My research will be centered on fascism.
My question: Explain and analyze the techniques “The Party” uses to control the citizens of Airstrip One. Compare to equivalent examples from the real world, either present or historical.
I will be focusing on 4 different areas of totalitarian techniques used in history which Orwell also conceptualize and parallels in writing 1984: New Generation; Authority & Violence; Propaganda; and Cutting Sources & Rewriting History.
1. New generation
Educating and brainwashing the new generation is an important technique used to control the society. It is easier to control a child’s brain than an adult is because they do not have any idea about what is going on around the world. They believe in whatever you make them to believe. Also, since they are the next generation, they are seen as the future success, so it is critical for the authorities to put the idea of fascism into their head. In the book 1984, Orwell was inspired by Hitler Youth and the Little Octoberists while creating the Spies and the Youth League. These are groups which persuaded young people to love the Party and encouraged them to report every movement which can be count as betrayal of trust. (ibid) In Germany, in 1930s, an army of about eight million children promised their lives to Adolf Hitler. They were called the “Hitler Jugend” – the Hitler Youth. (ibid) The aim of this organization was to force the children join to the party. There was no family ties anymore, families were just small units of the government. Both the Spies and Hitler Youth were learning how to fight and propaganda had an important role on that. Alfons Heck was a member of the Hitler Youth organization in Nazi Germany. He first heard Hitler’s voice over the ra...
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Anonymous, . "Net Charles." Newspeak and George Orwell's 1984 . N.p.. Web. 10 Mar 2014. .
-A page that compares Newspeak and political correctness and that gives real life examples for Newspeak.
Anonymous, . Heil Hitler! : Confessions Of A Hitler Youth . HBO Movies , 1991. Film. 1 Mar 2014.
-A video that Alfons Heck, an old member of the Hitler Youth, talking about his experiences and giving information about Hitler Youth
Anonymous, . "What is known about North Korea's brutal purge?." BBC News Asia 13 12 2013, n. pag. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
-An article about the purges in North Korea, it also includes the photos that show how the faces were deleted from the photos.
Blaine Harden, former national correspondent and writer for the New York Times, delivers an agonizing and heartbreaking story of one man’s extremely conflicted life in a labor camp and an endeavor of escaping this place he grew up in. This man’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. Together, Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk tell us the story of this man’s imprisonment and escape into South Korea and eventually, the United States, from North Korea. This biography that takes place from 1982-2011, reports to its readers on what is really going on in “one of the world’s darkest nations” (back cover of the book), that is run under a communist state and totalitarian dictatorship that was lead by Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and currently lead by Kim-Jong un. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin shows us the adaptation of his life and how one man can truly evolve from an animal, into a real human being.
Dieter gets a call and is asked to put on his finest uniform and to go outside at dawn. When he went outside he meets all his Hitler Youth general. They get picked up exactly at 5 am. They go to a conference where they meet Hitler himself. Dieter said it was the best thing that happened to him. Some days later dieter gets taken out of the commands and gets sent to the commands In the front. There he meets the corporal named Schafler. Dieter is asked to follow his orders at all times.
"Liberation ." 10 June 2014. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . 20 March 2014 .
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.
Orwell has real concerns about the way in which society worked, particular when considering hierarchies and the way the powerful manipulate information. As can be seen there is a strong hierarchy system in the novel 1984 with references to poor and wealthy classes, the proles being lower class and the inner party members being higher class. Orwell spent time in boarding school, wasn’t wealthy and saw disparity between people who had and hadn’t, there are many references towards headmaster and control “ When he spoke it was in a schoolmasterish kind of way” (3.5.297). Orwell also used Hitler’s actions as a leader and incorporated them into 1984; this is evident through the propaganda of Big Brother, dictatorship and the way the Inner party was able to manipulate society to change their beliefs. “The German Nazis and the communist came very close to us in their methods…” (3.3.276) Orwell’s values and beliefs about communism and democracy have strongly been developed through his trepidation in power and historical references to Hitler.
