...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 loyal...
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...Lakoff, George. "What Orwell Didn't Know About The Brain, The Mind, and Language." EScholarship. UC Berkeley, 2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2015. Lakoff tells of George Orwell’s 1984 and how he used to love the book, but now since he has more knowledge of the mind and how it works his opinion has changed. George Lakoff is Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Fellow at the Rockridge Institute. This paper seems reliable from the credential he has and how he voices his opinion with facts to back it up. The uses of this article helps show by the authors facts and opinion how Orwell didn't know much about the brain. That how Orwell describes how the mind is working within the citizens is inaccurate, because the lack of knowledge in the time period the book was wrote. This sources is good to compare with the knowledge we have now about the brain and how realistic was Orwell's version of mind control compared to what mind...
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...Atwood’s and Orwell’s novels share the fundamental idea that control of language and thought are crucial to dystopian novel. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ was written after World War Two building on people’s fear of the political stability of the world. His novel includes the all-powerful Big Brother, which monitors and controls Oceania, where the novel is set. Margaret Atwood’s delve into control of thought and language is through religion. Her novel set in the near future religious state, Gilead, in North America. The inspiration for the two dystopian novels comes from the election of conservative power, Thatcher and Regan, in the western world, and the general fears that civilisation had in the 1980’s about declining birth rates and the dangers...
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...George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four tells a story about a futuristic dystopian society that is ruled by the seemingly omniscient Big Brother. Winston Smith lives within this rule of Big Brother and the Party where all he does is strictly limited. As time progresses, Winston begins to make secret relationships without the Party’s knowing and begins to do what he wants to do. George Orwell’s use of intriguing characters, a strange, utopian social setting, and a riveting yet slow plot makes Nineteen Eighty-four a great piece of literary work. George Orwell’s use of fascinating and believable characters makes the story an interesting read. The story revolves around Winston Smith, an ordinary Party employee who works for the Ministry of Truth. Under the power of the Party, Winston does not have the freedom to think his own thoughts unless they...
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...As technology continues to advance, people will continue to lose their sense of privacy until privacy ceases to exist. Technology seems very useful, which it is, as it helps us with things in everyday life, such as communicating, sharing and much more, which persuades people to purchase these cellular devices. With each technological advancement, especially in the field of cell phones and computers, the amount of privacy an individual has grows smaller and smaller. In the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, illustrates his prediction of a future dystopian society where every citizen is continuously watched by “Big Brother”; at work, in their homes, everywhere. Technology is taking us closer and closer to the world of Big Brother since American’s...
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...Student describes how Neil Postman, uses ethos, pathos, logos to argue that American culture is moving towards the dystopian future described by Huxley in “Brave New World,” and not the world described in Orwell’s “1984.” He does an excellent job proving facts and disturbing anecdotes, but he lacks showing the audience an opposing viewpoint. Despite this he is able to clearly show is agreement, by proving emotion supported by fact. Postman is able to connect with his audience through his credentials. The student feels that Postman shows a dangerous path that American Culture may be on, and is able to provide a warning to those who listen to his speech. Analysis of Neal Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” “What is dangerous about television is not it’s junk. Every culture can absorb a fair amount of junk, and, in any case, we do not judge a culture by its junk but by how it conducts its serious public business. What is happening in America is that television is transforming all serious public business into junk.” (Postman, 1984, p. 2) In his speech, "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Neil Postman, Columbia University graduate, and one time chair of the Department of Culture and Communication, made the point that American culture is headed for a culture like that described in Adlus Huxley's "Brave New World," and not the culture described in George Orwell's, "1984." He described the world imagined in 1984 as a place where there were no books, and where the people are prisoners...
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...Beale, Lewis. "Opinion: We're Living '1984' Today." CNN. Cable News Network, 3 Aug. 2013. Web. 01 Nov. 2015. Lewis Beale a CNN journalist wrote a news story on how George Orwell's 1984 is happening now in today's society. Beale goes on to tell on how the government is constantly monitoring citizens through social media and surveillance cameras in public areas. using fear to shape citizens into the civilians the government wants them to be. He compares today's society to the scary futuristic community Orwell imagined. Lewis tells on how today's society is willing to give up freedom and their right to privacy because of fear. That the government uses fear to spy on everyone, he gives the example of the government using terrorism as way to spy on citizens through social media. With this article being opinion based, Beale makes it clear and understandable for the reader to see his viewpoint. It has a easy to read layout with bold titles making it clear on what each paragraph is about. The Fact that the article was published on CNN, makes it...
