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Reflection about novel 1984 by George Orwell
Synopsis of 1984 by Orwell
Understanding the structure of the george orwell novel 1984
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Recommended: Reflection about novel 1984 by George Orwell
During the 1950s and the Korean War, people were worried about brainwashing and mind control techniques. In 1949 the book 1984, written by George Orwell, was published. At this time Korea was in a civil war. The civil war ended up with North Korea as a totalitarian government and South Korea as a separate nation, with a permanent state of war existing between them. Orwell's novel accurately predicted this scenario. In 1984 brainwashing was used to distort the citizens' concepts of reality, and these distorted concepts led to a total belief in a totalitarian regime. As a result, brainwashing, as described in the novel and as seen in the reality of North Korea, is the principle ingredient in totalitarian governments.
Brainwashing is a complicated process that can be used for many reasons. Brainwashing is a prolonged psychological process designed to erase an individual's past beliefs and concepts and substitute new ones (Summers 69). It combines the compliance method, the education method, and persuasion into one big process (Layton). The process is often carried out without one's consent or against their will. The system of brainwashing can be broken down into steps. The first step is that the interrogator breaks down the victim's identity so that it does not work anymore. Step two is to replace the victim's old beliefs with new ones that will work in the environment the interrogator has created (Layton).
In the Korean War (1950-1953) brainwashing was used to convert the UN prisoners of war (POWs) to communism. Nearly 13,000 UN soldiers became POWs of the North Koreans and the Chinese during the Korean War (Sandler 52). Just over 10,000 of these were Americans. Most of the South Koreans captured seemed to disappear. The British s...
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... the Korean War." Global Research. Global Research, 03 Sept. 2008. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Orwell, George. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Published by Signet Classic, 1977. Print.
Pash, Melinda L. In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation: The Americans Who Fought the Korean War. New York: New York UP, 2012. Print. 141, 150, 154-5.
Sandler, Stanley, ed. The Korean War: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Pub., 1995. Print. 52-4.
Stokesbury, James L. "The Prisoner-Of-War Issue." A Short History of the Korean War. New York: W. Morrow, 1988. Print. 190.
Summers, Harry G. Korean War Almanac. New York: Facts on File, 1990. Print. 69-70.
Tucker, Spencer C., Jinwung Kim, Michael R, Nichols, Paul G. Pierpaoli, Priscilla Roberst, and Norman R. Zehr, eds. Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Print. 89-90.
Pearson, Lester B. "Documents on the Korean Crisis." University of Manitoba. January 24, 1951. http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis1.shtml (accessed December 18, 2011).
Alexander, James Edwin. Inchon to Wonsan: From the Deck of a Destroyer in the Korean War (1996). Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996.
Futrel Frank Robert. The United States Air Force in Korea. Washington: N.p, 1983. Air Force Historical Studies Office. Web. 15 Apr. 2014
1984 demonstrates a dystopian society in Oceania by presenting a relentless dictator, Big Brother, who uses his power to control the minds of his people and to ensure that his power never exhausts. Aspects of 1984 are evidently established in components of society in North Korea. With both of these society’s under a dictator’s rule, there are many similarities that are distinguished between the two. Orwell’s 1984 becomes parallel to the world of dystopia in North Korea by illustrating a nation that remains isolated under an almighty ruler.
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.
... Society is facing a challenge of whether or not the world should stop mental control or keep it going with the worry that it may take over the world one day. More realistically though, it could turn man into a community of people who are controlled by the government and do not have any emotions and can not figure out anything for themselves.. If the world misuses psychological conditioning enough, it will be a threat to humanity and that is not something that people of this world should think of as something good, because it could potentially ruin all of mankind. Works Cited Biderman, Albert D. "The Image of "Brainwashing"."
While many may believe humans are inbreeded with certain believes and morals, they automatically diminish the probability of being brainwashed. Literary works as Brave New World, and the government of North Korea, prove controlling the mind to be possible.
