Society is made up of multiple factors including individuality and opposition. George Orwell’s 1984 is a novel that depicts a communist dystopian society. Orwell wrote this novel to show what will happen to society under Communist control—more specifically, Joseph Stalin’s control. Orwell presents the reader with a protagonist, Winston, and through Winston, the reader can see the effects of extreme, forced conformity in a society. Through 1984, the reader can conclude that a society as a whole cannot thrive when constrained. For instance, in 1984 the act of thinking individual thoughts is considered a crime against Oceania. Once a comrade has given himself or herself some individuality, the Thought Police arrests the comrade for committing …show more content…
There is no individual thought process nor is there any innovation in new technology meaning that Oceana’s society has no room for improvement. Also one of the leading factors to the Soviet Union’s demise was the restriction on freedom of speech, and thought; as well as the restriction of opposition and individuality. This quote, “…He [Big Brother] did succeed, through the management of the news and the censorship of the written and spoken word, in severely impairing man's ability to think freely,” (Message) shows how Big Brother restricts a comrade’s freedom of speech via censorship produced by the Ministry of Truth, but it also resembles how Stalin produced fake propaganda, news, and government documents among other things, to make the Soviet citizens believe in him and follow his rulings. Both of these situations lead to the constriction on individuality, opposition, and therefore, innovation; and each government enforced this via their respective secret police. Because the main goal of either government is to make the people conform to the status quo, the Thought Police and the NKVD were essential to making the citizens obey the government, but the organizations were also responsible for restricting individual rights and the future of
Nevertheless, the rulers of Oceania achieved the ability to manipulate each generation of people enough so that the citizens slowly forget who they are. The citizens can no longer feel, think, or act freely. The distinct idea the citizens are taught to know is how to
“2+2=5”, This quote shows how the government of Oceania did not allow their people original and own thought, if they could not accept these thoughts to be true they would be tortured into believing and then eventually killed. There are three main things that compare the Soviet Union to the government formed within the country of Oceania, INGSOC. The three main comparisons we can make are torture within both parties, the use of slogans to manipulate the minds of the citizens, and the two main leaders of both parties. In this essay, we are first going to talk about how the Soviet Union used torture on enemies of the party to force confessions out of them. And how this compares to the use of torture within the ministry of love where Winston found
In the novel “1984” by George Orwell, nonconformity throughout a society is presented through the point of view of its main character, Winston. In Oceania, the society is heavily ran by their government. “Big Brother” is a closed party which always watches the people of Oceania as a way to keep control. They work to keep the people in check and fear them in order for them to be more easily manipulated. Creativity and any form of individuality is practically forbidden due to the government’s fear of being overthrown.
Living through the first half of the twentieth century, George Orwell watched the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Fighting in Spain, he witnessed the brutalities of the fascists and Stalinists first hand. His experiences awakened him to the evils of a totalitarian government. In his novel 1984, Orwell paints a dark and pessimistic vision of the future where society is completely controlled by a totalitarian government. He uses symbolism and the character’s developments to show the nature of total power in a government and the extremes it will go through to retain that power by repressing individual freedom and the truth.
1984’s Oceania was a fictional place, but it had shocking similarities to a place all too real. The USSR or the Soviet Union is the real life Oceania. 1984’s Oceania was similar to the USSR in many ways. The USSR and 1984’s Oceania both used many form of propaganda to insure fear within the people, keeping them civil. Both the USSR and Oceania were also known to kidnap anyone who went against their government, through their secret police.
The society of this novel was a dystopia and it is how George Orwell viewed the world. In the novel 1984, Orwell portrays the acts of betrayal and
Thought Police, Thought Crime, and Face Crime gave great examples of the topic of psychological manipulation that occurred in the novel. The illusion that nowhere remained safe to live a private life and one’s self being watched was given by these topics. This made the citizens of Oceania scared to show what they truly felt about the government or the society itself or even local things that happen. The citizens then did not want to question anything in fear of
When Faced With Tyranny When one is faced with an oppressive government, they can lose control over all aspects of their daily lives. It is also easy for one to lose authority over themselves when faced with a stronger force. What might one’s response be when they possess little to no control over their lives? Many people may blindly follow society, but others might choose to disobey the rules. In 1984 by George Orwell, Winston Smith’s defiant nature and curious attitude display that one may turn to rebellion when faced with tyranny.
The following shall be discussed further; the physical (external) and mental (internal) means of control inflicted on the people of Oceania, followed by the interrelationship between both mechanisms of control and if there is a chance for liberation/rebellion. The government uses many methods to control the people of Oceania. The people have no sense of privacy, freedom or independence. They have little say in their personal future.
As the world watched World War II emerge as one of the biggest wars in the history of the universe, George Orwell wrote 1984 to criticize the totalitarian approach of the socialist leaders in countries like Germany and the U.S.S.R. The book was written in 1948 when the act of communism became a dangerously threatening type of government to the citizens all over the world. In 1984, Winston, the main character of the novel, reflects on London’s dystopian society by creating his own diary, which is an act that brings him immense threat to the quality of his life. Even today, many citizens face the same types of situations that Winston experiences throughout the book. There are obvious parallels between the novel and America in 2016 in concepts
The book 1984 describes a totalitarian society where citizens are forced to renounce all liberties for the sake of social order. They are guided by the rule of a single figurehead called Big Brother, whom the they are manipulated to entrust their lives to. This figurehead exercises his powers of governing every aspect of the people 's lives by observing and manipulating the populace. Big Brother also divides his subjects into classes as a means to keep the populace oppressed. Throughout this literary narrative the main character, Winston Smith, struggles to survive in this society as he struggles to fit the conventional mold that is preached.
In 1984, George Orwell depicts a dystopian society pervaded by government control and the obsolescence of human emotion and society. Winston is forced to confront the reality of a totalitarian rule where the residents of Oceania are manipulated to ensure absolute government control and servitude of the people. The theme of totalitarianism and dystopia is employed in 1984 to grant absolute power to the government and ensure the deference of the people through the proliferation of propaganda, the repudiation of privacy and freedom, and the eradication of human thought and values. The repudiation of privacy and independent thought and the ubiquity of government surveillance is employed to secure absolute power to the government over the populace
1984 tells the story of man, Winston Smith, a man living in Oceania, a dystopian society, finding a way to escape the tyranny of Big Brother. John Steinbeck and George Orwell are greatly affected by the state of society in their lifetimes. Both authors use their novels to highlight the themes of control and the affects of change
In 1984, a dystopian novel written by George Orwell, proles are represented as being generally incompetent in the ability to think and rebel against their stolen rights. However, as the story progresses, Winston comes to a realization that proles are the only ones with the character of human beings and the strength to gain consciousness to overthrow the party. Through this characterization of the proles, Orwell satirizes the detrimental effects of Stalin’s totalitarian government in employing total control and perpetual surveillance of the people in USSR to maintain an established hierarchy. The nature of how the system views the proles is clearly visible through the treatment and description of the proles in the eyes of Winston.
In 1949, a man predicted the domination of citizens by the totalitarian government and their custom of technologies to dictate the society. His name is George Orwell, a well-known British author, who wrote one of the most famous dystopian novels, 1984. The novel 1984 illustrates the totalitarian society and the life of Winston Smith, who works at the Ministry of truth and his humiliation by the party of the country, Oceania. George Orwell’s exaggeration and mockery of the totalitarian governments in the novel 1984 is now turning out to be one of the nightmare come true in our modern society.