...1984 Essay Rewrite George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning about the dangers of a totalitarian government, as he didn’t want to see it become a reality in the future. In the novel, a young man named Winston Smith struggles to find truth about society while living under a totalitarian government. Through the use of imagery, parallel structure, and diction, he is able to demonstrate to the reader how a totalitarian government asserts its power and the impact it has on dissenting viewpoints by examining the tactics of the inner party. George Orwell showcases to the reader how a totalitarian government asserts its power. For example, O’Brien tells Winston, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.” O’Brien explains to Winston that there is no promising future in store for him. Orwell uses the imagery of a boot stamping a face to demonstrate how a totalitarian government distills fear into its citizens to keep them under control. This evokes fear into both the reader and the citizens as it reveals the sheer power of the Inner Party. Furthermore, the Party’s slogan is, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” Orwell uses parallel structure to emphasize the necessity of the Party controlling the past, present, and future. This reveals how the Party wants complete control over everything. They claim they have control of the past but in reality they are rewriting it. By asserting their...
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...1984 Hypocrisy of the Party The novel 1984, written by George Orwell in 1948, is a prophetic look into the world that was being shaped by rapidly growing superpowers bent on the destruction of their rivals. The world that Orwell depicts is an earth divided into three massive super states, Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania, all in a continual state of war and changing alliances. Throughout the novel, the Party, which is the main governing power of Oceania, is constantly falsifying documents and rewriting history to fit past predictions and political promises of the government. These lies and double standards are illustrated by the Party’s three slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. The doublethink of War is Peace is exemplified in these words, "The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous, war has ceased to exist...War is Peace" (Orwell 164). In the novel Oceania is in a perpetual state of war with ether Eurasia or Eastasia. Whenever a new alliance is made or a new enemy obtained, the Party revises past publications to make it seem that they have always been at war with the same foe. These contradictions go unnoticed by the vast majority of the population, and those who do take note are easily swept up in the frenzy of war. The Party slogan, Freedom is Slavery; even in itself contains two opposing viewpoints that conflict with each other. This process of doublethink is...
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...George Orwell’s 1984 Winston lives in the nation of Oceania, where he is a member of the ruling party in London. Oceania is a totalitarian society with an extremely comprehensive, nationwide surveillance system. In this society, even thinking rebellious thoughts is punishable by death. Winston is increasingly frustrated with rigid regime of the party and purchases an illegal diary in which he can write his prohibited thoughts. Entangled in such criminal affairs he starts fixating on an influential Party member called O’Brien, whom he believes is a member of a secret association that aims to overthrow the party. Meanwhile, he notices a female coworker looking at him and worries that she might be an informant for the thought police. On the contrary, he eventually realizes that she loves him and they commence a relationship. Together they plan to rebel against the oppressive party and seeks aid at O’Brien’s. Yet, it turns out that O’Brien is loyal to the Party and ends up torturing Winston into not only betraying Julia but also submitting himself to the Party and its sometimes-contradictory truths. In his famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-four from 1949, George Orwell succeeds in depicting a dark, dystopian society way ahead of his time. With an ingenious ability to predict future events and technology, not seen since the time of Jules Verne, Orwell warns the western world of the danger of totalitarian states by describing a nation of inhabitants living under absolute surveillance...
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...In 1984, George Orwell discusses the concept of doublethink, a major motif that appears throughout the story. In essence, doublethink is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas as equally true in one’s mind at the same time. Though this concept seems unachievable today, Orwell shows it in the story as an actual tool used by the people of Oceania to disregard the truth. The government of Oceania uses doublethink to brainwash their citizens into believing whatever is suitable to the government at the time. Orwell portrays doublethink as a real concept achievable by the residents of Oceania to show to the maximum degree, the dangers totalitarianism and human ignorance. Orwell exaggerates the extent to which humans can be ignorant to warn the reader about the dangers of this blind uniformity. In the very beginning of the story, the citizens of Oceania are forced to believe that the chocolate ration has been increased to be 20 grams, when the ration has actually...
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...“No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.” Bob Dylan said this probably not knowing its profound connection with George Orwell’s novel “1984”, but the as well could be in “1984”. Orwell depicts a totalitarian dystopian world where there is no freedom and citizens are being brainwashed constantly. Without any sense of individual fairness, people work for the party just like the gear wheels in a machine. In order to achieve this, the politicians in “1984” suppress people’s thinking and eliminate their freedom by creating fear through propaganda, strict laws and incessant surveillances. In “1984”, lies, myths and false information controls the thinking of the citizens. The Party uses propaganda as the deadliest weapon of control. Propaganda increases the citizens’ morale and makes them think that what the party tells them to do is always right. There are mainly two types of propaganda, one changes truth, so-called doublethink, and another creates fear. “Doublespeak” can be seen frequently in the world of 1984. The party’s big slogan “WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (George Orwell, 4) is an good example. The idea of the slogan is to convince the citizens that what they want, is what they already have. Only war can make peace and harmony, so peace is no longer peace, it becomes war; anyone who is slaved and wants freedom, he already has freedom; you can only strengthen yourself by not knowing things and being ignorant. The slogan changes...
