“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.” Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance philosopher and author of The Prince, depicts that the government prevails as the most dangerous aspect of a society. He explains that governments can become corrupt and more life threatening than a natural disaster if the government seizes full power over the population and does what they want with their citizens. In 1984 by George Orwell, the totalitarian government, called the Party, achieves complete power over their citizens by using three main principles. The novel takes place in a futuristic dystopian London set in 1984 in a place called Oceania. The main character, Winston Smith, introduces the reader to a …show more content…
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, a building that is devoted to modifying past documents of information that would reveal the false integrity if found. He redacts magazines, newspapers, books, etc., on a daily basis as a form of work to hide secrets about the government from the people of Oceania. After Big Brother makes a false hypothesis about something “It [is] therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened” (Orwell 38-39). Part of Winston’s job is to make sure that anything Big Brother says is the truth and correct. Not only does the Ministry change history, but destroys evidence of the original history. The Ministry has memory holes used for disposal of old history which sends anything put inside of it “...on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which [are] hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building” (Orwell 38). These memory holes disintegrate any documentation that could be used against the Party. Making the population ignorant of what is going on, gives the government strength and more power to do what they choose. Likewise, the Party relies on ignorant people to be obedient to the higher authority. If the proles, the lowest class of the society, were as knowledgeable as the higher class, there would be an uprising and a revolt against the Party. Winston recognizes that if the proles “...somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire” (Orwell 69). Eighty-five percent of Oceania’s population is taken up by the proles, but their restricted knowledge withholds them from revolutionizing the society they live in and keeps them obeying parasitic rules. Thus, keeping the proles detained and altering the past, the Party
The novel 1984 is written by George Orwell post war as a depiction of the future. Only three superstates exist: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The novel takes place in Airstrip One, Oceania, which is the novel’s version of present day London. The superstate Oceania is a totalitarian state and is dictated by an enigmatic figure named Big Brother, who may not even exist. A group called the Inner Party works for Big Brother and everything they do is part of the effort to gain total control over the inhabitants of Oceania. With no liberty, rights, or independent actions, the citizens of Oceania become less human and are instead more like faithful robots of the Party. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the citizens of Oceania are deprived of individualism as a result of the manipulation the government exerts to gain control over the individuals physically, emotionally and psychologically.
Rather, it contends that when government is unrestrained in the form of totalitarianism, as exemplified by the Party of Oceania, it can by nature exist only to serve itself. This argument serves as Orwell’s warning against the dangers of totalitarianism; it is so corrupting a force that it can hide behind claims of good intentions, but ultimately exists only to accumulate its own power. Furthermore, since a totalitarian drive for power constitutes a total control of its citizenry and a political structure that necessitates its existence, as shown by the military strategy of the Party, Orwell warns that once a truly totalitarian state is in place, there is no possible way to overthrow it or turn back from it. Ultimately, Orwell sees a government that is so distorted it has become completely self-serving as the largest threat, defining his view of totalitarianism and the themes of his
The party controls every source of information, and doesn't allow people to keep records of their past, such as photographs and documents. As a result, memories become fuzzy and citizens become perfectly will to swallow anything the Party tells them. The ministry of truth where Winston works destroys old documents so BB can never be wrong. The past is constantly falsified and brought up to date. By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all its actions in the present. The party has the power to make it as if Winston never existed, so he was never going to make a difference, because no one would hear of his struggle. The ministry of truth would destroy any evidence of his existence, just as Winston himself did to comrade withers.
For just over half a century, George Orwell’s 1984, lauded as one of the most monolithic examples of a dystopian novel, echoes its values to this day. Orwell’s tale of a totalitarian society gone too far continues to epitomize the meaning of a cautionary tale even now. The novel begins with Winston, a worker for the Outer Party in the Ministry of Truth. When Winston begins to doubt the Party after witnessing discrepancies in the Party’s story, he discovers more than he ever imagined. From the first few pages of 1984, Orwell creates a world filled with paradoxes, irony, and fills the world with a very austere tone.