"Genocide in North Korea | World Policy Institute." Genocide in North Korea | World Policy Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
Works Cited for: Orwell, George. 1984. The 'Standard' of the ' London: Penguin Books, 2008. Print. The.
Howe, Irving, and George Orwell. 1984 Revisited Totalitarianism in Our Century. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four has been extolled by Western critics for its incisive political commentary on the social and cultural ramifications of a totalitarian government. After witnessing the alarming extent to which totalitarian governments in Russia and Spain would exercise their power over the proletariat, Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949 to alert Western nations on how to approach the imminent rise of communism. The text is generally received as a “negative dystopian” novel that focuses on depicting the degeneration of humanity through the ubiquitous influence of technology, propaganda and political discourse. As Orwell rightfully avowed in his essay, Why I Write, “every line of serious work that I have written
Psychological manipulation the Party uses on the citizens is one of the first themes Orwell exposes in this dystopian society. The Party maintains this manipulation by constantly overwhelming citizens with useless information and propaganda.
Children are effectively converted into spies and trained to watch the actions of their parents with extreme suspicion. The fear Mrs. Parsons shows for her children foreshadows Winston's encounter in jail with her husband, who is turned in to the Party for committing thought crime by his own child. Orwell was inspired in his creation of the Junior Spies by a real organization called Hitler Youth that thrived in Nazi Germany. This group instilled a fanatic patriotism in children that led them to such behaviors as monitoring their parents for any sign of deviation from Nazi orthodoxy, in much the same manner that Orwell later ascribed to the Junior Spies. (2) "
George Orwell’s book, “1984,” has influenced its’ readers from the time it was written even until now. The book has presented a future different from that of the scientific future of flying cars and hovercrafts that society has presented to us. Instead, it tells of rotten political future. Today some people refer to our society as “Orwellian”. They believe Orwell’s story is realistic and compares to our present society. However, there are many people that believe “1984” is satirical nonsense. Orwell was not aware of the impact that his book would have on the world. Even people that have never read “1984” know who Big Brother is and use the term Orwellian. I agree with the realistic half of George Orwell’s audience. The book can be compared to today’s society in many ways. We are even beginning to see some characteristics of an Orwellian society in our social classes, laws, and wars.
Upon my reading of the novel 1984, I was fascinated by George Orwell’s vision of the future. Orwell describes a world so extreme that a question comes to mind, asking what would encourage him to write such a novel. 1984 took place in the future, but it seemed like it was happening in the past. George Orwell was born in 1903 and died in 1950; he has seen the horrific tides of World War ² and Ï. As I got deeper into this novel I began to see similar events of world history built into 1984.
In conclusion, through Orwell’s uses of literary devices to imagine the abuse of power and living under a totalitarian government. Also to understand the theme of an indestructible totalitarian government throughout the novel. Orwell creates a different and a new world where there is limitation of freedom, expressing feelings towards others, and human qualities.
The outlook to the future is usually one filled with hope. When failures of the past and present problems collide together, the future is often seen as a place of hope. This mindset was no different in Britain during the mid 20th century, especially in the late 1940’s. World War II had finally ended, the days of fighting Nazi Germany was behind everyone but present circumstances were bleak. Britain was still recovering from the effects of World War II and handling the transition of a new socialist democratic government. From the east there loomed Stalin’s Soviet Union with its communism government and Totalitarian ruling mindset. Many were oblivious to the facts surrounding communism and looked hopefully to it. The reason for this was as Mitzi Brunsdale states because of “all kinds of personal and social inadequacies” (139). Many in the west were discouraged with present conditions and looked to Stalinism for hope. Many of the “Western support for Stalin often took the form of neo-religious adulation” (Brunsdale139). On the other hand, George Orwell stood in direct opposition. This resistance against the Totalitarian rule of Stalin was especially expressed in one of his most popular books called 1984, which “brings home to England the experience of countless who suffered in Totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe” (Meyers 114). George Orwell through his life experiences and through the accounts of others had seen the dangers of Totalitarianism. In 1984, George Orwell exposed three dangerous aspects of Totalitarianism by showing the oppression of the individual's in the story in order to show the true nature of Totalitarianism.