Destruction of Humanity Caused by a Communist-Like Society Picture a world where everyone is the same and diversity did not exist. People are forced to hide who they truly are and put on a mask to meet society’s norm. Any type of thought or emotion is considered treason and has dangerous consequences. This is the controlling and disturbed society that consumes George Orwell’s 1984. The citizens of Oceania are given no form of privacy and are forced to obey the government’s every command; this government is known as The Party which is controlled by a mysterious force known as Big Brother. The people of Oceania are monitored during all hours of the day by telescreens that are forced into their homes. The telescreens are monitored by the Thought …show more content…
Police to make sure the citizens did not commit thoughtcrime; which is any form of thought against, disagreeing or threatening the Party’s power. If someone is accused or proven guilty of such crime they are taken to the Ministry of Love where they will be severely tortured, sometimes to death. In this dystopia any form of human emotion is forbidden (except the feeling of love towards Big Brother). In Orwell’s 1984, humanity is destroyed because of the Party’s obsession with political power. One of the most under appreciated human characteristic is forbidden in the country of Oceania; individuality and privacy. Everyone is forced to be exactly the same, any form of diversity is strictly forbidden. People are not allowed to have opinions, the party controls any all form of life, including internal thoughts. “ Just now I held up the fingers of my hand to you. You saw five fingers. Do you remember that?” / “ Yes.” O’brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed. / “ There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?” / “Yes.” (Orwell 258). The Party expects everyone to be under their complete control and pledge their loyalty solely to Big Brother. People are not allowed to think differently from the party, their thoughts are monitored constantly. “The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four does not allow privacy for the individual and does not allow the individual to have a personal identity. Everyone must think in the collective way, exactly as everyone else thinks. Thought control is executed through the falsification of history,” (Knapp). Basic human nature is denied, people are taught what to feel and what to believe. The Party’s goal is to program its citizens to be the perfect members of society and to eventually destroy all forms of humanity. Humans have a tendency to attach themselves to one another, it’s human nature and a way of life. No bond is stronger than a bond between family, but like all other forms of emotion love between a family is forbidden in Oceania. Winston’s neighbors, the Parsons, were society’s vision of a perfect party family. Orwell created the perfect family as a comparison to Winston’s rebellious behaviors. “ He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasm---one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended.” (Orwell 22) Big Brother’s success relies on easily manipulatable people like the Parsons to keep them in power and thriving. In order to keep the families separated and divided they attack the innocent; the children. Parents like Mr.Parson strongly encourage his children to participate in the Parties Nazi-like group for children.“ Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party.” (Horan). The government’s goal is to break the trust between a family. They achieve this goal by brainwashing the children into obeying their every command. Parents constantly fear the possibility of their children being more faithful to the Party then to their own family, resulting in their own children turning them in for thoughtcrime. People rely on eachother for multiple things; comfort, happiness, advice… and friendship.
Friendship is one of the most important things in life and in order to have a strong friendship there must be trust. Winston experiences the loss of trust and the feeling of betrayal from his supposed “friends”, O’brien and Mr. Charrington. Winston feels that Mr. Charrington was trustworthy because he has always been kind to Winston in his times of need. Winston assumes that Mr. Charrington has his best interest at heart and cares about his well being, when in reality Mr. Charrington is studying Winston’s every move. “ It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police,”. ( Orwell 224). Winston experiences his second betrayal from O’brien. O’brien convinces Winston and Julia that he was a member of a secret rebellion group known as “ The Brotherhood”. He feeds them false information, convincing the two that he was loyal to them. In reality, O’brien is an Inner-party member who is collecting information on the two rebels (with reasonable suspicion). “ It was O’brien who was deciding everything. It was he who set the guards onto Winston… He was the tormentor, he was the prosecutor, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend,” (Orwell 243-244) …show more content…
. Lastly, nothing is more important than loyalty. This plays a major role in The Party’s success. In order for their system to be successful everyone must pledge their complete loyalty to Big Brother only. This being said, events that took place between Julia and Winston were so important because they put a wrench in the Party’s plan for a mind-controlled government. Because of the inhuman way of life in Oceania, Winston automatically assumes the worst of Julia, “When Winston first notices Julia, the dark haired woman described above, he hates her, suspecting her of being a member of the Thought Police. When he realizes that she has been following him, his initial impulse is to kill her” (Parascandola). The people of Oceania never feel safe, they have been mentally trained to protect themselves and to turn off any form of emotion. Eventually, Winston realizes that they share the same political views and Julia did not plan to harm him. “His heart leapt. Scores of times she had done it; he wish it had been hundreds… Perhaps the party would rot under the surface,” (Orwell 125) As the two grow closer they develop feelings for each other and decide to act upon those feelings. As time goes on and their relationship continues to grow and become stronger, they are caught by a member of the Thought Police. Immediatly, they are taken to the Ministry of Love and were they will be indure horrifc torture for the crime they had committed. This form of torture is conducted by Orwell to express the true cruelty of the Party. "Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves" (Orwell 256). The Party’s solution to people who develop feelings is to mentally and physically beat them until they stop feeling. In the end, Julia and Winston betray each other to avoid anymore self harm; losing the love, loyalty and trust they promised one another. In Orwell’s 1984, humanity is destroyed because of the Party’s obsession with political power. The author proves this claims in multiple ways throughout the book. Winston experiences painful events that are a result from Oceania’s power- hungry government. In order for The Party to be successful with the goal of a communist government, human feelings and emotions are forbidden. The people are brainwashed and manipulated to act like robots. If any form of emotion, feeling, or thought is detected, they are thrown into the Ministry of Love to be reprogrammed in their way of thinking. Winston is proof that eventually as time went on, humanity slowly disappeared in Oceania, one citizen at a time. Works Cited Horan, Thomas.
