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Torture in 1984 george orwell
An essay about the book george orwell in 1984
Analysis of 1984 by George Orwell
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To continue, the Ministry of Love and CIA break human rights as they use forms of torture to see the extent a human being can sustain. In 1984, if one is caught conspiring against Big Brother, the citizen will be taken into custody, executed, and erased from existence, better known as being vaporized.. As O’Brian states, “we do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them”(Orwell, 319), as he is proud of the lengths the Party will go to physically and mentally rid their enemies. They electrocute Winston to the point where he was in “fear that his backbone was [going] to snap”(Orwell, 309) and had cleansed of all his impurities to the point where Winston believes “his soul [is] white as snow”(Orwell, 375). The Ministry is aware that no valuable evidence will be found from the interrogation but still violate human rights by torturing one physically and psychologically until they have full devotion to Big Brother. …show more content…
Instead, the torture is used to make Winston doubt “[his] own sanity”(Orwell, 330), and in a dark sense, for entertainment.The Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, of America also partakes in torture techniques illegally. It was reported that 136 individuals were extraordinarily rendered and various “enhanced interrogation techniques” were used such as walling, cramped confinement, sleep and dietary manipulation (Horowitz, 2013). These individuals were forcefully kidnapped, sometimes at random, and detained by government officials without a trial, breaking human right laws. One could also be accidently detained as they are mistaken for another person under suspicion and without proper legal processing, there is no prevention of this (Horowitz,
Torture is Truth In the book 1984, the Ministry of Love essentially is a facility where prisoners are brought and kept for torture; where they are taught to love Big Brother. The prisoners are individuals who are believed to have committed a thought-crime or opposed Big Brother in various ways. The Ministry of Love is an immense complex full of windowless rooms where prisoners are unable to see daylight and lose a complete sense of time. These prisoners are constantly monitored by a telescreen, which, if you make the wrong movements, will scream at you to sit still.
I strongly agree with Fromm’s viewpoints and interpretations of Orwell’s 1984 text. He warns that the future federal powers will dehumanize society and leave everyone alienated. Thus, I agree with Fromm to the extent that he acknowledges the fact that humanity can indeed cease to exist as a result of our own self-destruction as well as the effect of our actions. Many of his opinions and warnings expressed by Orwell to an extent appear in contemporary society.
Due to rising levels of danger along with the creation and utilization of new technology, the government of the twenty first century, are becoming more involved and protective similar to the government of Oceania in the book Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell. In the book Nineteen Eighty Four, the main character Winston Smith, commits acts that are not legal according to the government of Oceania. Winston commits crimes which include thinking bad things about the government of Oceania, or thought crime, plotting against the government of Oceania, and having sexual relations with a young woman named Julia. Eventually, Winston ends up getting caught by a hidden telescreen and two thought police informants. When Winston is caught, he is transported to a prison without being read rights, much less having any actual rights. While in prison Winston is deprived of food and sleep, received regular beatings, is brainwashed, and is tortured physically, mentally, and emotionally. This essay will show the reader what the modern day government of the United States of America does to its political prisoners and how this compares to the treatment of political prisoners in George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty Four.
Readers often find themselves constantly drawn back to the topic of George Orwell’s 1984 as it follows a dystopian community which is set in a world that has been in continuous war, has no privacy by means of surveillance and has complete mind control and is known by the name of Oceania. The story follows a man by the name of Winston who possesses the features of “A smallish, frail figure… his hair very fair, his face naturally sanguine [and] his skin roughened” (Orwell 2). The novel illustrates to readers what it would be like if under complete control of the government. As a result, this book poses a couple of motifs’, For instance part one tackles “Collectivism” which means the government controls you, while part two fights with “Romance” with Winston and Julia’s sexual tension as well the alteration of love in the community, and part three struggles with “Fear” and how it can control someone physically and mentally.
