uses its many members to enforce its methods of control on the population. While a bit extreme, Orwell was attempting to warn people about the dangers of totalitarianism. The story focuses largely on the tactics of the Party?s manipulation. The major aspects of the aforementioned control
compromised their rights for the good of the collective and focused on a communal goal. These ideals of an infinitely capable and cooperative. Utopic society have captured the imagination of the greatest minds throughout the centuries. One may find the origin of Utopian thoughts in the Republic and Law conceived by Plato and in The Nicomachean Ethics and Politics created by Aristotle. The two individuals are the founding fathers of western philosophy, and their works are the basis of the western political