...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...
Words: 630 - Pages: 3
...George Orwell’s use of language in Nineteen Eighty-Four Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell, has been called one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell provides readers with a look into what would happen if the government controlled every aspect of people’s lives, even their own thoughts. Orwell uses language to influence the mindset of the citizens of Oceania. Orwell’s use of language shows how people can be manipulated and deceived and led to obey their government and accepting all of its propaganda to be true. Orwell was a very productive writer. He wrote six novels, and hundreds of essays as well as four documentary studies in less than twenty years. “Orwell’s greatest influence beyond his two classic novels was as a prose stylist...he probably influenced the writing of prose more than anyone else in the first half of the 20th century.” (Rossi 1) Orwell’s use of language has inspired many other writers as well. “Sylvia Ramsey’s novel, An Underground Jewel, is set in the future and centers on a terrorist organization that wants to alter language, it’s based on George Orwell’s 1984.” (Martin)...
Words: 898 - Pages: 4
...The Novel Project Your name: Giselle Gonzalez Your Novel: 1984 – George Orwell 1. Explain how the novel represents two or more concerns of its historical time period; these concerns may be economic, political, cultural, social, or moral concerns. Clarify the author’s view on one of the following as s/he presents the concerns: right vs wrong; conservative vs radical, or elite vs commonplace. Orwell published “1984” in 1948 just after the end of World War II. Although at this time, Hitler’s reign was brought to an end, Joseph Stalin, another ruthless leader was still in power. Though they were adversaries during WW II, both men shared acute similarities in their success towards creating a totalitarian government much like the one seen in “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” The ghastly, but impressive ease with which each ruler rose and remained in power is possibly what caused Orwell to focus so heavily on political concerns in his novel. While there are no direct allusions to the Adolf Hitler or Stalin, the political devices used by the Party to control Party members in Oceania are undeniably parallel to the manipulation and brutality that each ruler used to control government. Big Brother for instance, is a fearless leader who is loved by all of the Party members. Though it is never confirmed whether or not he is a real person or just an idea, citizens praise him almost instinctively, posters of him are found in every building, and badmouthing him is not only an act of audacity, but punishable...
Words: 4296 - Pages: 18
...The Works of George Orwell The Literary Canon is an authoritive list, as of the works of an author. To enter or actually be entered into the canon is to gain certain obvious privileges; it is governed by influential critics, museum directors, and their board of trustee’s as well as scholars and teachers. To appear in the Norton or Oxford anthology is not a sign of greatness but a status of accessibility to a public reading. Belonging to the Literary Canon confers status; social, political, economic, and aesthetic, belonging to the canon is a guarantee of quality. George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair, to English parents Richard Walmesley (a civil servant) and Ida Mabel (Limouzine) Blair in Motihari, Bengal (now Bihar) India in 1903 and died a year after writing Nineteen Eighty Four in 1950. He graduated from Eton College in 1921. His political beliefs follow those of a democratic socialist. His interests include fishing, carpentry, gardening, and raising animals. He served in the Spanish civil war as well as World War II where he held the rank of sergeant. George held many jobs during his career as a writer he was a police officer in Burma, a dishwasher in Paris, a teacher in England, as well as a shopkeeper, he also produced educational radio programs for the BBC. Among his writing accomplishments he wrote fiction as well as nonfiction novels his two most famous being “Nineteen Eighty Four” and “Animal farm” both of which have been adapted for film. In “Animal Farm” and...
Words: 770 - Pages: 4
...Shanshan Huang English 103 Professor Joseph 5/7/2013 The Major Themes of Orwellian Imagine living in an environment under the surveillance of a big power, imagine being manipulated and controlled for every thought and action. The act of obeying orders from the big power leads to survival, and the rebellion for freedom leads to the most devastating punishment. Would you give in to the big power or would you fight? The novel Nineteen-Eighty Four written by George Orwell portraying through the view of the protagonist, Winston Smith, describing a nation called Oceania being under the ruling of the antagonist, a totalitarian Party or the Big Brother. In addition, it presented various methods such as constant surveillance, unending propaganda, distortion of language, historical revisionism, fear, torture, perpetual war, and lack of habeas corpus to characterize an oppressive and authoritarian government. The Party utilizes these methods to keep its citizens living in a state of fear, making them developing a feeling of dependency of the party. The novel Nineteen-Eighty Four has its significance today because all of the methods that characterize a totalitarian government are still presence, especially being currently utilized by the government of the United States. Once upon a time, the U.S used to be a land of unparalleled freedom. However, ever since the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the U.S government, primarily under the management of the bush administration, has...