“Revolutions from the Waist Downwards: Desire as Rebellion in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.” Extrapolation, vol. 48, no. 2, 2007, p. 314. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=will19450&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE|A168742956&asid=4ad209014c9c7592315595d31e6e1488. Accessed 2017. Knapp, John V. “George Orwell.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition, January 2010, pp. 1-6. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331CSLF14690140000418&site=lrc-live. Orwell, George. 1984. San Diego, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1984. Parascandola, Louis J. “Love and Sex in a Totalitarian Society: An Exploration of Ha Jin and George Orwell.” Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 262, Detroit, Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=will19450&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1100086211&asid=bc4397936cce2e63e344c375a2b1da30. Accessed 14 Nov. 2017. Originally published in Studies in the Humanities, vol. 33, no. 1, June 2005, pp.
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Love is the foundation and the weakness of a totalitarian regime. For a stable totalitarian society, love between two individuals is eliminated because only a relationship between the person and the party and a love for its leader can exist. The totalitarian society depicted throughout the Orwell’s novel 1984 has created a concept of an Orwellian society. Stalin’s Soviet state can be considered Orwellian because it draws close parallels to the imaginary world of Oceania in 1984. During the twentieth century, Soviet Russia lived under Stalin’s brutal and oppressive governments, which was necessary for Stalin to retain power. In both cases, brutality and oppression led to an absence of relationships and love. This love was directed towards Stalin and Big Brother, and human beings became willing servants of their leader. The biggest threat to any totalitarian regime is love, or the lack of it. As Orwell said, they key danger to the system is “the growth of liberalism and skepticism in their own ranks” (Orwell 171). For example, in the novel it was the desire of the Party to eliminate love and sex, in order to channel this pent-up passion towards the love of Big Brother. Similarly, Stalin used propaganda and extreme nationalism to brainwash the peoples of Russia. He channeled their beliefs into a passion for Soviet ideals and a love of Stalin. In both cases, love for anything but the Party is the biggest threat to the regime. The stability of the Party and Stalin’s regime directly depended upon loyalty to the government above all else. By drawing upon the close relationships between the two Orwellian societies, we can examine just how dangerous love is to the Party.
Tirohl, Blu. "We Are The Dead ... You Are The Dead: An Examination of Sexuality as a Weapon of Revolt in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four." Journal of Gender Studies. 9.1 (2000): 55-61.
In 1984, George Orwell presents an overly controlled society that is run by Big Brother. The protagonist, Winston, attempts to “stay human” in the face of a dehumanizing, totalitarian regime. Big Brother possesses so much control over these people that even the most natural thoughts such as love and sex are considered taboo and are punishable. Big Brother has taken this society and turned each individual against one another. Parents distrust their own offspring, husband and wife turn on one another, and some people turn on their own selves entirely. The people of Oceania become brainwashed by Big Brother. Punishment for any uprising rebellions is punishable harshly.
Parascandola, Louis J. “Love and sex in a totalitarian society: an exploration of Ha Jin and
Especially in 1984, corruption within the political regime runs rampant to a point where only Winston, along with a select handful of others, have the skill to identify governmental manipulation of history and facts. Although objectively correct in his observations against the government’s teachings, Winston’s skill makes him a target for powerful Party men like O’Brian, Winston’s torturer, who have thoroughly conformed to the preachings of Big Brother. When met with the question of why O’Brian is torturing Winston, he replies, “Not merely to extract your confession, not to punish you… To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?” (261). Throughout his numerous torture sessions with Winston, O’Brian makes clear that the Inner Party is almost as corrupted and manipulated by the creation of Big Brother as the remainder of the citizens of Oceania; conformity to the wishes of the highly ranked is the only plausible way for the Party’s
Means, A.L. A Students Guide to George Orwell Enslow Publishers Inc. New Jersey, 2005. Print.
Identity, in today’s society, is often taken for granted. We have the ability to be anything we wish to be and act in any way we wish to act, but in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, identity is not taken for granted because it does not exist at all. Winston Smith, the narrator, lives in a dystopian society based on the idea of totalitarian government rule. This government is known as Big Brother. In order for Big Brother to stay in power, a few things are necessary: identity cannot exist; everything and everyone must be uniform; the past must be controlled in order to regulate the present; and the people must constantly be practicing the ideas of Newspeak and Doublethink, a form of control the government holds over the people. By enforcing these simple laws and regulations, the government is able to keep a tight grip on its people, with few ever releasing themselves from its grasp. Winston Smith on the other hand, seeks to know the truth behind the government, he is constantly questioning everything and repressing all the ideas forced upon him. Winston “seeks truth and sanity, his only resources being the long denied and repressed processes of selfhood” (Feder 398). All identity is gone in this place called Oceania, and for the sake of Big Brother and its continuous control of the people, it will never exist again. In 1984, the absence of identity strips the people of all creativity and diversity, as well as takes away any chance the society has to advance as a people or in the area of technology.
It can be noticed, that in most individuals the struggle to choose between personal desires and complying with the rules of their society is challenging. This could be a result of the greed that our society has developed through the advanced culture we see in our everyday world. More often than not it may be noticed that some individuals within a society experience conflict when debating between pursuing their personal desires and choosing to conform. This idea of confliction between desire and society can be represented by the character of Julia in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four where she is must fulfill her desires for a physical connection amongst men in secrecy due to the laws within her society; however she finds that she