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...Eureka! The cure for cancer has been found. The holy grail of modern medicine has been discovered. But there is one problem – it is locked up inside a top secret government facility restricted to the public. Why so? Because there is far more money to be made in treating a disease than curing it. Why cure someone of cancer in a day if they can be treated for it their entire life and bill them every step along the way? This is modern day society. It is the vivid reality of the dystopian world portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984 – In a world where war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength, the government has full control of society; dictatorship and communism are rampant (p. xx). Every action you take, every word you say, and every person you interact with is monitored closely by the government as represented by Big Brother in the novel. An Orwellian existence is staring at us directly in the face;...
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...‘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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...Neil Postmen’s book “Amusing Ourselves to death” opens in the forward by comparing George Orwell's dystopian society to Aldous Huxley’s. Both end with people en-slaved to technology but in oppose to Orwell’s view, where big brother controls the public, Huxley believes the public will willingly choose to follow the media and be controlled by there own lack of choices. Postman believes that culture will be based on how media is conducted rather then perceived. Today the news is broadcasted in small chunks, and the unrelated topics are all thrown around and tied together to change the magnitude of a news story. Our culture now functions best when focused on tiny bits of unrelated material training us to have smaller attention spans and to not...
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...George Orwell’s political views have been developed throughout his life based on personal experiences, although some may argue Orwell had no political label, due to his many different facets and aspects. Orwell witnessed Stalin’s Soviet Russia, the dictatorships of Mussolini and Hitler, the Spanish civil war and World War 2. Orwell’s literary works such as 1984 and many others, touch on aspects of imperialism, anarchism, socialism, Nazism, capitalism and totalitarianism. “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical” in 1984, is a text within a text that Winston reads to understand many things about the totalitarian world he lives in. The purpose of the text within a text is to parallel the corrupt socialist world of 1984 with that of Stalin’s USSR, expand on Orwell’s ideas of imperialism, and to sound an alarm to warn readers of what a worst case scenario totalitarian world could be like. Firstly, “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical” was to provide greater insight, for Winston and the reader. Goldstein’s text takes apart each section of the party’s slogan “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is strength” (Orwell, 1), and explains what they mean to the party. After reading the text, Winston learned some new things, but the text mostly just reinforced things he already assumed or knew. Secondly, when thinking from a political standpoint, one could say that the point of this text within a text was to parallel the corrupt socialist world of 1984 with that of Stalin’s USSR...
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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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...George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “1984”, depicts a society of which the fictional symbol, Big Brother, is the totalitarian leader, and the single party controls everything. Big Brother and the party have instilled the idea that, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past”, meaning that the past can be altered to one's desire, in this case to Big Brother’s. Winston, the protagonist of the novel, works at the Ministry of truth in the records department, where he, with many others, has to alter information from the past, in magazines and newspapers, so it always supports the party line, as Big Brother and the party must never be wrong. Unlike everyone else, brainwashed by the party, Winston realises...
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...‘Dystopian fiction is less about the powerful and more about the powerless’ To what extent is this true in The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984? Dystopian fiction usually revolves over a power struggle between an oppressor and the oppressed, alternatively this can be given the label of powerful and powerless. However, the exposure given to one of these groups is often inclined to be imbalanced. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry has biased exposure towards the powerless due to the simple fact of the third person limited narrator perspective from Jonas, a member of the aforementioned sector of respective society. This is similar to the 1984 narrator where Winston is never truly aware of what goes on when he wasn’t physically present. But, it could be for this exact reason that in 1984 the dystopian genre inclines towards the powerful, highlighting the hold over the powerless. Contrary to this, The Handmaid's Tale (THT) has blurred lines as to whether the dystopian fiction prevalent in the novels are more or less about the powerful. This is majorly due to conflicting plotlines and enigmatic characters, significant in both of the books. For example, the character of Nick could be characterized for the powerful and powerless. Nick behaves with Offred in a manner which confuses the reader about his loyalties. Ultimately, this essay will aim to prove an option that is a fusion between the two rivals of dystopian fiction offering the complex concept of the powerful powerless. The powerful...
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...Joseph Campbell’s 17-stage monomyth acts as the guide to literary works and films, influencing pop culture such as song lyrics and award-winning movies. The stages serve as a basis for a journey the hero or heroine encounters with a successful, world-gaining achievement. The path includes archetypes including the deceiving temptress, the nurturing goddess, and the mortal or immortal mentor. However, Campbell’s beneficial ending does not follow through in every plot. For example, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four discusses a dystopian society containing oppression and dementia. The author’s socially-impacting novel regards the deterioration of language and intellectual decline of society. “[The English language]... becomes ugly and inaccurate...
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