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Global issues explored in Orwell's 1984
Global issues explored in Orwell's 1984
The context of 1984 orwell
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At a time when nothing seemed to be in order, George Orwell wrote a book about complete control over everything. The world was at war for the second time when Orwell wrote this book about a controlling country ruled by an evil man named Big Brother, and a man named Winston who fought against the corruption. Orwell changed the world with his work which put tragic events in perspective for people who were not directly affected by the struggles of war and violence. George Orwell, as a democratic socialist, used the Russian Revolution and World War II, his abuse in school, and his role as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War to write his dystopian novel 1984.
George Orwell was influenced by the outcome of the Russian Revolution and World War II which caused him to fear a totalitarian government. Orwell grew up around the time of World War II. Out of fear, he was greatly influenced by the Nazis very much because he was afraid of them. They struck fear into the hearts of all of their opposition and were very dangerous. That left a lasting impression on Orwell as he was growing up and maturing as a writer. Nothing scared Orwell as much as the thought of a dominating form of government. He never wanted to live under those types of laws. He enjoyed the freedom of being independent and making his own decisions. In 1984, Big Brother was the feared ruler of Oceania and he controlled everything. He had a secret police force that only answered to him and they watched everyone at all times. He controlled every aspect of the country. The idea of a controlling ruler is similar to Hitler. Both men ruled with an iron fist and did anything they wanted to. A quote that was in the first chapter of 1984 directly relates to this topic, “War is Peace. Fre...
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...ong with his governmental views of a democratic socialist to write the political satire 1984. Orwell will always be reminisced as a great writer, but he was more than just another author. He was a soldier who took a bullet fighting for what he believed was right. That passion was the backbone of many of his books. Orwell’s novel, 1984 was a moving book from the eyes of an oppressed man in a controlling country. Hopefully this world will never experience anything similar again.
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Orwell, George. 1984. West Drayton: New American Library. n.d. Print.
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“1984.” Novels for Students. Ed. Deborah A. Stanley. Vol 7. Detroit. Gale, 1999. 233-255. Gale
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Fitzpatrick, Kathleen. "An overview of 1984." Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 May 2016.
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.
Living through the war and its enormous political shifts, Eric Blair was a figure whose pessimism was significantly impacted by the postwar period. But what was born of Blair was a more significant person known as George Orwell, who challenged the political views of his time by writing 1984, which stands as one of the most powerful political novels of the Modernist era written to expose the horrors of totalitarianism and impact the political thinking of the 20th Century.
). Did Orwell realise quite what he had done in Nineteen Eighty-Four? His post-publication glosses on its meaning reveal either blankness or bad faith even about its contemporary political implications. He insisted, for example, that his 'recent novel [was] NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter)'.(1) He may well not have intended it but that is what it can reasonably be taken to be. Warburg saw this immediately he had read the manuscript, and predicted that Nineteen Eighty-Four '[was] worth a cool million votes to the Conservative Party';(2) the literary editor of the Evening Standard 'sarcastically prescribed it as "required reading" for Labour Party M.P.s',(3) and, in the US, the Washington branch of the John Birch Society 'adopted "1984" as the last four digits of its telephone number'.(4) Moreover, Churchill had made the 'inseparably interwoven' relation between socialism and totalitarianism a plank in his 1945 election campaign(5) (and was not the protagonist of Nineteen Eighty-Four called Winston?). If, ten years earlier, an Orwell had written a futuristic fantasy in which Big Brother had had Hitler's features rather than Stalin's, would not the Left, whatever the writer's proclaimed political sympathies, have welcomed it as showing how capitalism, by its very nature, led to totalitarian fascism?
The novel 1984 over the years has so gained much recognition. This particular novel portrays the image of totalitarian regimes and how they can massively affect the setting wherever this form of government takes initial place. Author George Orwell talks about these dangerous governments in society in mostly all of his novels. George Orwell was one who pushed for social movements such as pushing towards social reform throughout the world. Social reform was a social movement that aimed to make gradual changes, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes in governments particularly.
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external conflict between Winston Smith and Big Brother; and the internal conflict between the two ideas, democracy and totalitarianism. Orwell wrote the novel to show society what it could become if things kept getting worse: he sensed of the expansion of communism when he wrote the novel. The conflict between democracy and totalitarianism at the year of 1945 created two characters, Winston Smith and Big Brother, in orwell's mind. Big Brother is the embodiment of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In contrast to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy emphasizes freedom, he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George orwell criticizes of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people.
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.
I strongly agree with Fromm’s viewpoints and interpretations of Orwell’s 1984 text. He warns that the future federal powers will dehumanize society and leave everyone alienated. Thus, I agree with Fromm to the extent that he acknowledges the fact that humanity can indeed cease to exist as a result of our own self-destruction as well as the effect of our actions. Many of his opinions and warnings expressed by Orwell to an extent appear in contemporary society.
In the book 1984, Orwell uses the ominous Big Brother to depict what a government with all control would feel like; giving the reader a real sense of how powerless a population would really be under an all-controlling regime. Winston, the main character in the novel, sees posters throughout London with a man gazing down underneath contains the words “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Even though Big Brother is virtually everywhere, Winston secretly questions whether or not he actually exists. Orwell uses Big Brother to symbolize the vagueness of a totalitarian government, what it is like to leave all power in the hands of government officials, and then just simply take their word for what they say or what they do. Although the term Big Brother can in one way be considered as a reassurance of protection, the following words “big brother is watching you” also insinuates that he is an open threat. Although this story takes place after Big Brother has risen to power, Orwell does not fail to emphasize that this power was not taken; it was given, as power always will be. The only way Big Brother, or a totalitarian government can truly work, is only after we give them the power to take that kind of control. When looking back at history, we can see similar situations as with Adolf Hitler...
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
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.
Orwell was a Socialist and believed in the ability for a rebellion to change society, but unfortunately too often he witnessed such rebellions go wrong and develop into totalitarian rule. 1984 warns us against the idea of absolute power through the analysis of the dangers of Big Brother and statist roots. 1984 remains an important work of literature because the ills of totalitarianism in all forms are still relevant in this day and age. Freedom and authoritarianism resonate with us, those of us who live beyond the 20th century and those who lived around that time. In 1984, Orwell uses irony and paradox to show the difference between the novel’s major conundrums: Emmanuel Goldstein, who is the enemy of the state but doesn’t pose any real threat, and Big Brother, the ultimate danger.
... gives in to Big Brother, and begins to praise and love him, “He loved Big Brother”. Orwells ending is very different than most novels, the ending leaves the readers questioning them selves, hoping that there is more to it, that there is hope for Winston, But no. Orwell finishes the novel with a dark and hopeless ending, to try to make it more realistic and relatable. 1984 is a dystopian novel, because Orwell wanted the readers to relate between the world of 1984 and real world, he wanted to try to make the message clearer to the readers, by making the readers think of the ending, and how relatable is it to the current world.
Upon my reading of the 1984 novel, 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 II and. As I got deeper into this novel, I began to see similar events in world history built into 1984.
Lynch, Sean. " 1984: An Alternative Analysis of the Classic Dystopian Novel. " Understanding the Weakness of the. WordPress.com, 9 Sept. 2012.