George Orwell 1984 Individualism

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In order for the Party to survive in 1984, the people of Oceania must be dehumanized. This cruelty is achieved by removing the people's freedom of thought and emotion, to the point of elimination of all love and connections to everything but the Party. George Orwell drew inspiration from regimes such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. These units of government, including Oceania, live in a fragile balance of power, in which total control is necessary for survival. The perspective of one’s reality is limited to one’s mind; if one controls their mind, then one can control that person’s world. This is the ideology by which the Party survives. The citizens of Oceania live with the knowledge that every aspect of their lives is being observed and controlled constantly. This is seen visually with the use of the telescreens and the thought police. Winston explains life under the control of Big Brother as so, “You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in …show more content…

Individualism allows for the freedom of thought and expression, which eliminates the possibility of the Party to have ultimate power. This determination to destroy the ideal of individualism is not an unseen act. 1984 is a work of fiction, but it’s was based on historical inspirations such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Both countries controlled its people in a totalitarian system similar to the Party’s. Parallels are drawn throughout the novel such as the Party’s thought police to the Soviet Russia's secret police, which would keep documents on every man, woman, and child. One could also compare the Ministry of Love to Stalin’s Gulag (labor camp) or the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. All of these systems of government have risen with the goal of complete power and can only survive with the annihilations of oneself

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