“ War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,”. The following quote originates from the infamous novel, 1984 by George Orwell. The meaning behind this popular quote was the action of doublethink which is the act of believing two contradictory thoughts are true. Doublethink plays a large role in the novel. The novel, 1984 takes place in a super-state called Oceania and the main character is Winston Smith. Winston Smith and the rest of the society are controlled by the party and their leader, Big Brother. The government Winston lives with is highly strict and uses technology such as hidden microphones, hidden spies and telescreens (cameras) to monitor the actions of every civilian in the super-state which makes it difficult for Winston …show more content…
The government of Oceania has been using doublethink in a variety of ways to help benefit their government. Oceania uses doublethink to alter history and the memories of their people, gain power over their super-state by using manipulative slogans, create a whole new language called Newspeak that prohibits the use of “negative” terms such as: honor, justice, morality, science, and religion, and lastly by torturing the non believers into the belief of doublethink in order to keep citizens such as Winston Smith from getting out of line. Oceania’s government mainly revolves around the use of doublethink in order to weaken their people and to help them strengthen their government and control over their people. Works Cited Becnel, Kim E. “How to Write about 1984.” Bloom's How to Write about George Orwell, Chelsea House, 2017. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/45653?q=1984 doublethink. Accessed 14 Nov. 2017. Gaydosik, Victoria. “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Encyclopedia of the British Novel, 2-Volume Set, Second Edition, Facts On File, 2013. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/10196?q=1984 doublethink. Accessed 14 Nov. 2017. Orwell, George. 1984. Ed. Erich Fromm. New York: Harcourt, 1949. Quinn, Edward. “Totalitarianism.” History in Literature, Facts On File, 2004. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/44808?q=doublethink 1984. Accessed 14 Nov.
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War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. The party slogan of Ingsoc illustrates the sense of contradiction which characterizes the novel 1984. That the book was taken by many as a condemnation of socialism would have troubled Orwell greatly, had he lived to see the aftermath of his work. 1984 was a warning against totalitarianism and state sponsored brutality driven by excess technology. Socialist idealism in 1984 had turned to a total loss of individual freedom in exchange for false security and obedience to a totalitarian government, a dysutopia. 1984 was more than a simple warning to the socialists of Orwell's time. There are many complex philosophical issues buried deep within Orwell's satire and fiction. It was an essay on personal freedom, identity, language and thought, technology, religion, and the social class system. 1984 is more than a work of fiction. It is a prediction and a warning, clothed in the guise of science fiction, not so much about what could happen as it is about the implications of what has already happened. Rather than simply discoursing his views on the social and political issues of his day, Orwell chose to narrate them into a work of fiction which is timeless in interpretation. This is the reason that 1984 remains a relevant work of social and philosophical commentary more than fifty years after its completion.
Works Cited Orwell, George. 1984 a novel. New York, N.Y: Published by Signet Classic. Print. Runyan, William McKinley.
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Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1984. Print.
1984, a book by George Orwell, offers an alternate reality for what the future could have been. The concept of a totalitarian society is but a far off, if not long dead, ideal. In the past totalitarianism was not just an ideal but an actual living, breathing menace to people of the late 1940s. Totalitarian governments would go to horrific lengths in order to sustain and increase their power. In the novels 1984, by George Orwell, and Anthem, by Ayn Rand, propaganda, class distinction, and naivety are explored in fictional societies. Orwell’s and Rand’s stories are based on dystopias and the individuals of those societies who dare to stand out. George Orwell uses Winston Smith, the timidly rebellious protagonist; The Party, the ruling government; and Big Brother, the face of The Party; and Ayn Rand utilizes Martyrdom, the sacrificing of oneself; Naming, a process using words and numbers as a means of identification; and Collectivism, everyone is the same and refers to themselves as we, to illustrate how dangerous a naïve working class, spin and propaganda, and an unacknowledged class distinction can be in a society.
Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We and George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrate totalitarianism in fictional countries. Totalitarianism is a system of government that is centralized, dictatorial, and requires complete subservience to the state. A totalitarian government manipulates human consciousness by the use of propaganda that implanted dogma, that is living with the results of the Benefactor’s perspectives and Big Brothers’ theories respectively as incontrovertibly true. This overall idea of mind control over the people evinces the millennial generation which believed that will take over the world. In point of fact, people nowadays have been technologically orchestrated by those contemporary theories used by mass media. In both novels, human minds are controlled through the government's use of propaganda and conspiracy resulting in lack of freedom
Lawrimore, Peyton. “George Orwell: 1984.” World & I. 10.6. (June 1995): 415. Points of View Reference Center. EBSCOhost. Tennessee Electronic Library, Hendersonville, TN. 23 March 2011.
George Orwell’s 1984, written in 1949 is a novel about what George Orwell thinks the future of the human race will look like. A frightening, and confronting novel, George Orwell explores the fine line between protection and oppression. Using ideas such as psychological manipulation, the dangers of totalitarianism, and control over the past, the present, and the future, George Orwell challenges the reader to enter and imagine this dystopia.
“The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy - the one that 's absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes” (Hitchens 53). By stating this, one can understand that Orwell biographer Christopher Hitchens strongly believes that totalitarians are every individual’s enemies. In 1984, the concepts of liberated enterprise and individual free will no longer existed; hence in the novel 1984, George Orwell demonstrates that totalitarianism could take over one’s personal freedom if not fought against. Through a third person limited omniscient narration, using the perspective of Winston Smith, Orwell elucidates the conflict between an individual and a totalitarian government; in the end, Winston Smith
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