Abby Miller
English 208
August 15th 2016
Animal Farm and 1984: A Dystopian Society A Chilean-American writer, Isabel Allende said “What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power and the power to abuse.” Abuse of power is a problem that is also the root of many issues. In 1984, the Party had the power to alter the past in order to manipulate their people into believing an alternate truth. In another Orwellian novel, Animal Farm, excess power resulted in a cycle of a rebellion followed by continuous abuse of power. George Orwell uses thorough character development and a desire for equality among characters to explain that total power results in the gradual loss of freedoms. George Orwell uses thorough character
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In 1984, Winston had recalled dreams of an undercover group of people working together to overthrow the party. This being an extremely dangerous activity, the chance of being vaporized by The Thought Police is very high. When Winston and Julia have an opportunity to help get rid of The Party they are willing to risk their lives, “You are prepared to cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to corrupt the minds of children[...] to do anything which is likely to cause demoralization and weaken the power of the party?” (Orwell, 1984 172). Risking one's life for a belief is the ultimate sacrifice and in Winston's action of agreeing to the guidelines of The Brotherhood he had done so. Similarly in Animal Farm, the animals wanted to rebel when Mr. Jones was in power and then again when the pigs had taken over too. Recognizing that they had lost freedoms lead them to the idea of a rebellion, “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after her is a year old”(Orwell, Animal Farm7). As the main characters recognize things getting taken away from them, they will become to have a desire for things to change. There are many parallels in Animal Farm and 1984 such as the decrease in food rations and living conditions. George Orwell uses a desire for equality among characters to explain that total power leads to a gradual loss of
Orwell shows the difference in those with absolute control and those without the ability to express themselves by describing how “the pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge, it was natural that they should assume the leadership”(35). By including this quote within the making of the new farm, Orwell expresses how the pigs took advantage of their authorial positions so they could force the others to work, while they dominated Animal Farm with their own rules. The pigs’ power allowed them to have freedom to do anything they wanted, but caused the other animals to be restricted further in their lives, work, and individual rights. This resulted in the exploitation of the other animals, forcing them to have lose any hopes of having an equal society. Still, the other animals did not protest, and instead believed the pigs should be in power because of their intelligence. Their actions lead to the oppressive, dictatorial society shown as Animal Farm progresses. Soon, the inequity between the pigs and other animals develops to a point where “all rations were reduced, except those of the pigs and the dogs. A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer explained, would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism”
A dystopian novel is a story relating to or denoting an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. 1984 by George Orwell, is indeed a dystopian novel as it describes a nightmare vision of future society which is opposite to a perfect world. George Orwell creates this image using a few different techniques including, the language or style, the setting, characterization, and oppression.
Hopelessness is a very strong quality present in 1984 and Animal Farm both by George Orwell. Animal Farm is a very literal allegory to the Russian revolution and warns about the dangers of a communist society. It reflects that hope can quickly be lost and people or animals can quickly become what they once fought to be free and independent from. 1984 follows a man named Winston who comes to rebel against his society but in the end is shown how futile his efforts to break away truly are. In each novel literary devices are used to present hopelessness, which is a common theme. With his purposeful and blunt use of irony, tone, and anaphora, Orwell creates an all too realistic dystopian civilization where vivid feelings of hopelessness thrive.
The novel ‘Animal Farm’ created by George Orwell heavily expresses the ideals of a prolonged cruel or unjust treatment and the exercise of authority. The exponential ignorance of the farm animals towards the actions and ideas of the pigs (Napoleon, Squealer and Snowball) prove the incentive that it is easier to conform to the ideals/ways of the ‘New England’, than to rebel, as well as through the exposure to propaganda and the distortion of reality. This therefore leaving them docile, numb, and oppressed.
1984 and Animal Farm Comparative Essay To be hopeless is to come to terms with an unchangeable, permanent, and undesirable reality. Hopelessness literally means to despair hope. In dystopian crazed societies, such a feeling is shared. 1984 and Animal Farm, by the widely known George Orwell, contain these corrupt societies and totalitarianism.