- Lee, Steven Hugh. Korea, Vietnam, and The Cold War in Asia, 1949-1954. Montreal fF
Eric Blair wrote the novel 1984 under the pseudonym George Orwell. The original title of 1984 was The Last Man in Europe, however, the title was changed for unknown purposes. It has been speculated that the change in title was done because it was a mere reversal of the last two digits of the year in which it was written. The novel was first received with conflicting acclamations and criticisms. Those who provided acclamation for the novel believed that it portrayed the impending possibility of the future and what it might bring. Some reviewers, however, disliked its dystopian satire of the class system, the power struggles of world leaders, nationalism, totalitarian regimes, and bureaucracy. Others panned it as nihilistic prophesy on the downfall of humankind and perceived the novel to be very anti-Catholic because Orwell replaced God and the church with Big Brother (Merriman.) In spite of these negative remarks, the power and magnitude of the content of 1984 is phenomenal. The influence of this book is so vast that some words from the novel, like facecrime and oldthink, are used in modern day language. Another of these words is “doublethink.” The word doublethink means “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” This word is included in what is described as “Newspeak,” the language spoken in 1984.
Brainwashing could be explained through two opposite claims: First, by social traditions that have been victims of authoritarian regimes, and second, by political opponents responding to certain fiascos that contradict their religious and political beliefs by claiming that their citizens are victims of brainwashing or thought reform. Reasons to why brainwashing is an inaccurate phrase is because, prisoners of war tend to claim to have been brainwashed in order not to be held responsible for revealing confidential information, no scientific experiments have found evidence to measure how brainwashing is done and many people couldn’t be brainwashed against their will.
“"Propaganda is as powerful as heroin, it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think” by Gil Courtemanche connects to the sad fact of using propaganda as a deadly weapon to feed people with false information and stop them from thinking. George Orwell’s novel, 1984, describes a totalitarian dystopian society where the Party is constantly brainwashing its citizens with information that is beneficial to its own rights. On the opposite side, people are working for the party just like dominated slaves for their masters without knowing what’s going on. But, in order for the party to achieve this goal, they have to use different techniques of propaganda in Oceania to create fear for people so that they can obey the rules. The use of propaganda in the society of 1984 takes away freedom from individuals because of the absence of privacy, thinking and making decisions.
Caraway, Bill. "A New Relationship." Korea in the Eye of Tiger. Copyscape, 16 Dec. 2006. Web.
Steinberg, David I., and Donald N. Clark. "Review of The Kwangju Uprising: Shadows over the Regime in South Korea." The Journal of Asian Studies 47.3 (1988): 662-63. Print.
I believe that through the use of modern teachnology, brainwashing was conducted through classical conditioning. It is a process of reframing the identities of human beings and a concept where the ideology of free will seems to be lost in this coercive atmosphere. Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. It is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin and other judgments which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. Here, brainwashing opposes the concept of free will. In most cases, brain washers are individuals who carry out the deliberate act of brainwashing which are usually attached to emotions. The movie, Manchurian Candidate has a strong feeling of emotions that the army veterans of Gulf War are faced with such as hurt, anger, brutality, a sense of inclusion, patriotism to their fellow colleagues etc., which are used in the process of brainwashing and thereby enhance the sense of control that the brainwashers face as the emotional attachment does not levy any space for rational debate. The emotions attached to brain washing diffuse the sense of free will that every human being is born with. On another spectrum, if free will exists, then only the ideology behind brain washing makes significant meaning because if free will did not exist, every thought or every action taken would be a cause in a never ending pattern of influence. Free will has an objective and subjective side to it. When our sense of control lies within small boundaries and we can control all within it then eventually sense of freedom is high. The subjective free will is high when what one can control is objective. Therefore, the war veterans as seen in this movie seem to have a low sense of control over their emotions, the subjective phenomena of free will is also low thereby making it easier
The Korean War explicitly portrayed the atrocious battle between both the North and South side which gave the United Nations its military role for the first time, thus expanding the war from a domestic to an international scale. Sometimes called “The Forgotten War”, the Korean War was mainly overshadowed in historical terms by the conflicts that occurred before and after it, World War II and the Vietnam War. The Korean War had raged for years without a true resolution and after years of battles, even the compromise that was made was not a complete one. The current situation in North and South Korea is quite volatile. In order to apprehend the Korean War, one has to look at events that took place before the war, how the war was conducted and the aftermath of the War.