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...Government Orwell Warns About The well being of a population depends on the conduct of a justified government, where decisions are made based on what would benefit the citizens. Their purpose in a civilization is to implement laws, promote ethics, and provide facilities and institutions to satisfy the basic needs of their people. Most importantly, a justified government will tend to the desires of the majority of a population to the best of their ability, by taking in consideration consequences and feelings. Opposite of a fair society, George Orwell, predicted a future in 1984 where life is a depressing trial for citizens in the dystopian civilization of Oceania. Manipulated by propaganda, irrational enforcements of policies, infinite surveillance, and revision of the past leads civilians feeble to the oppression of their government. They are governed by a potentially fictional dictator, whom they address as “Big Brother.” The citizens fear him and adore him. Although, Orwell’s predictions for modern culture after World War Two may seem drastic and extreme, it has been evident that the inhabitants of our world currently mimic the ignorance of the party members in Orwell’s vision. In the patriotic nation of the United States of America, the rights and freedoms of their citizens are disregarded in ways that are undetected by majority of the population. If we are consistently warned about our future by thinkers such as George Orwell, how do governments remain in power and sustain...
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...The book 1984 opened my eyes to the harsh reality of the world we currently live in. It made me well aware of government control and the control within other groups of people. This control can affect not only me, but other people around the world as well. My purpose for writing this paper is to explain the things I have learned after reading 1984 by George Orwell. It was Orwell’s goal to write this book and state his ideas and theories about a strong totalitarian government. He provided clear examples in which we can recognize in our own modern day society. Before reading all of 1984, I only knew of a few situations in which the government or group can control its people. I am now familiar with multiple situations that affect people worldwide...
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...Three Principles of INGSOC 1984, novel written by George Orwell about Oceania, a society ruled by the Dictatorship of the Party. The government used to keep an eye on every single person of Oceania through telescreens. There were telescreens everywhere and because of those telescreens people’s life was watched by the government and people had to be very careful in everything they do. The Government used to control people. The main leader of this government was Big Brother. Newspeak was the official language of Oceania. INGSOC is English Socialism according to Newspeak language. There are three principles of INGSOC: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength. War is peace is a belief that when a country is at war with some other country, the people and the states of the country get united to fight against their common enemy. In this novel, government used this principle to maintain peace in their country by being at war with Eurasia. This united the people of Oceania to fight with Eurasia. There are also some other examples of War is peace in this novel; during the two minute hate, when the face of Goldstein appeared on the screen and hate started, there were pictures of some Eurasian soldier and of the war. At that time the whole crowd got united against the enemy: “At this moment the entire group of people break into a deep slow rhythmical chant of B-B! . . . B-B! . . . B-B!” (Orwell 16) Freedom is slavery means when people...
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...In George Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty Four, a totalitarian society seeks “limitless” power throughout England over a poor population in which society has an isolated nature by the use of dictatorship. As the isolated nature of the characters may be the genesis of the party’s power, this is only one factor. Telescreens, CCTV, and hidden microphones are situated in the ‘1984’ society, to manipulate the minds and alter the thoughts of the general population. The undeveloped, urban life and land of ‘1984’ portrays the dangers of totalitarianism. Furthermore, the novel is set in the future, which exposes the Party, a totalitarian government, and their control on the past and thriving strength. Truly then, the setting of the novel (isolated nature) affects the development of various themes such as psychological manipulation, dangers of totalitarianism, the party’s subversiveness, historical control leading to power. The party’s way of dealing with subversive people is to make them disappear, and eventually remove them from history, therefore giving the party absolute power to change the past and the future. In 1984, ‘people simply disappear’, their ‘name was removed from the register’ and their ‘one-time existence was denied and forgotten’. In a totalitarian society, Orwell illustrates that if citizens cast criticism or dissent, they are ‘abolished’ to conserve complete control and avoid a rebellion. Orwell’s view on this political concept was constructed through his experience of...
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...Manipulation In “1984”, lies, myths and false information control the thinking of the citizens. The Party uses propaganda as the deadliest weapon of control. Propaganda increases citizens’ morale and makes them think that what the party tells them to do is always right. There are mainly two types of propaganda, one changes truth, so-called doublethink, and another creates fear. “Doublespeak” can be seen frequently in the world of 1984. The party’s big slogan “WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (George Orwell, 4) is a good example. The idea of the slogan is to convince the citizens that what they want is what they already have. Only war can make peace and harmony, so peace is no longer peace, it becomes war; anyone who is slaved and wants freedom, he already has freedom; you can only strengthen yourself by not knowing things and being ignorant. The slogan changes truth and make the citizens believe that anything they want other than what their government wants can only make them unhappy, therefore, no one will consider rebellion because they believe the Party’s way of governing is the best and only way. “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (George Orwell, 3) is another core slogan. It is nearly everywhere in the country and usually presented beneath the picture of Big Brother on a poster. It creates fear of obliterated privacy among citizens by alerting them that they are watched all the time. At the same time, the slogan also emphasizes Big Brother’s power to tell the...