Words: 3137 - Pages: 13
...The Hell of Nineteen Eighty-Four. ). Did Orwell realise quite what he had done in Nineteen Eighty-Four? His post-publication glosses on its meaning reveal either blankness or bad faith even about its contemporary political implications. He insisted, for example, that his 'recent novel [was] NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter)'.(1) He may well not have intended it but that is what it can reasonably be taken to be. Warburg saw this immediately he had read the manuscript, and predicted that Nineteen Eighty-Four '[was] worth a cool million votes to the Conservative Party';(2) the literary editor of the Evening Standard 'sarcastically prescribed it as "required reading" for Labour Party M.P.s',(3) and, in the US, the Washington branch of the John Birch Society 'adopted "1984" as the last four digits of its telephone number'.(4) Moreover, Churchill had made the 'inseparably interwoven' relation between socialism and totalitarianism a plank in his 1945 election campaign(5) (and was not the protagonist of Nineteen Eighty-Four called Winston?). If, ten years earlier, an Orwell had written a futuristic fantasy in which Big Brother had had Hitler's features rather than Stalin's, would not the Left, whatever the writer's proclaimed political sympathies, have welcomed it as showing how capitalism, by its very nature, led to totalitarian fascism? With Nineteen Eighty-Four, it is particularly necessary to trust the tale and not...
Words: 7887 - Pages: 32
...David Egger’s novel The Circle holds so many similarities with George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book is almost a continuation on Nineteen Eighty-Four, but at a different stage. What other similarities and also difference do they have? How is the Egger’s novel The Circle relevant to today’s society? The Circle is presented as a world dominating company that is looking for the next big thing to take over the world. Eggers’s book intriguers a world where having person privacy and believing in it is seen as a crime. The Circle also renames each portion of the company after an historic era to make it less impersonal and more cooperative. The circlers are people who work within the company. These people follow everything the company states and does. At the company, you can be transparent, which means everything you do and say is almost all the time recorded and viewed of people from the entire world. The reality of it is that once you associate yourself with the company, it is very hard to come back from it, because you get told so many propaganda stories on how the Circle is trying to save the world. It is almost as Nineteen Eighty-Four, but bigger and more powerful. In both The Circle and Nineteen Eighty-Four, we have a protagonist who doesn’t really change so much throughout the stories. In The Circle we get to follow...
Words: 569 - Pages: 3
...As a young boy, George Orwell had always loved writing and literature. He began writing poems before most kids today can even spell their name. This love lead him to receive scholarships and become an authorauthur. It did not all come easy for him though, and he had many obstacles in his way, including some life threatening ones. By looking at Animal Farm, one can see that George Orwell included the themes of the corruption of sSocialist ideas and the danger of a naive working class because he was very opposed to the cCommunistic ways of the Soviet Union. George Orwell, who was born Eric ArthurAuthur Blair, was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, India. He was the son of, Richard WalmesleyWalmasley Blair, a British civil servant officer, and...
Words: 2043 - Pages: 9
...Manojlovic 1 Milana Manojlovic Ms. Miminas ENG 3U Tuesday, June 14th, 2016 Dystopian Society in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four The citizens in Nineteen Eighty-Four live in a world polar opposite of perfect. They are constantly being watched and oppressed by big brother and the thought police. The citizens live an unorthodox life due to the totalitarian government. The theme of dystopia is evident in nineteen eighty-four because information, independent thought and freedom are restricted, a figurehead is worshipped by citizens, and they are under constant surveillance. Firstly, Nineteen Eighty- Four emulates the theme of dystopia because information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted. The citizens in Oceania live in a world where they are not allowed to feel human emotions. They are constantly being watched by the thought police and are forced to live in constant fear. They must show that they are abiding Big Brothers orders constantly to avoid being annihilated. The citizens are blind to Big Brothers plans because all information from the past is erased and all information for the future is kept secret. The proles are the only people in their world who do not look up to Big Brother. Although they live in a lower class compared to the people in the party, the proles are able to do whatever they want because Big Brother does not control them. The people in the party may have a more secure home and Manojlovic 2 material items;...
