In 1984 by George Orwell, the world is described as a desolate, bleak result of humanity where the land is governed by a totalitarian regime who rules the hindering the societal progress. The face of Oceania is Big Brother, an omniscient figure who is widely worshiped by its people. The Inner Party enforces a new language known as Newspeak that prevents anyone from committing political rebellion. The control that this Party has over the entire population unveils the theme of the novel, that intimidation by a higher up can lead to psychological manipulation. There are several paradoxes within the text that reveal this theme to be true due to the party’s way with words. A paradox is something that contradicts reason or expectation and Orwell …show more content…
Their daily “Two Minutes of Hate” is how each individual falls onto the Party’s brainwashing bandwagon. This is a clever way the party seeks control over people, but more importantly, their minds. Reassociating words to differing meanings keeps the masses where the party wants them to be mentally. In other words, it keeps the citizens obedient and too distracted to focus on their actual living conditions. Not only that, it also makes it less likely for anyone to rebel against the Big Brother. “It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy is the strongest." Without that drive of outside hatred, people of Oceania would direct their hateful attitudes toward their real enemies: The Inner Party. Constant fear of propaganda keeps the masses at their toes with strong devotion to Big Brother and everything the Party stands for. The slogan is also true in the sense of keeping society together through the means of stopping progress. “It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair.” Because war requires so many resources, the products that are manufactured using the arduous labor of Oceania’s population are expended. This cycle of continuous war ultimately makes the people languid, too tired to rise up …show more content…
“Ignorance is strength” is true considering the fact that the party is outnumbered by the rest of the population, especially the proles. The proles have the least amount of knowledge as to what is actually going on in their world, which is why the Party easily gets away with all of their manipulative tactics. Since the proles are disregarded from society, but more notably, are unbothered by the Party, they have no desire to rebel against the strict hierarchical structure imposed by Big Brother. The Party makes their own reality by holding the power to alter the past in whatever way they please and the people do not have the mindset to object. “But by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party." This explains why manipulation is crucial for the Party to stay in absolute power. They want the masses to believe what they are told in spite of what they might think otherwise. Doublethink is the most effective way the party manipulates their people to avoid free thinking. Doublehink is a practice that keeps individuals free of their own thoughts. This is how the Party gets away with all the lying they do in the Ministry of Truth. Through the propagandas and the Ministry of Truth, the Party also define what is true and what is false. O’Brien once said to Winston, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present
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Show MoreMany people argue whether George Orwell’s 1984 was written purely to criticize, or if it portrays society today. I believe that George Orwell wrote 1984 in order to express his feelings about how society is governed. There are many examples of irony that support my position. 1984 is a political satire, the Orwell used to criticize man’s use of power. The slogan of Oceania is War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. These three phrases reflect some of the disturbing factors of our society today, which is why I believe that 1984 resembles Orwell’s dystopian creation.
It is not an easy feat to control an entire population such as Oceania. They must monitor their people through the use of telescreens, microphones, and cameras 24 hours, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, to prevent the spread of “false” information, that is not part of the party’s strategy. Not only do they monitor their people, they control the media, control their emotions, control their feelings, and they instil fear into the people; who do not conform to the Party’s beliefs. The people of Oceania believe that they will be taken, tortured, and/or vaporized by
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.
It is clear that the government of Oceania in 1984 is self-serving, existing not to benefit its citizens or the elite Party members, but existing purely to exist and grow. Perhaps the most clear indication of this was O’Brien explaining the Party’s motives while torturing Winston. O’Brien explains that “the Party seeks power only for its own sake” and that “the object of power is power.” (185) This clearly indicates that the government of Oceania, a totalitarian state, seeks power not to improve the lives of citizens, but for power
1984 would not be the same if it lacked the harmonious presence of these contradictory elements, which developed a deeply corrupted society. The concepts like Newspeak, the Party’s slogans, and Ingsoc force readers to take an idea at face value, dig deeper to undercover the lie and then search for a way to prove that it is in fact the actual truth. 1984 pressures readers to use doublethink, actively believing two opposing ideas at the same time then repressing one, just to understand the way that Oceania runs. This effect helps create a parallel, if only for a moment, between the tortured comrades and the readers because we all must alter our thoughts to correlate with the Party’s. George Orwell’s use of paradoxes effectively brought the audience into the mind-boggling world of Oceania.
What is doublethink? Orwell describes doublethink as “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.'; In 1984, doublethink is the normal way of thought, and as a result everyone understands it and practices it. Doublethink is different from changing ones mind, lying, and self-deception in many ways. Doublethink involves believing in the two contradictory ideas at the same time. This is different from lying because lying is saying something that is wrong and knowing that it is wrong but still saying it anyway. For example lets say you broke a vase. When your mother asks you who broke the vase and you say the dog did it that would be lying. The reason it is not doublethink is that you do not believe in two different beliefs at one time. You don’t believe you broke the vase and the dog broke the vase, you absolutely know you broke the vase and are trying to put the blame on the dog as to avoid trouble. Changing ones mind is also different from doublethink. Changing ones mind is accepting or believing one thing, then deciding to accept or believe something else different then what you thought before. An example of changing ones mind would believe the earth is flat and then after seeing sufficient evidence that it is not flat but actually round. Due to the new evidence you would change your mind and now believe the earth is round as you previously thought it was flat.
