Attempting to challenge something that is stronger and more powerful than any rebellious individual is nearly impossible. Remaining silent about one’s opinions may not seem like the best way to live, but in some cases, it could be the only way to survive. In 1984 by George Orwell, the Party is the powerful totalitarian government that constantly violates the rights of its citizens. Winston decides to challenge the Party, which leads to problems that could have been easily avoided. The only way that Winston could have preserved his dignity was by keeping his rebellious thoughts a secret. The Party has too much power to be overthrown by any individual. Orwell describes the Party’s desire for power. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others, we are interested solely in power.” (Orwell 263). The Party’s main interest is becoming more powerful, with no regard for the people they have control over. Power can be used to fight injustices or to create them. In the Party’s case, they seek power for their own good, which ultimately makes them difficult to rebel against. They don’t care who is affected by their actions and will stop at nothing to remain in control, even …show more content…
No individual is capable of overthrowing them, which Winston knows when he starts defying the government. He puts himself at risk of being arrested and would still have his dignity if he hadn’t openly expressed his rebellious thoughts. Throughout 1984, Orwell shows Winston’s behavior becoming more defiant and risky, until it eventually causes him to lose the little freedom he actually had. From the very beginning, Winston is bound to fail at his attempt to overthrow the Party. When faced against such a powerful government like the Party, the only way to survive is to hide rebellious thoughts and appear to be a citizen who blindly follows the Party’s
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.
From the beginning of the novel, it was inevitable that Big brother would eventually win, and Winston would be caught by the thought police. He could never have an immediate affect on the Party. His long and pointless struggle achieved no result in the end, and finally was brainwashed and lost any freedom of thought he once had.
Through out the course of history there have been several events that have been a pivotal point which has molded the behaviors and thoughts of this century. A lot of notable activist and authors wrote stories and speeches about how they believed that this day and time would be like. A lot of these views were very accurate surprisingly. In the novel 1984 author George Orwell gives his vision on how he believed that the countries would be like if they kept going the way they were.This report will give you a brief rundown of the characters, theories and principles of this novel along with some of my personal insight of the novel.
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.
George Orwell’s Famous book 1984 is about a man who struggles to live under the superintendence of Big Brother. Throughout the novel, Winston struggles with constantly being surveilled and the lack of freedom. Similarly, in our world today, there are government agencies that have the power to listen to phone calls, track people's movements, and watch them through cameras. Winston’s world of surveillance and inadequate confidentiality both privately and publicly is in many aspects much the same as in our world today and the people should demand regulations to be set in place to protect their privacy.
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.
Winston is committed to enduring until the end, and his eventual objective is to die while despising “them”. He is aware of his impending defeat, “The first step had been a secret, involuntary thought, the second had been the opening of the diary. He had moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions. The last step was something that would happen in the Ministry of Love" (Orwell 159). Nevertheless, he is unrelenting and moves against the party by withstanding both mental and physical torment, "...questioners now were not ruffians in black uniforms but Party intellectuals, little rotund men with quick movements and flashing spectacles" (Orwell 241). Although O'Brien eventually tortures Winston, in Room 101, into accepting Big Brother and betraying Julia, Winston’s spirit remains, "...he knew that he was in the wrong, but he preferred to be in the wrong" (Orwell 229). Resisting even after the strenuous trials inflicted upon him, shows the colossal endurance and dedication Winston
The party believes that the real power is in the control you get by having someone fear you. They believe power originates from. Their government favors the idea of stripping someone of their dignity and transforming them into an afraid follower. They insist that the cowardice of man is its downfall, and will lead to their submission to a higher authority.
If one does not have the capability of controlling what they think, do, or even what they say then, according to Orwell, they cannot possibly remain “human”. However, according to Winston, staying human was possible. There were ways in which a person could refrain from falling into the clutches if the Party. In 1984 Winston says, “’They can’t get inside you. If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them’” (Orwell, pg.166). Winston is among one of the only people to believe that there is still hope for the world. He wholeheartedly believes that there is a way to beat the Party; that there is a way to survive and hold on to whatever makes someone human. In 1984 free will and free thinking were extremely hard to come by. The Party was in control of every single thing their citizens were exposed to. They controlled the past, the present, and the future. Whoever is in control of the past; what is being said of the history of the world
1984, written by George Orwell, takes place in Airstrip One which is a district of Oceania in a world suppressed by the government’s omnipresent surveillance, communal manipulation, and which all individualism and independent thinking is controlled. In his dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell uses the motif of the government's constant surveillance to depict the oppressive grasp the totalitarian government has on the Oceania citizens.
The book 1984, by George Orwell is based on the theory of “Big Brother” and how he is always watching you. In the book, the Oceania government controls their citizens by saying and ordering them into not doing certain things. Which then forced their citizens to deceive their government by going in to hiding. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, Japanese-Americans were ordered to do certain things as well. Both of these two events prove that the government can force their citizens to do anything under their power. I think some parts of the government abuse the right of their power and manipulate their citizens into doing unlawful events.
¨BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.¨ The stable quote of George Orwell’s 1984, a novel written in 1949 that contains concepts that are feared by the citizens of the world today in 2016. The fear of an elite group or person controlling the world, from politics to currency, war and history, everything was portrayed within the novel and have numerous conspiracy theories surrounding it today. Speculations that groups such as the Illuminati and the New World Order are secret, elite societies that are controlling all aspects of the world without the average person knowing creates a similar feeling of Big Brother of 1984. Instilling the fact that someone can and will be always watching you. The mere desire and hunger for power have caused people to form
Most citizens view Big Brother as a father figure and feel safe with them. Big Brother is the ultimate figure used through technology of the telescreen to maintain the Party’s power. The Thought Police have telescreens in every house and public area along with hidden microphones and spies to catch anyone with the potential of threatening the sanctity of the Party. The citizens do not have the power to turn off telescreens, but only dim the sound. The telescreens represent how the Party is always watching and controlling your thoughts and actions. The telescreen is constantly sending messages and propaganda to citizens so they will have no time for independent thought. The propaganda is designed to make the Party look as glorious and successful as possible. The citizens think the Party is a necessity for doing well but in reality, the people are better off without them. Citizens are forced to treat sex as a job, lose any sexual desire, and beget children for the purpose of new, loyal Party members. The Party rids the foundation of families by letting the children into the Junior Spies. The children are brainwashed by the Party and encourages them to spy on their parents or any adult for thoughtcrime. The Party watches for any sign of disobedience or disloyalty to the Party and reacts consequently. Winston wishes to overthrow the Party
When George Orwell’s epic novel 1984 was published in 1949 it opened the public’s imagination to a future world where privacy and freedom had no meaning. The year 1984 has come and gone and we generally believe ourselves to still live in “The Land of the Free;” however, as we now move into the 21st Century changes brought about by recent advances in technology have changed the way we live forever. Although these new developments have seamed to make everyday life more enjoyable, we must be cautious of the dangers that lie behind them for it is very possible that we are in fact living in a world more similar to that of 1984 than we would like to imagine.
Nineteen Eighty-Four was written in the past yet seems to show very interesting parallels to some of today’s societies. Orwell explains many issues prominent throughout the book in which his main characters attempt to overcome. He shows how surveillance can easily corrupt those in control and how those in control become corrupt by the amount of power. Those with power control the society and overpower all those below. The novel shows what could potentially happen to our current society if power ends up leading to corruption.