Most people have taken a history course at some point in their life. They walk into class, take notes on the lecture, and study for an exam. No one ever questions if the information they are receiving has been altered from the truth. They memorize the data they have learned, then pass it on to others. How is everyone so sure the information we read in textbooks is true?
“Sixty years after the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, it is hard to think of any major institution not open to the epithet “Orwellian”. From Channel 4’s barely ironic Big Brother to the ever-increasing surveillance measures of a paranoid and cloyingly invasive state, Orwell anticipated a peculiarly British nightmare,” (Power, Nina). In George Orwell's 1984, there are many ideologies and cultural norms that people in the book see as perfectly normal and readers took notice. Those who read it, started seeing that the things in the book were like how things that were around them. In this way, 1984 has caused a cultural influence on its readers and the world around them.
Imagine living in a world where the word “freedom” was never in the dictionary of your mind, where you were told from a young age to follow only what the government says word for word, and where you watch your neighbors be deported in cattle carts one by one and never find out why or what happened to them. A dystopian world like this is depicted in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, where he attempts to predict a futuristic world in 1949 according to the trend of many countries during that time. Orwell based most of his novel off of the Soviet Union, then under the rule of Joseph Stalin, bringing issues of totalitarian governments into the spotlight. The novel 1984 effectively reflects what was happening in Stalin’s Russia in that they both center around political leaders that altered media to control the population and encouraged the brainwashing of children with their political ideologies.
Eric Wills Themes Easily, the largest theme that comes through in 1984 from start to finish is psychological control is the way to a totalitarian government. By controlling the minds of the people who are in their country, they can keep everyone in check with no chance of revolution. The Party, or the main government has a motto. It goes, “Those who control the past, control the future: who controls the present controls the past.” (32).
One of the most notable themes in 1984 is George Orwell’s depiction of conformity. Conformity means to behave in accordance with socially acceptable conventions. In 1984, the party sets laws and brings in technology that forces the population into conforming. This is done so that they can control the population easier, and manipulate them into believing the party’s ideals. To do this, they firstly make everyone wear the same clothes, eat the same food, and live in the same conditions.
Demonstrating how the party’s ideals have caused Winston to automatically make the assumption that all proles are subhuman. In the text, Winston never actively challenges this presumption; consequently, displaying his unconscious superiority complex caused by the government's orthodoxical ideals. Correspondingly, the use of the third-person in the second quotation serves to distance Winston from the proles; further empathizing the class division between Winston and the proles, which distinguishes the likelihood of insurgency to
George Orwell wrote 1984 back in the midst of World War II, which is alluded to multiple times in the book. He discussed what this world might turn into if we do not take action against the European leaders. The book depicts a over-controlling government, referred to as the Party, which is constantly spying on the citizens of the dystopian society called Oceania. One of the Outer-Party members named Winston Smith realizes the wrongdoings of the government and starts to rebel against them. Throughout the entirety of 1984, Winston can be seen as a hero by his defiance against the Party, his hatred toward the Party, and how he may have sparked a rebellion.
Imagine being followed everywhere by a government agent. They’re watching your every move, and they’ll report you if you even make a wrong facial movement. This is essentially the case in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. Run by an English socialist government called the Party, the people’s every move is watched through telescreens. Citizens are not individual, but rather an extension of the Party.
One of the themes of 1984 by George Orwell is how it represents living in a dictatorship. There are many troubles that come with living in a dictatorship. In the book, everyone is ruled by a dictator called Big Brother. No one knows if he is real or not, but he makes all of the rules. An example from the book about dictatorship is, “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.
Joseph Goebbels once said,”Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their freewill”. This statement is proven to be true in 1984. The author, George Orwell, creates a fictional dystopian society in which the population is manipulated into thinking they live in a great world, whereas the government has full control over them. In 1984, George Orwell’s prime message, supported by the article called Liberty in North Korea by Hae Re, was the lack of individualism gives power to the applicable leader, which is conveyed using the characters speech and symbolism. Orwell’s dystopian society showed the author 's message through what a character was saying and symbolism.
Sex creates an extremely exclusive bond between two individuals; it’s an unspoken contract of trust and love. Not only are sexual experiences private, but they also fulfill humanity’s instinctual desire and promote individuality. However, when this intimacy is either erased or condemned by society, individuals lose touch with that vital part of their humanity and individuality. In 1984 by George Orwell, sexuality plays an important role in both Oceania’s totalitarian government and Winston’s rebellion against his oppressors; as he explores his sexuality, Winston revolts against the Party’s manipulative political control, the destruction of individuality, the absence of human connection, and the practice of sexual puritanism.
A common title that pops into one’s mind upon hearing the phrase ‘dystopian literature’ would be the classic work of fiction, 1984 by George Orwell. Through the employment of striking elements of conventional dystopias, accompanied by the deliberate characterization of an anti-hero named Winston Smith, Orwell effectively paints a picture of an oppressed society struggling to survive under the iron-fist rule of an oppressive, draconian, totalitarian government. However, the author also deviates from the regular standards of the genre, inserting aberrant components into the text, in order to give the novel distinctive qualities along with adding a unique voice to the battle of Winston Smith against the Party. The novel features a variety of common traits evident in dystopian societies which Orwell hyperbolizes to a high degree with the intention of highlighting the depths a civilization can sink under the wrong authority, particularly a totalitarian regime.
In the united states today the government has so much power than what people may think. They have control over innocent citizens. The kind of power the government has over us has gotten to a limit where now they know where we are at and all of our private information safe on our cell phones. George Orwell’s novel 1984 gives a great example of how the government controls the people. In the novel they tell us about the government from Oceania, and how they control every single second of the citizens’ lives.
As mentioned in the text, “the Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals...”, Winston along with other members of the party were embedded with the idea that it’s conventional for the members of the party to treat the proles in a degrading manner similar to the ways in which they would treat animals. This idea is reiterated as Winston remembers the party slogan that states: ‘Proles and animals are free’ and compares the behaviors of the proles with words like ‘work’ and ‘breed’. These words and phrases signify that Party members simply view the proles as a mere source of entertainment and a place in which it is justified for the party members to further contaminate and sabotage for its already
Totalitarianism in 1984 and the Real World The concept of a totalitarian society is a major theme throughout the novel 1984. This theme of totalitarianism can also be applied to the world today. The definition of totalitarianism, a concept used by some political scientists, is a state which holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. Totalitarianism can be related between the novel 1984 and current events in the real world. George Orwell incorporated the theme of totalitarianism into his novel 1984 to display the ever changing world around him during the time it was written.