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...Modern Totalitarianism. In the 1940s through the 1960s, the world lived in a time of war. In September 1939 World War II broke out , and was followed by the Cold War of 1947 that lasted up until 1991. The historic wars of these times influenced literature and the writers of the time, as they shaped their novels and books around these events. Writers such as George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut created novels of dystopian societies to alert nations that communism was not as great as it sounded. British writer George Orwell wrote the novel 1984 published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. in 1949. 1984 is a political novel written with the purpose of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, and many Americans supported communism as possible political systems for the west. Therefore, Orwell wrote his novel in order to expose the cruelty and oppression of communist countries. In his dystopian nation, Orwell gave a sneak peak of what a country could become if the people gave all the power to the government. In 1984, Orwell portrays the perfect totalitarian society in which the government monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that having a disloyal thought is against the law. They do so with the use of technology such as tele screens and microphones across the city which allowed the government to monitor all the citizens almost all of the times. In order to keep the citizens of London...
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...In 1984 by George Orwell the protagonist Winston Smith, the question is smith a hero or not. Some people feel that Smith is not a hero though; The reason why is because he fell in controlled by Big Brother at the end of the book. There is many reason in the book that he is a hero. The first reason is that he bought a diary and kept writing that he wants to stop Big Brother. The second reason is that he has a love affair with Julia event though Big brother prohibited him. The last reason is it took him along time to be brainwashed, forget about Julia, and love Big Brother. There may be reasons that Smith is not a hero but there is a lot more reason that he is a hero. The book starts off with Winston Smith having so much control, but by the end he does not have any control. He did what he could do to rebel from Big Brother, which makes him a hero in this case. In the beginning of 1984, it shows that Smith is in a dystopian society. The slogan that everybody lives by “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”. This slogan Contradictory itself which is an important tribute to the power of the society's mass campaign of psychological control. In a theory, the society maintain “War Is Peace” because they have the same enemy and it keeps everyone in Oceania together. The other saying “Freedom Is Slavery” because people doing their own thing independently will eventually fail in doom. The last thing is “Ignorance Is Strength” because if people cannot recognize these...
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...The theme of Political Strife in Orwell’s 1984 Student’s name Institution name Abstract Orwell’s 1984 is another masterfully done piece of work that captures the political scenario across the world. Having written it in 1964, the book foretells the political events of the coming 1984 generations. This is a purely prophetic book that is inspired by Orwell’s sharp observation and political analytical skills. In this book, the life of the characters is purely determined by the political happenings of the time. (Bloom, 2007). Many literary and political analysts have found a place to refer to in interpreting political realities of the world in George Orwell’s works. Orwell is remembered for his other book Animal Farm that continues to spark emotional reactions from all over the world every day. A look at how the political theme gets manifested can help one to understand better the happenings in the story and their general applicability to the world we are living in. The Theme of Political Strife There are a number of themes that Orwell (1964) brings out in his book 1984. It is a prediction of the coming political sceneries in future since its publication came earlier before the year 1984. Among the major themes that can be found in the story are betrayal...
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...Technology through the eyes of George Orwell Summary of the story The novel 1984 published in 1949 takes a look at society of future in 1984. This society called Oceania is a totalitarian one, where state controls everything including the people’s thought. The government, which runs Oceania is called INGSOC (English Socialism). The controllers are known as “The Party”, whose leader is Big Brother. Winston Smith, the central character, a 39-year old man lives in London. He secretly hates Big Brother. He decides to rebel by keeping a diary in which he reveals his rebellious thought. He knows the crime he is committing and also that one day the thought police would discover his crime and probably kill him. The lowest class in the social hierarchy of Oceania are “proles”, who are relatively free of police surveillance. He befriends Mr. Charrington, the prole owner of a junk shop, who shares similar interest in the past life before the rule of Big Brother. A dark haired girl, in another department slips a piece of paper in Winston’s hand. It says, “I love you.” Winston is surprised and disturbed as any sexual relation between Party members is strictly forbidden. Nevertheless, he falls in love and they meet secretly. A love affair begins and the girl finally introduces herself as Julia. They are careful enough to meet in places unlikely to be watched. Winston and Julia eventually hire a room above Mr. Charrington’s junk-shop as a place for the two of them to...
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...‘The Colour Purple’ and ‘1984’ where both protagonists seem to be ‘suspended’ and ‘were lost in a period that offered no hope of progress’ George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ have a society where there is complete control and oppression, which eventually translates to the control of the body, we are presented with the party members and the black women protagonists being the proletariat of society, and never truly being free because ‘As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free’ however, we are presented objects and behaviour that can be described as liberating,...
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