It is 1949 in the Soviet Union, and Joseph Stalin is running one of the most oppressive regimes in human history. In order to further reaffirm his control over the citizens of the USSR, he bans books left and right, not letting the public get their hands on criticisms and new ideas as he fears being overthrown. Many authors in the region try to develop satire against the regime without directly criticizing it. One of these authors is George Orwell, who at the time had witnessed the oppression of totalitarian regimes like that of the Soviet Union. Orwell wrote 1984 to warn people about the injustices of totalitarian regimes. 1984 was then banned in the USSR and reading it could have resulted in arrest. However, the USSR under Joseph Stalin …show more content…
According to data shared by the American Library Association in 2016, “42% of challenged books that year were challenged by parents while only 10% of challenged books were initiated by school boards or administrators.” () Yet there still is massive parental influence in administrators challenging books. Administrators are often pressured by parents’ religious viewpoints and political bias. Parents influence administrators because they vote for the school boards and are often outspoken at meetings. If administrators want to be reissued contracts, they must please the parents. At the time the novel 1984 was published, many American intellectuals supported communism. Orwell had witnessed the oppression of totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and Germany and wrote 1984 to warn people about the injustices of totalitarian regimes. Not all parents are intelligent enough to comprehend the message the book is trying to relay, which led to books like 1984 being banned for completely opposite reasons. It was banned and burned in the U.S.S.R. under Stalin's rule for its' negative attitude toward communism, but then was banned in Jackson County, Florida for supposedly being pro-communism by a couple of parents. (TIME) While lack of comprehension from the initiator is a major reason why books should not be banned, it is not the only …show more content…
1984 displayed a myriad of quotes that brought up controversy. Some readers may believe that Orwell legitimately believes that “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” (4) while other readers may comprehend the message to be that Orwell is condemning totalitarian manipulation. This difference in opinion resulted in 1984 being banned for both pro-communism and anti-communism at the same time. Yet this difference in opinion is not unique to 1984, as controversy is a recurring theme in multiple books. Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a novel in which two urban-raised boys, Luo and the narrator, are sent to the mountains to partake in re-education enforced by the communist regime of Chairman Mao. While in the mountains, Luo’s charm is able to attract a little Chinese seamstress who the narrator is affectionate for. The narrator asks Luo whether he is attracted to the seamstress in order to make sure the seamstress is only for him. Luo replied with a controversial answer by saying “She’s not civilized, at least not enough for me!”(27). Many, when reading this quote, could believe that Dai Sijie is implying that Chinese civilization is primitive as a whole, while others may believe that Dai Sijie is explaining the social and cultural rift between rural and urban China through fictional characters. This
...of the world if fascism were to continue. In Orwell's day, the leading fascists were Hitler and Stalin, and today there are Muammar Qaddafi, Kim Sung-un, and Xi Jiaping, while in 1984 there is Big Brother. All of these governments are very similar to each other, as Orwell had predicted. These points reveal that even though those who live in free nations think that 1984 is dystopian science-fiction, in some places around the world, 1984 is almost a work of realistic fiction.
The novel 1984 is one that has sparked much controversy over the last several decades. It harbors many key ideas that lie at the root of all skepticism towards the book. With the ideas of metaphysics, change, and control in mind, George Orwell wrote 1984 to provide an interesting story but also to express his ideas of where he believed the world was heading. His ideas were considered widely ahead of their time, and he was really able to drive home how bleak and colorless our society really is. Orwell wrote this piece as a futuristic, dystopian book which contained underlying tones of despair and deceit.
There are many things that most people take for granted. Things people do regularly, daily and even expect to do in the future. These things include eating meals regularly, having a choice in schooling, reading, choice of job and a future, and many more things. But what if these were taken away and someone told you want to eat, where and when to work, what you can read, and dictated your future. Many of these things happened in some degree or another during the Chinese Culture Revolution under Mao Zedong that began near the end of the 1960’s. This paper examines the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie and a book by Michael Schoenhals titled China’s Culture Revolution, 1966-1969. It compares the way the Chinese Cultural Revolution is presented in both books by looking at the way that people were re-educated and moved to away, what people were able to learn, and the environment that people lived in during this period of time in China.
George Orwell’s novel, 1984, has been challenged countless of times due to communist ideas and mature themes. Not only was this book banned by many public schools in the U.S., it was also banned in Russia during Stalin’s rule due to its anti-communist ideas. People who own or read this book in Russia would be arrested. Although many people want to ban this book due to its sexual references and political beliefs, I think 1984 should not be banned because this book reveals the truth on how the government can make people ignorant, revoke freedom to pursue happiness and basic human rights. Orwell reveals how ignorant people are due to Big Brother erasing history.
