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. The development of the characters shows the need of a totalitarian government …show more content…
Victory gin is one of the few vices which the party endorses. However, the decision to drink gin is not an act of rebellion as other vices often are in this society. Rather, it is another form of control by the party. Winston describes that after the initial pain from ingesting the victory gin, “the world began to look more cheerful” (8). Here, the victory gin is a form of emotion suppression. By suppressing unhappy feelings and making the world more cheerful, the victory gin allows the party to prevent rebellion and control an individual’s desire to act out against the party. By using the symbol of victory gin to represent control of the individual, Orwell highlights the extremes to which governments will go in order to maintain power over their …show more content…
Julia wasn’t much interested in reading, and Winston was surprised to discover that “the difference between truth and falsehood did not seem important to” (193) Julia. While Winston was greatly concerned about the party’s manipulation of truth, Julia was more interested in freedom of individuality. The clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive, whether it was a love affair, swearing, wearing makeup or obtaining luxuries on the black market. She took great pride in her ability to bring real sugar, real milk, and real coffee to her meetings with Winston (177). Julia’s desires to bring these prohibited items to their meetings, as well as her disinterest in exposing the part indicate that she rebels simply to undermine the party in her own small ways and gain individual freedom. Unlike Winston, whose actions and desires regard both himself and future generations, Julia’s actions stem purely from her own personal desires. By characterizing Julia as interested in individual freedom, Orwell emphasizes, again, the extent to which governments need to control their citizens in order to maintain power. By using these characters to highlight the control of the party, Orwell shows the dangers of totalitarian governments and the extremes to which they will go to maintain
Not worrying about her future, Julia strikes out by wanting her own freedom and the good things in life. To her it was, being able to have pleasure with whomever, and eat and wear what she wants. Rebelling for Julia, was just a daily lifestyle. Julia tries to keep Winston young and opperating like her, Getting him to rebel and never give up for his beliefs. When Julia is with Winston, he explains that they are dead for going against the Party.
Having eliminated all bonds of human connection between individuals, the Party intended that ‘the sex instinct will be eradicated… neurologists shall abolish the orgasm’ where the high modal declaration depicts the frightening measures imposed by the administration to prevent revolution. Thus, the relationship between Winston and Julia serves as an outlet of instinct but is also an expression of rebellion against the status quo: ‘their embrace had been a battle… It was a political act.’ Further, the ‘glass paper weight’ motif serves as a reminder of the past, a beacon of hope but in the arrest shatters, signifying defeat to the state. Ultimately, as Winston falls short of liberation, he disintegrates into a shell of his former self: betraying Julia and becomes a mindless vehicle of the Party’s propaganda for Big Brother.
The cacophonous diction used here forms a harsh description of Winston’s deteriorating body, a contrast to his previous confident state. O’Brien has broken Winston to his bones with indifferent cruelty; the once rebellious mind has been made fragile and weak. The rebels and delinquents are stripped to the skeleton of
Julia has the desire to do wrong and stand up for what she believes in. She stands up to the party by sleeping around, going against the members of the party, and gets involved with the brotherhood. Unlike Winston, she does not have a political sense or the idea that she can somehow make a change by helping the proles rise up. Her desire is to slap Big Brother. Julia is young and immature, and she wants to affect the party so that it can only affect herself.
(Orwell 233). Then a little bit later Winston asked “Who denounced you?” then Parsons said “It was my little daughter” (Orwell 233). This shows how The Party is taking advantage over people so they can have power to do what they want. When Julia and Winston were captured by O’Brien,who was a spy for the Party, he put them in separate rooms, questioned and tortured Winston so he would give up Julia and confess.
This essay will include the ways in which the movie V for Vendetta and George Orwell’s book 1984 portrays totalitarianism in their use of language, and mistakes made in the past. The first totalitarian government that is going to be spoken about is V for Vendetta. V for Vendetta was a movie
Once Julia has given Winston the note that says ‘I love you’ on it, they begin meeting each other in private, but Winston is not sexually attracted to Julia like she is to him; “Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow against the part. It was a political act” (Orwell, 104). In 1984 relationships are forbidden, unless to only reproduce children for the party, making Winston and Julia’s relationship extremely
The voice of the book is a type warning that any overly controlling government can confine us. Orwell’s voice represents a warning against steps that a government might take in order to get power. 4. The tone is bleak. The purpose here is to be a warning as to what can happen when too much control is given to a government.
From Orwell’s novel, “1984”, it can be determined that his opinion on the most powerful means of control by the government would be the government’s use of fear to instill paranoia among the people. One powerful piece of corroboration for fear to paranoia would be Oceania’s obvious, and constant, use of technology to fulfill this goal. Take, for instance, the telescreens. Because of their existence in every buildings’ rooms and corners, they can be easily used to keep an eye on party members, and if need be, used to track their location and arrest them. Winston experiences the surveillance inflicted by the government during one of his daily workouts,as right when he stopped trying in order to ponder the conspiracies surrounding the party,
George Orwell’s novel 1984 presents us two characters who are entirely different, but still complement each other entirely, the protagonist Winston and his love-interest Julia. Julia’s optimistic character highlights Winston’s fatalistic one. Winston believes he and Julia are compatible and can relate to each other because they share the same believes. They both detest Big Brother and want to rebel against the Party. While this is true, their similarities seem to end there.
After meeting her, Winston realizes that he rebels because it is the only way to gain freedom. “The sexual act, successfully preformed, was rebellion. Desire was a thought crime” (Orwell, 68). In a way, Julia gives him the strength he needs to continue to fight for freedom. “I have not betrayed Julia” (Orwell, 273.)
On December 16, 1773, after months of suppression of taxes, finally the people of boston, rebelled against the governing party. They had so much individualism that they were not used and they didn’t like the idea that the British were making them pay more for their tea so because of that, the people used their individuality to work together to rebel, just as Winston and Julia used their individuality to rebel against their governing party. In 1984 by George Orwell, Winston Smith, a man in his mid 40’s, lead a lonely, rebellious life, living in Oceania, until he met Julia, who he believed to be his true love. Together, they rebel against their governing power, the Party or Big Brother, but in the end, both Winston and Julia and end up getting caught.
The characters in the story are used to show the theme in the sense that most are essentially brainwashed by, and therefore loyal to and under control of, the overbearing government. The main conflict of the story is between the main
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
The novel 1984 by George Orwell reveals the destruction of all aspects of the universe. Orwell envisioned how he believes life would be like if a country were taken over by a totalitarian figure. Nineteen eighty-four effectively portrays a totalitarian style government, in which elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation with very little citizen participation in the decision-making process of the legislative body. Although the authors ideas are inherently and completely fictional, several concepts throughout his book have common links to today’s society which is somehow a realist perspective. Orwell integrates devices such as irony, satire, and motifs to illustrate the life unfulfilling life of Winston Smith.