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Symbolism and Literary Techniques in George Orwell's
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Jaclyn Regnery Dr. Gardner Honors World Literature 25 April 2014 Morality Play Marrakech is a city in North Africa, where George Orwell’s short story takes place. It is this particular setting that affects the author himself, George Orwell. Everything about the city Marrakech, from the ground on which Orwell walks, to the buildings that tower over him, all led to his ultimate epiphany. The society he lives in is everything but right. Orwell’s Marrakech is ultimately a morality play, in which Orwell himself faces a battle with his own conscience. In Marrakech, the way the people act and are treated is odd. The most striking thing is the strange invisibility of the people. An example of this are the women that passed by Orwell everyday without his noticing. All Orwell noticed was the firewood they were carrying. He realizes that he felt for the donkeys carrying too much before he noticed the old women. He continued on to state, “Anyone can be sorry for the donkey with its galled back, but it is generally owing to some kind of accident if one even notices the old women under her load ...
In “1984,” Orwell portrays Winston’s secret struggle to undermine the totalitarian rule of Big Brother and the Party in Oceania. The different government agencies, such as the Thought Police and Ministry of Love, exercise unrestricted totalitarian rule over people. Winston actively seeks to join the rebellion and acquire the freedoms undermined by the Party. On the other hand, Heinlein’s brief narrative, “The Long Watch,” depicts a contrasting struggle championed by Dahlquist against the power hungry Colonel Towers and the Patrol. In his struggle to prevent the total domination of the world by the Patrol, Dahlquist chooses to sacrifice his life. Le Guin’s “The Ones who walk away from Omelas,” illustrates a communal form of injustice tolerated for the benefit of the entire city but necessitating the inhumane imprisonment of a child. He portrays the ambiguity of human morality and the individual struggle to determine right from wrong. The authors address social change and power in different ways, reflective of their individual perceptions. Hence, in each narrative, the author illustrates the individual’s role in effecting social change and the conditions under which such change becomes possible.
This itself alludes to America’s extreme response to communism during the Cold War era, under the influence of Senator Joe McCarthy. Similar to the paranoia that characterized the McCarthy era, Orwell’s dystopian society was expected to betray their friends, family and co-workers for the benefit of the state and themselves. This is made explicitly evident during Winston’s visit to the cafe, in which the telescreen sang; “Under the spreading chestnut tree/ I sold you and you sold me…”Foreshadowing Winston’s eventual betrayal of Maria in order to save himself, and his conformity to the party. Furthermore, the notion that “nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres in your skull” becomes ironic as the novel develops in which the criminalisation of unorthodox ideologies leads to the punishment of “thoughtcrime”, and the eventual “vaporisation” of dissidents. This itself alludes to the ‘great purges’ that took place under the terror that characterized Joseph Stalin’s reign. Likewise, the inherent fear of eccentricity amongst the oppressed citizens of “Airstrip one” is highlighted by the nature of “facecrime” in which the presence of an improper expression or any suggestion of abnormality could be punished. Thus, through Orwell 's effective use of allusion and characterisation, contextual audiences are provided with a didactic warning regarding the nature of a totalitarian reign, in which a “hideous ecstasy of fear” influences society’s
The corruption of society in George Orwell’s 1984 and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet results both in the loss of innocence and the destruction of sanity. Winston from 1984 stood his grounds throughout the book, but the society standards and rules created by Big Brother soon consume him. Similarly, the entire Kingdom of Denmark bombarded Hamlet with betrayal amongst his own family and loved ones such that drove him into madness. This madness spread through both books in revenge of what the corrupted society has done to the character’s lives.
For just over half a century, George Orwell’s 1984, lauded as one of the most monolithic examples of a dystopian novel, echoes its values to this day. Orwell’s tale of a totalitarian society gone too far continues to epitomize the meaning of a cautionary tale even now. The novel begins with Winston, a worker for the Outer Party in the Ministry of Truth. When Winston begins to doubt the Party after witnessing discrepancies in the Party’s story, he discovers more than he ever imagined. From the first few pages of 1984, Orwell creates a world filled with paradoxes, irony, and fills the world with a very austere tone.
“No, I believe it. I know that you will fail. There is something in the universe--I don 't know, some spirit, some principle--that you will never overcome" (Orwell 269-70). Winton had explained this O’Brein after getting caught committing multiple crimes by the Party. Winton emphasized that the Party will fail. Failure will occur by the power of something in the universe, something Winston is unsure of but believes in. He believes there is some spirit, some principle that the Party will never overcome. “1984” by George Orwell and “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow, both disprove Winton’s claim concerning some principle or spirit that the Party will never overcome.
Occupations are important in order to be successful in life. One needs a source of income and a way to provide for one’s families. Some people work at home, some people have a schedule when one leaves at a certain time each day and return home at the same time each night. One gets comfortable in one’s work but does one take time to ask oneself why one is doing it? If an occupation does not help society or have any real purpose then is it really a useful occupation or is it just a bunch of mindless activity? Professional athletes make an insurmountable amount of money but what is the point of professional sports? Professional sports do not help make the world a better place nor does it have a purpose other than entertainment for the sports junkies on this earth. What is the purpose of movie makers and artists? How do they make the world a better place? In some ways they make a world a worse place because people get so caught up in entertainment that they forget about the rest of the world and the ones who suffer and the corrupt governments and the deadly diseases. Why cant jobs be created to help in those areas? Instead of paying people for doing mindless jobs, one should be paying others to actually work to make this world a better place with a better economy and without suffering people.