Winston even states when contemplating whether he should write in his diary that, “To mark the paper was the decisive act (Orwell, 5).” To Winston, his diary is the only recorded history that he remembers and believes as true and not altered by Big Brother. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite historical documents to align with ever changing beliefs of the Party. Therefore, his diary would be the only accurate account of history of his time. Also, it would only contain the personal thoughts, descriptions, feelings, and narratives of Winston- not the Party's. Unfortunately, this a dangerous act in this totalitarian ruled regime wherein any form of individuality is outlawed. The Party wants its members to function as slaves abiding by the Party’s law. Any form of individuality or personal expression is a threat to the Party’s uniformity. Even, the mere thought of rebellion is enough to get someone killed by the thought police. The Party wants to control a person’s thoughts and mind, their most personal possessions. Hence why, the Party has a Thought Police because in the human brain ideas form, and those ideas can form into actions, and those actions can form into rebellion- this is the Party’s greatest fear. The Party wants the totality of an individual and wants to turn him into a “comrade.” Winston understands this; yet, he does not care,
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external conflict between Winston Smith and Big Brother; and the internal conflict between the two ideas, democracy and totalitarianism. Orwell wrote the novel to show society what it could become if things kept getting worse: he sensed of the expansion of communism when he wrote the novel. The conflict between democracy and totalitarianism at the year of 1945 created two characters, Winston Smith and Big Brother, in orwell's mind. Big Brother is the embodiment of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In contrast to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy emphasizes freedom, he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George orwell criticizes of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people.
Winston works for 1 of the 4 government agency’s, The Ministry of Truth. In his job he re-writes old news articles so they show that The Party has always been and will be in control. By re-writing everything in print, The Party effectively changes history. The only proof of actual history is in the minds of the people who were there. Winston realizes that there is something wrong with this, yet he doesn’t know what. The re-writing of history is all he has ever known. It is most likely Winston’s job that leads him to rebel against The Party.
Dystopian novels are written to reflect the fears a population has about its government, and they are successful because they capture that fright and display what can happen if it is ignored. George Orwell wrote 1984 with this fear of government in mind and used it to portray his opinion of the current government discretely. Along with fear, dystopian novels have many other elements that make them characteristic of their genre. The dystopian society in Orwell’s novel became an achievement because he utilized a large devastated city, a shattered family system, life in fear, a theme of oppression, and a lone hero. Orwell’s novel begins with a horrid description of the living conditions of his main character, Winston.
George Orwell’s haunting dystopian novel 1984 delves into the closely monitored lives of the citizens of Oceania as the Party tries to take control of society. In totalitarianism, propaganda and terrorism are ways of subjugation with a main goal: total obedience. He aimed to create a “what if” novel, what would happen if totalitarian regimes, such as the Nazis and Soviets, were to take over the world. If totalitarianism were to happen, the leader would be the brain of the whole system. Orwell emphasizes the theme of individualism versus collective identity through Winston, the protagonist, and his defiance to the Party and Big Brother, with a frightening tone, surreal imagery and a third person limited point of view.
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.
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.
George Orwell’s key objective throughout his novel, 1984, was to convey to his readers the imminent threat of the severe danger that totalitarianism could mean for the world. Orwell takes great measures to display the horrifying effects that come along with complete and dominant control that actually comes along with totalitarian government. In Orwell’s novel, personal liberties and individual freedoms that are protected and granted to many Americans today, are taken away and ripped from the citizen’s lives. The government takes away freedom and rights from the people so that the ruling class (which makes up the government), while reign with complete supremacy and possess all power.
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.
When examining the totalitarian government of 1984 by George Orwell, a direct connection can be drawn to the motives and ideals associated with Niccoló Machiavelli’s The Prince. Machiavelli’s support of the political necessity as a means to remain in power resonate with the government whose aim is to “extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought” as a way to ensure complete political orthodoxy within the country (193). Specifically, Machiavellian thought plays an important part in 1984 as its ideas on reputation, revolution, avoiding hatred, and the use of fear to control a populace are used by INGSOC in order to maintain complete control throughout the story. In the following paragraphs, the connections between these two works above will be elaborated on in an attempt to show the Machiavellian influence of the government in 1984.
The Prince by Niccol Machiavelli isn't about one man's ways to feed his power hungry mindset through gluttony, nor is it just explaining altercations between a nation's states. This writing is regarding how one's self-confidence can make them become powerful in a society and also, the way morals and politics differ and can be separated in a government. Originally, Machiavelli wrote The Prince to gain support from Lorenzo de' Medici, who during the era, was governor of Florence. As meant as writing about how a society should be run, this book has been read by many people around the world who want to have better knowledge of the perfect stability of beliefs and politics required to run a good civilization. Enlightening people from the average Joe to the high monarchs of countries, The Prince is one of the best, if not the best, books relating to politics of all time.