1984 was written as a warning to the western countries about having a totalitarianism government which is refers to a system of government in which lawfully electes representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little to no participation in the decision-making process of the government. The author felt like these countries were not able to find tactics to withstand the communism that was being taken placed. When the book was written in 1949 the Cold War had not yet broke out, and most people supported the diplomacy with the democratic communism. The author found the cruelty that was committed in the communist countries very disturbing, and the technologies that were used to help these countries control the citizens intriguing. This book tells how a complete government controlled country could be. Warning those who lived during this time to that if they did not want this to happen then they better vote against totalitarianism.
). 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?
"Teachers Should Prepare For Book Challenges." Book Banning. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.
Growing up in the People’s Republic is a detailed account of two individual women’s generational struggle during the controversial periods of The Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the Cultural Fever of the 1980’s. Their case study tries to define their individual identity growing up in a Communist China. Ma Xiadong and Ye Weili’s life allow the reader to understand the struggle that ensued for the individual at a time of change that was the Cultural Revolution.
Miner, B. (1998). When reading good books can get schools in trouble. An Urban Educational Journal, 12, 1-10
Many people argue whether George Orwell’s 1984 was written purely to criticize, or if it portrays society today. I believe that George Orwell wrote 1984 in order to express his feelings about how society is governed. There are many examples of irony that support my position. 1984 is a political satire, the Orwell used to criticize man’s use of power. The slogan of Oceania is War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. These three phrases reflect some of the disturbing factors of our society today, which is why I believe that 1984 resembles Orwell’s dystopian creation.
In his poem, “Notes from the City of the Sun”, Bei Dao utilizes obscure imagery consistent with the Misty Poets and veiled political references to illustrate the struggles in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution. The poem is sectioned into fourteen short stanzas containing imagery that are symbolic of the cultural hegemony in China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Bei Dao, born Zhao Zhen-kai, is an anti-revolutionary poet and one of the founders of a group known as the Misty Poets. The Misty Poets wrote poems that protested the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. Therefore, a lot of Bei Dao’s poems speak out against the Cultural Revolution and the restrictions that it placed on any form of art. Bei Dao’s poetry is categorized as “misty” because of the ambiguity in its references to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. An obscure imagery that occurs twice in “Notes” is the sun imagery. Another imagery that depicts the injustice of the Cultural Revolution is the description of freedom as scraps of paper. In the poem, Bei Dao also equates faith to sheep falling into a ditch; this is a depiction blind faith during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Bei Dao’s use of the Misty Poet’s ambiguous imagery and implicit political context in the poem “Notes from the City of the Sun” to illustrate the cultural hegemony in China under Mao.
George Orwell is considered to be one of the most creative and expressive political writers of the twentieth century, particularly for his views opposing communism and totalitarian regimes famously expressed in his novel, 1984. Orwell perceived communism as, “A new, dangerous form of totalitarianism, a powerful tool for controlling the masses.” Orwell’s hatred towards communism began with communist leader, Joseph Stalin whom he referred to as, “a bloody-minded master” (Rossi 1). Orwell’s views solidified during his participation in the Spanish Civil War; throughout his experience, Orwell was subject to communist propaganda, which led to his distrust of authority and established hatred of fascist and communist governments (Rossi 2). Orwell’s views, along with his participation ...
The struggle for complete domination and power has been apparent in the past, most notably when Germany and Russia conflicted to maintain control in World War 2. In 1984, written by George Orwell, a totalitarian society seeks unlimited power by constantly monitoring it citizens. This monitoring was used to manipulate the minds and alter the thoughts of the people of Oceania. The population of Oceania is led to support ideas, which they do not truly believe. The lack of privacy and personal belief in citizens induces the idea of “doublethink”, where two contradictory ideas are both accepted. This is utilized by George Orwell to demonstrate political power and dominance. The Party forces the people to believe that “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,
The past is reminisced upon with an unromantic clarity; current trials are discussed openly with a bittersweet frankness. Considering the approach and thematic material of writers in that era, one would expect to find a similar tact and comparable underpinnings to Tao Qian’s works. Conversely, this is not the case whatsoever. Tao Qian’s aptitude serves as a total counterstatement to a significant fraction of his contemporaries, and therein lies the appeal. Conversational, blunt, and informal, Tao Qian’s point of view provide intimate descriptions of humanity found in nature.
For more then 200 years, the right to choose what we read has been one of our most cherished freedoms. Permitting restraints on literature sets the stage for attacks on all expression that is artistically or politically controversial or that portrays unpleasant realities of life. The ideas and information absorbed from these banned books topple the walls of hate and fear and build bridges of cooperation and understanding far more effectively than weapons. George Orwell's classic 1984 painted a bleak picture of a mind-controlled, book burning society in which creative thinking was forbidden. If the censorship in school libraries