Words: 1182 - Pages: 5
...In Fritz Lang’s German Expressionist film Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), both composers express the dangerous effects of tyrannical and demagogical leadership. In exploring the quote ‘If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever,’ Lang presents a perspective that both challenges and restores our faith in humanity, where an autocratic leader falls to his knees in a cry for mercy while Orwell aims to shatter it, with the subjugation of the rebellious protagonist. Both Orwell and Lang explore this through their contextual paradigms, demonstrating it through the apotheosis of human power, where both leaders’ ‘demi-god-like’ status produces an opaque view of reality and excess materialism. It is also revealed through a distorted sense of...
Words: 1087 - Pages: 5
...”Nineteen Eighty-Four” – Pages 1-40 If there is any doubt of the persistent power of literature it should be banished by the novel “1984” by George Orwell. There is much that reasonant for most of us in Orwell’s dystopia in the face of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA; the totalitarian State of Oceania, its menacing Big Brother, the history-erasing Ministry of Truth and the sinister Thought Police with their everpresent telescreens. Eventhough the novel “1984” was read by its readers in 1949, the novel was meant to represent a very real threat in near future: a totalitarian regime within the next thirty years. The threat against privacy is, in Orwell’s opinion, one to be fought against. Looking at “1984” while pondering over the ideological criticism, one would find traces of certain ideologies in the artifact and the artifact in this particular case being the literary work “1984” by George Orwell. The primary target when doing a ideological reading, is to discover or locate the dominant ideology or the ideologies embedded in the literary work and perhaps the ones that are muted in it. The political ideology of Big Brother in “1984” is shown through a third person narration that clearly understands what Winston experiences living under a totalitarian regime. The style that Orwell appropriates in relaying this political ideology is one of fear and control. The ‘telescreens’ are constantly watching you and listening in on your conversations; “The telescreen...
Words: 844 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 683 - Pages: 3
...More times then not a dystopian society shows a rather gruesome future hoping to warn us of our impending world. Nineteen Eighty-four portrays this rather well, he created a filthy place with torn down buildings and rats everywhere. Rats are often portrayed as dingy disgusting creatures aligned with fear as well as betrayal and it is no different in George Orwell’s nineteen eighty-four. Winston’s fear of rats is constantly overwhelming for him, not to mention that rats appear almost foreshadowing betrayal and lastly rats represent the extent of the control the party possesses over the population of Oceania. Orwell explores then many diverse ways rats can influence the characters in the novel. Betrayal: The expression that someone is a 'rat,' is often used to illustrate the meaning that he or she is...
Words: 1009 - Pages: 5
...peoples of the West. Later explorers added to the colorful picture of the West. However, as the realities of the West changed, so did the focus of writers who used the West as subject and symbol. Land became less available and the uses of land came into question. The environmental movement led to a reevaluation of humanity’s relationship to nature. As the region was settled a mix of cultures came into play. Writers now have come to emphasize the complexity of Western life, rather than its simplicity. Contemporary Westerns sound with more diverse voices than ever before. In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, he writes about his dark vision of the future. It may not just be of the future of the West, but the way of thinking and system portrayed are particularly Western in nature. A lot of terms coined in this novel are also use widely already in the modern day English language. It is a chilling depiction of how the power of the state could come to dominate the lives of individuals through cultural conditioning. Perhaps the most powerful science fiction novel of the twentieth century, this apocalyptic satire shows with grim conviction how Winston Smith's individual personality is wiped out and how he is recreated in the Party's image...
Words: 2722 - Pages: 11
...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...
Words: 2301 - Pages: 10
