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Critical interpretations of 1984
1984 Analysis of George Orwell
1984 Analysis of George Orwell
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1984: A Disturbing Possibility For The Future George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, is a startling possibility for the future. 1984 is considered to be a political and science fiction as well as a dystopian novel. It has an original copyright date of 1949 by Harcourt Inc. George's real name was Eric Blair and he lived from 1903-1950. He was born in Bengal. He wrote many political pieces including Animal Farm. He was a literary critic but hated intellectual people. Orwell's novels were used to prove that people were unable to deal with history. 1984 is one of his most memorable novels to this day. 1984's exposition starts off following the main character, an older man named Winston Smith, during a time period where Big Brother is watching everything. Big Brother is the new form government that is set up after the revolution. Winston works in Records Department for the Ministry where he destroys whatever documents are placed upon his desk and then rewrites history to portray Big Brother in a better light or eliminate the name of someone who has been vaporized. The only problem is his hate for the Ministry and for Big Brother. He cannot let his distaste for them show on his face in fear that the Thought Police or the telescreen see it and have him vaporized. The rising action and exposition seem to overlap. The rising action starts with Winston writing in a journal that he found. This is not typical behavior of a party member so he writes in it around the corner of the telescreen. Items of the past are not allowed and most have been destroyed. He found his journal in an antique shop in the prole district. The proles are the extremely poor who are not as strictly policed as the party members and inner party members. While walking ... ... middle of paper ... ... secret room with Julia. I liked that they fought and snuck around to have time together because they enjoyed it. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dystopian novels or science fiction. 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale have very similar qualities. They are both dystopian novels warning of what the world could become. There is a new form of government in both novels that some people are unhappy with. They differ in the views on sexually related things. In 1984, sex is supposed to only be procreate. It has been desexualized and made dirty. This is to remove the potential connection it could create. The children are then used to spy on parents. In The Handmaid's Tale sex is used to procreate but children are valued. They are few and far between so birth and children are celebrated. Both novels were wonderful reads but portray similar issues in different lights.
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.
Living through the war and its enormous political shifts, Eric Blair was a figure whose pessimism was significantly impacted by the postwar period. But what was born of Blair was a more significant person known as George Orwell, who challenged the political views of his time by writing 1984, which stands as one of the most powerful political novels of the Modernist era written to expose the horrors of totalitarianism and impact the political thinking of the 20th Century.
Orwell wrote 1984 a few years after the end of WWII, trying to combat totalitarianism at a time when many nations were beginning to take it on. Totalitarianism was and is a form of government with a single dictator that doesn’t require, but almost always involves, censorship. Totalitarian dictators use this censorship to control the people, and cover up the dictator’s evil-doings. Many people were afraid that totalitarianism was going to spread all over the world, and tried their hardest to stop it from happening. George Orwell was among the many that were deathly afraid, so he wrote 1984, doing his part to prevent it from spreading. 1984 takes place in Orwell’s far future (but our
Totalitarianism is one of the main themes in 1984. In WWII Europe, Oceania became the ruling power with the so called “Party” ruling everybody and have the “Big Brother” at its head. Some examples of totalitarianism is how they make people workout, they put tele-screens everywhere to monitor the peoples actions, also they refuse to allow any sexual intercourse outside of marriage. “Winston kept his back turned to the tele-screen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing” (Book 1, Chapter 1). This quote represents how fearful Winston is that he ...
Imagine living in a world where one’s whole life had been planned out for them by the Government; a life in which there were no surprises simply because everyday consisted of the same thing. 1984 written by George Orwell can be an archetype for this kind of world. Living in a totalitarian society, Winston Smith is a low ranked member of the ruling party in London. Winston is constantly watched by the party and had little to no privacy whatsoever. Everywhere he goes, Winston sees face of the party’s leader, called Big Brother. Winston goes through the same motions everyday, secretly hating the party and hoping that there are people around him that aren’t ignorant, but feel the same way as him. If people are ignorant and blindly follow what the
Thesis Statement: Both 1984 by George Orwell and The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood are similar as they are placed in dystopian societies with governments that have complete control over their citizens, however, the roles of the narrator in both novels contrast each other. In 1984, the point of view is Limited Omniscient while the point of view in The Handmaid 's Tale is first person.