People in United states tend to ignore the complex problems the country is facing but focuses on the dominance of the country. People only looks at the surface of the United States and neglects problem about poverty. The bigger cities, like Los Angeles and New York, are mostly impacted by the poverty. It is important to recognize the impact of the poverty in order to understand the complex problem of the United States. In George Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London”, the author provides a vivid image of the poverty and the impact on the people’s daily lives. In 1933 London and Paris, the condition of the poverty was much critical due to lack of support from the government. When we compare the 21st century poverty
“Bathes Roland (1977) “The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or women who produced it.” The values, beliefs and attitudes of George Orwell’s can easily be seen in the novel 1984, as no text is neutral. These values attitudes and beliefs are communicated in the novel through socio-cultural context and by the use of certain discourses, ideologies, and historical influences. The invited reading of 1984 is that absolute power is problematic as evidenced by a totalitarism regime.
Society Dies When Individuality Dies. Conformity plagues one’s existence and stature in today’s society. Due to government intervention in citizens’ daily lives, many writers have questioned the morality of conformity in a society by the means of control. When control becomes rampant, fascist and totalitarian governments are formed, and because of the rise in fascism and totalitarianism, many people are led to conform to social ideals. Therefore, George Orwell critiques conformity within society through the use of Big Brother, Proles, and Winston.
Power, is a small word with a strong meaning behind it. Being able to control anything and everything is what everyone seems to want in today’s society, everyone wants power. The government is the guiltiest of being power hungry. They want to be able to control everyone in the country, taking away the rights that our country was founded upon. This concept of the government wanting to take over its people is similar to that of Big Brother. Big Brother is the party that controlled the people, in George Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty – Four. Nineteen Eighty – Four was published in 1949 where Orwell predicts what might come to Great Britain if the government, and surrounding governments, kept up with the way it was behaving. In 1949, World War
The destructive suction of a black hole not only perilous, but inescapable once matter becomes close enough. Similarly, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonists are seduced by their ids, the source of a person’s desires and impulses, to indulge themselves in attaining their deepest aspirations. Although the superegos, the contraction to the id, of Hamlet and Winston warn them not to succumb to their instincts they overlook the precautions and view their superegos as hindrances to their ids. Hamlet and Winston, while breaking societal rules to satisfy their ids, attempt to hide behind their egos, the reality principle, in order to avoid the consequences of their misdeeds. Eventually the ids of the protagonists overcome their superegos, thus influencing them to commit crimes previously thought to be absurd. When Hamlet and Winston allow their ids to dominate their superegos they are treated as criminals, ultimately instigating their downfall. Through the protagonists’ misfortune in satisfying their temptations, both Hamlet and 1984 illustrate the dangers of straying from societal standards by indulging the id.
From birth people are told cautionary tales. Stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears have been passed down and told countless times to convey to individuals various messages. Many people have noticed a warning in George Orwell’s 1984 about the future of human freedom in a world where political organizations and technology can manufacture power. Orwell wrote the book 1984 as a cautionary tale for future generations to warn them about the effects of a totalitarian society and the loss of independent thought.
Eric Arthur Blair, commonly known under the pseudonym George Orwell, led a fascinating life, from working as a member of the Indian Imperial Police Force, to experiencing poverty firsthand in both London and Paris, to fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell’s diverse life experiences gave him very strong political opinions that carried through to his writing career, during which he addressed issues such as education, poverty, and communism. George Orwell was a master of the modern political satire, through which he powerfully illustrates the political and social issues of the twentieth century.
I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool." So ends George Orwell's poignant reminiscence of an incident representing the imperialist British in Burma. Unlike Soyinka, who wrote about colonialism from the African's point of view, Orwell, like Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, presents the moral dilemmas of the imperialist. Orwell served with the Imperialist Police in Burma while it was still part of the British Commonwealth and Empire. His service from 1922 to 1927 burdened himwith a sense of guilt about British colonialism as well a need to make some personal expiation for it (Norton 2259). "Shooting an Elephant" chronicles an incident in which Orwell confronts a moral dilemma and abandons his morals to escape the mockery of the native Burmans. He repeatedly shoots and kills an elephant which had ravaged a bazaar and scared many Burmans even though "As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him" (6).
“Marrakech” written by George Orwell has many impacts towards how poverty and discrimination reflected the society during World War II. World War II was an event that involved the conflict of several disputes between nations and a massive racism from the Europeans towards the Jews that Adolf Hitler made. They believed that Jews were inferior in the human race and were just like a plague. “Marrakech” is a narrative that takes place in Morocco where Orwell describes the deficiency and misery the Jews and the Black people suffer during a period of an eminent discrimination. Women also underwent the experience of discrimination by men. Orwell talks about the immense poverty, which is the lowest social class that several Europeans, Jews, Arabs, and black people experienced. The definition of discrimination is very objective. Discrimination is when a person or a large group of people judge people in an appalling way just because they are from a different color, ethics, physical attributes, beliefs, etc. Poverty is another key concept that is managed throughout “Marrakech”. Poverty is the despising misery that a human can be subjected to. Orwell reaches its effectiveness in his essay in a manner that he makes the reader know about his main purpose of how society reflected the misery of the human being during a time where equality did not really exist. Coming further, poverty and discrimination during the society where Orwell lived and perceived will be explained in detail. The efficiency of Orwell’s essay will be justified in a clear way.