Theme Of Appearance Vs Reality In 1984

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“ Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else, not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.” In the novel, 1984 the world revolves around the leaders or “Party members” in which reality solely depends on what the leaders say. A society so blind and oblivious to realize that what they are being told is simply not true or possible. Orwell portrays Appearance vs. Reality throughout the book through things like the ministries, characters, and other symbols. To start off, in the story there are many ministries. The ministries look as if they would have positive intentions and influences on this little world, yet they are far from good. …show more content…

Reality could include the Newspeak Dictionary. Newspeak is the official, fictional language of Oceania. Newspeak contains no negative words and is engineered to remove the possibility of rebellious thoughts. The people of Oceania think that every single word in this dictionary proves to be true and believable even if it says 2+2=5. Another symbol in the novel in addition to the Newspeak are the dreams that Winston has. He dreams that he may have been the cause of his mother’s death when he was not. He also dreams about O’Brien and it appears that in his dream O’Brien serves as a positive figure in his life when in reality ends up controlling what torture he received in the Ministry of Love. In conclusion, the saying, “everything is not as it seems” fits the theme of Appearance vs, Reality in the novel, 1984. Throughout the story more and more lies evolve that become a reality to the common citizens of Oceania. The ministries render a different meaning than they portray in their title, characters evolve into undercover spies in which they later turn their back on Winston, and several symbols foreshadow secrets and lies to the reader. Everyone in the Totalitarian Oceania are slaves to Big Brother and unfortunately believe everything the government tells them to

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