It is evident that truth cannot be hidden, a facade will fade away and your true colours will show. Neo and Winston do this by waking from the dream world metaphorically and physically, both characters had to realize the situations that were in. Neo is shown by Morpheus that he has been living in a Virtual reality Neo begins to accept this when Morpheus tells him to open his mind and leaps of a building(A Wachowski, L Wachowski, The matrix). Neo realizes that he is in a dream and he needs to find a way to wake up. Winston and the rest of Oceania have been manipulated by false knowledge that makes the government
“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (K34). By manipulating and controlling reality, totalitarian regimes such as the Party in 1984 are able to maintain power by stopping the development of history and leaving the people without a precedent to which they can compare their current condition. In the novel, Winston Smith’s job is to rewrite documents in order to make sure they agree with the views of the party in that specific moment of time. Through this destruction of documented evidence of the past, “every prediction made by the Party could be shown … to have been correct” (K39).
The conflict between Winston and Big Brother starts from the beginning of the novel when Winston begins to keep his secret diary about Big Brother. Winston Smith is a third-nine years old man who is a member of the 'outer-party'--the lower of the two classes. Winston works for the government in one of the four main government buildings called the ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite history books in order for people not to learn what the past used to be like. Winston's occupation is the major factor which lets him to realize that Big Brother is restricting people's freedom. However, Winston keeps his complains about Big Brother and the party for his own secret because the party will not allow anyone keeping a rebellious thought. The tension between them gets serious when Big Brother becomes suspicious of Winston. Winston is therefore watched by O'Brien, an intelligent execute at the 'Ministry of Truth', who is a member of the 'inner party'--the upper class. Without doubting Big Brother's trap, Winston shares his ideas with O'Brien. O'Brien mentions a gentleman named Emmanuel Goldstein whom he claims to know the leader of the rebels against the party. O'Brien also promises to help winston, and promises him a copy of Goldstein's book. But O'Brien betrays him as Big Brother has planned.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
1984 was written in 1948 and published in 1949 by Eric Arthur Blair under the pen name ‘George Orwell’. It is set in the year 1984 in Airstrip One, which is a province in the country of Oceania. The world is in a constant state of war between Oceania, and the other two countries, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is controlled by English Socialism, or INGSOC in Oceania’s language, Newspeak. The powerful Inner Party controls the country using omnipresent surveillance, and manipulation.
Both 1984 by George Orwell and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood depict dystopian societies in which they demonstrate a society where living conditions are uncomfortable and testing. Dystopian societies show how the desire for a perfect world can turn and go very wrong. Both Orwell and Atwood demonstrate dystopia through the eyes of a main character, demonstrating their handling of their living conditions. 1984 is narrated in third person telling the story of Winston Smith and The Handmaids Tale is told in first person by main character Offred. Both characters are put into similar situations to demonstrate dystopian societies, but each book represents these societies differently. In both books dystopia is most commonly represented by lack
Winston works for 1 of the 4 government agency’s, The Ministry of Truth. In his job he re-writes old news articles so they show that The Party has always been and will be in control. By re-writing everything in print, The Party effectively changes history. The only proof of actual history is in the minds of the people who were there. Winston realizes that there is something wrong with this, yet he doesn’t know what. The re-writing of history is all he has ever known. It is most likely Winston’s job that leads him to rebel against The Party.
George Orwell wrote 1984 about 35 years before the actual year of 1984. He created a scene in which something different from the norm was not accepted in society, the “Thought Police”, and the Party. Every move and word said by a human being the government tried to see or listen too. However, Winston and Julia, a couple in love, try to find ways around the surveillance. Winston eventually learns that not only is it not safe to go against the party but not right. He learns not to ever rebel against the system, otherwise he will be severely punished. Even the people he thought he could trust could turn out to be a Party member or even on the “Thought Police” force.
In 1984 by George Orwell, the world is described as a desolate, bleak result of humanity where the land is governed by a totalitarian regime who rules the hindering the societal progress. The face of Oceania is Big Brother, an omniscient figure who is widely worshiped by its people. The Inner Party enforces a new language known as Newspeak that prevents anyone from committing political rebellion. The control that this Party has over the entire population unveils the theme of the novel, that intimidation by a higher up can lead to psychological manipulation. There are several paradoxes within the text that reveal this theme to be true due to the party’s way with words. A paradox is something that contradicts reason or expectation and Orwell