Authors often use their works as a way to express their own opinions and ideologies. However, it is the skill of the author that determines whether these ideas are combined with the plot seamlessly, making a creative transition of ideas from the author’s mind, to the reader’s. There is no doubt that George Orwell is a masterful writer, and one of his most popular works, 1984, clearly expresses his negative views of the Totalitarian government. A common theme in the dystopian society in 1984 is betrayal: The Party is very intolerant towards any form of disloyalty, and anyone who plots against them or Big Brother will eventually either betray their own mind and accept Big Brother as their leader, or be betrayed and revealed to The Party by one of their so-called comrades. Overall, Orwell is using this constant theme of betrayal to show how alone and alienated the protagonist (Winston Smith) is in his quest against Totalitarianism, thus showing how flawed and hopeless the political system is.
In George Orwell’s novel, “1984”, the setting is in a place called Oceania, a dystopia. A dystopia is a usually imagined place that is far worse from reality, and its opposite being a utopia, an ideal place.Orwell imagined a world with new advanced technology, such as a telescreen, a TV that observes the ones watching and a world that consists of three megastates rather than hundreds of countries.In 1984, Orwell comes up with a new form of English called Newspeak, which the totalitarian government uses to discourage free thinking, without words to express an idea, the idea itself would be impossible to achieve, the government can control people through their words.
Orwell was a Socialist and believed in the ability for a rebellion to change society, but unfortunately too often he witnessed such rebellions go wrong and develop into totalitarian rule. 1984 warns us against the idea of absolute powerthrough the analysis of the dangers of Big Brother and statist roots. 1984 remains an important work of literature because the ills of totalitarianism in all forms are still relevant in this day and age. Freedom and authoritarianism resonate with us those of us who live beyond the 20th century and those who lived around that time. In 1984, Orwell uses irony and paradox to show the difference between the novel’s major conundrums: Emmanuel Goldstein, who is the enemy of the state bt doesn’t pose any real
In the classic novel, 1984, George Orwell uses powerful symbolism in order to bring significant meaning to objects and phrases that reoccur throughout the novel. The telescreen, “Big Brother”, the glass paperweight, St. Clement Dane’s church, wine, and “the place where there is no darkness” are all symbols Orwell has constructed in order to prove his main point about the horrors of a totalitarian society, like Oceania.
The novel 1984 by George Orwell presents the readers an image of a totalitarian society that explores a world of control, power, and corruption. The main idea of government control presents itself in the novel by protecting and listening to the people of Oceania. However, Orwell suggests giving too much power to the government is a mistake because eventually the decisions they make will not be about the people anymore but rather themselves. In 1984, the power and corruption the party has is overwhelming for the people. There are no ways around the beliefs of the Party, the party attempts to control and eventually destroy any mental or physical resistance against their beliefs. The agenda for the party is to obtain mind control over its people and force them to adore their leader. The methods the Party uses to achieve its goal are: the use of constant propaganda and surveillance, the rewriting of history, and Room 101.
Paradoxes are an important part of George Orwell’s 1984 because the story revolves a lot around The Party and The Party uses three slogans which are paradoxes. Although the Party’s paradoxes are a main part of the story one can believe that Katherine’s paradox is more important than The Party and it shouldn’t be overlooked. Katherine’s paradox is with her husband because they’re basically forced to be married because of The Party. One can believe this is a more important paradox than The Party’s slogans because it shows an actual relationship that isn’t following The Party’s specific rules and The Party’s slogans are for the common people so it’s not as specific as Katherine and Winston’s relationship.
The novel 1984 is one that has sparked much controversy over the last several decades. It harbors many key ideas that lie at the root of all skepticism towards the book. With the ideas of metaphysics, change, and control in mind, George Orwell wrote 1984 to provide an interesting story but also to express his ideas of where he believed the world was heading. His ideas were considered widely ahead of their time, and he was really able to drive home how bleak and colorless our society really is. Orwell wrote this piece as a futuristic, dystopian book which contained underlying tones of despair and deceit.
George Orwell, author of 1984, summons visions of an ominous society and the descent into a spiralling abyss of hopelessness. Tone expresses how the author feels about a subject. Often mistaken with tone, mood depicts how the author perceives and conveys an event to the audience. Situational irony occurs when the audience expects an event to happen that does not actually occur within the timeline. Whereas, dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows of an event the character does not. In the book, the dark tone of the novel conveys the numbing of society while the irony demonstrates how trusting others affects views and relationships. However, paradox suggests something contradictory to logical reasoning. Doublethink contributes to the hopelessness by illustrating a paradox within society. Therefore, Orwell illustrates tone, paradox, and irony through how the government controls emotions, time, thoughts, and trust in order to
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.