North Korea, China, and even Cuba are similar to 1984. They try to control their people just the same as in 1984, and just like in Jonestown. The only people who were free in 1984 were the Proles. The community in Jonestown began as everyone wanting to be there, and then as conditions worsened the people wanted to leave. They were not allowed to, much like 1984. The people in both situations are similar, in that they are oppressed by their governments, but only the people in Jonestown are given the ability to think they are even able to
O’Brien tortures Winston due to his acts of thoughtcrime, Winston is told that the Party will be satisfied with nothing less than Winston completely giving in. O’Brien explains, “We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him” (210). Winston is tortured for the goal of eradicating the cause of Winston’s fight, to consider himself happy and free. O’Brien wants to destroy any possibility of Winston becoming a martyr for his cause. The use of the telescreens, microphones, and all other sources of the government spying on its people ensures a lack of freedom: “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (26). The members of this society are monitored at all times for the sole purpose of government control, with constant monitoring they are able to discover the most they can about individuals and later use it against them to gain an upper hand in controlling any possible uprising. Fear is used as another tactic to gain control. Winston is aware of the fact that “More
George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 follows the psychological journey of main character Winston. Winston lives in a utopian society called Oceania. There, the citizens are constantly monitored by their government coined “Big Brother” or “The Party”. In Oceania, there is no form of individuality or privacy. Citizens are also coerced to believe everything and anything the government tells them, even if it contradicts reality and memory. The goal of Big Brother is to destroy individual loyalties and make its citizenry only loyal to the government. In Orwell's novel 1984, he uses Winston's psychological journey to stress the dangers of individuality in a totalitarian regime because it can result in death. Winston’s overwhelming desire to rebel
Big Brother tormented those who dared to go against him, innocent victims of a flawed system, by kidnapping them from their homes, murdering them, and erasing them from existence. Not only were people brutally beaten and tortured, but after they were finished molding that person into the ideal image of The Party they were “abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word” (Orwell 39). These people were ripped from their families and from actuality. Stalin had a similar way of punishing those who betrayed him. Most of his prisoners “were not only held there for years without trial or even investigation, but were subjected to the most horrific tortures” (Loishnikova). These methods of torture include: beating, starving, dehydrating, sleep depriving, and forced labor. The character of O’Brien in 1984 does a barbaric job of figuring out new and savage ways of torturing the captives. His job was figuring out the mental problems causing the prisoners to rebel against big brother, eradicating it, and eventually shaping their minds into one of an ideal Party member. Once he is successful in doing so, all of the sexual promiscuity, rebellious thought, and other ‘useless’ emotions all that was left was “the love of Big Brother” (Orwell
eorge Orwell’s 1949 classic 1984 is a hauntingly original entry into the dystopian science fiction genre. The main elements that elevate Orwell’s novel into a masterpiece are its setting, characterizations, theme, and symbolism, which will be discussed in this paper. The theme and main idea of 1984 is rebellion from a totalitarian regime.
Through months of torture and debilitating pressure, he was stripped of his individualism and was taught to love big brother (McLaughlin). The pressures of society mixed with the strenuous hours of daily torture took a toll on his weakened brain. This was most evident when O’Brien asked him one last time if he loved Big Brother, and he answered yes. He did not say yes in order to end the torture, rather he said yes because his brain was rendered incapable of independent thought. Orwell does this to show his readers that self expression and independent thought are what ultimately make us human. Without those two things, we are left to live in an impressionistic society, one that urges us to like and believe in certain things- similar to that of Oceania. O’Brien torturing Winston was more than just the climax of the book; it was the solution to Orwell’s underlying question: Can the traits that make us human prevail in the face of turmoil and despair? "You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized” (Orwell 3).The fact that this statement made in the beginning holds true by the end of the novel answers the question that no; humanity would not
Today’s modern world may not be exactly like 1984, but there are some issues that are very similar to it. Some of the biggest issues that is becoming compromised today is the issue of privacy, which in the book 1984 was something that the people did not have much of because of things like telescreens. Not only is our privacy compromised but the government is also being too controlling. Ways today’s privacy is being compromised are through things like game consoles, phones, social media, and drones and not only is our being compromised through these things but the government is also gaining too much control by compromising our privacy.
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
In 1984, Winston’s torture had a purpose of brainwashing, where the themes of control is explored and alienation is hinted and introduced in his interrogations with O’Brien and his time in room one-oh-one. Firstly, Winston is imprisoned in Miniluv (Ministry of Love) for his rebellious sexual activity with Julia, and the reader will assume that this is repression of opposition by the government. But once O’Brien is revealed to be Winston’s interrogator, it is clearly established that the purpose of this torture has never been repression, but rather controlling the thoughts of the few individuals that were “insane”(253) enough to rebel against government. O’Brien described this procedure as curing, as he also describes Winston as insane, and made it distinctively clear to Winston that his goal was not to punish or indulge “in the overact”(253) but rather the thought. While the goal is instead of destroying our enemies, “we change them.”(253) In this stern explanation from O’Brien, the...
Despite the resilient nature of mankind, it is deceptively easy to change one’s personality through aggressively cruel yet effective tactics. Mental and physical torture is ever-present in modern day society and remains a shockingly potent tool in the hands of the correct people. Winston’s transformation in George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrates an extreme example of the dreadful effects of torture on the human mind. Winston’s mental rehabilitation is a complex procedure; it begins with his struggle to maintain his character, followed by O’Brien’s attempts to change Winston’s mentality, which culminates into his complete transformation into the perfect Party member. Initially, Winston’s complete reformation was hindered by his own attempts to maintain control of his personality and character.
George Orwell's dystopian (a fictional place where people lead dehumanized and fearful lives) vision of the year 1984, as depicted in what many consider to be his greatest novel, has entered the collective consciousness of the English-speaking world more completely than perhaps any other political text, whether fiction or nonfiction. No matter how far our contemporary world may seem from 1984's Oceania, any suggestion of government surveillance of its citizens -- from the threatened "clipper chip," which would have allowed government officials to monitor all computer activity, to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's decision to place security cameras in Central Park -- produces cries of "Big Brother is watching." Big Brother, the all-seeing manifestation in 1984 of the Party's drive for power for its own sake has come to stand as a warning of the insidious nature of government-centralized power, and the way that personal freedoms, once encroached upon, are easily destroyed altogether.