1984 and Animal farm are acutely similar books. They both revolve around a dictatorship government. There are two main dictators in these stories, Big Brother and Napoleon. The pigs are aggressive and big brother is always watching what the people do. In these novels the leaders start out with using the ruling to use it for good but then focus on corruption of power that Napoleon and Big Brother use it for the worse and not the good. 1984 and Animal farm the totalitarian governments used dehumanizing tactics like using television to hypnotize the animals, take away rights and using fear to show the people and animals that the government has the power.
The perfect world has never existed nor will it ever. Someone persons view on something great could be another worst nightmare. In some cases people mistake utopias for dystopias. A utopia is an ideal place of state or living (“Utopia”). A dystopia is a society of characterized by human misery, a squalor, oppression, disease, or overcrowding (“Dystopia”). In George Orwell’s book 1984 the society is depicted as a utopia when in reality it’s not the perfect place, it’s written to represent a dystopia. It takes place in 1984 in a dystopian America where it’s actually called “Ocieana”. The book tries to make itself seem like a perfect society, using propaganda, and presented government. They would look like the perfect society to some people
1984 offers a daunting glance at a supposed future in which nothing and nobody is free. The authoritarian regime portrayed in Orwell’s Oceania is ruthless, controlling every aspect of life, from the family to the brain itself. In 1984, George Orwell uses a dystopian society void of all freedom to illustrate the debilitating effects of ultimate control over thoughts, emotions, and opinions. By robbing the citizens of their privacy, each person under the boot of Oceania loses their ability to think freely, leading to a crippling loss of their humanity. The constant watch of the telescreen not only keeps the citizens in line, but also prevents the people from thinking or acting rebelliously.
The totalitarian lead government like setting in both 1984 and Animal Farm impacts the overall feeling of hopelessness in the novels. In 1984 Big Brother controls every aspect of everyone’s lives at every moment. Similarly, in Animal Farm Napoleon and the pigs control everything the animals do, when they do it, and how they do it. Hopelessness stands out in Orwell’s dystopian novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, due to his use of irony, anaphora, and tone.
Imagine a world where the people holding power always did what was good for everyone. As history has taught us, this doesn’t always happen. Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is a complex story about the dangers of too much government power, and the ones in power are definitely not doing things for the good of others. When the pigs take control of the farm, they become greedy, dishonest, and deceitful. Orwell lived in Europe during the time of the Russian Revolution, when there were countless dictatorships around the world. He wrote this story to symbolize (and mock) the Russian Revolution; which includes Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, and Vyacheslav Molotov. Orwell uses this story, where the oppressed become the oppressors, to warn the world about the power of the government. He also warns the reader not to let the corrupt control and not stand by and let it happen. He shows that the abuse of absolute power can lead to corruption, violence, and finally, chaos.
The idea of a utopia sounds like a great idea, however it always turns into a feared dystopia. This is exactly what happens in the novel, 1984 and in the notorious group, The Ku Klux Klan. The definition of Utopia is “an imaginary and indefinitely remote place” (Utopia). The illusion these groups create never end up being utopias and eventually becomes a dystopia. The definition of dystopia is “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives” (Dystopia). The KKK and Oceania are perfect examples of a falsified utopias that are simply dystopias.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm discusses a farm of animals who have rebelled against their cruel human owner, deciding to run the farm themselves. The farm pigs, especially a pig called Napoleon and his accomplice Squealer, are in control of this animal-led farm where they establish a communist society. The novel depicts their journey into becoming just like their cruel owner. The lesson that Orwell wants readers to learn from Animal Farm is that communism is ineffective. He demonstrates this through the pigs’ ruthless control of the farm, the acceptance of the animals to Napoleon’s dictatorship, and the metamorphosis of the pigs into corrupt leaders - what they were fighting against in the first place.
In the novel 1984, Orwell creates a dystopia, an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one . (www.oxforddictionaries.01.05.2015). By using a dystopian setting for 1984, Orwell suggests the possibility of a utopia . In Orwell’s novel everything is the opposite of what it should be, he plays with words in order to create an Anti-Utopia or Dystopia (The critical heritageMeyers, p.264): the Ministry of Truth has nothing to do with truth but rather with propaganda, bringing the past up to date, the Ministry of Peace conducts war, the Ministry of Love is in charge of the order through the Thought Police, the Ministry of Plenty takes care of the economy. The names given
Tyranny has always been present in human history from Joseph Stalin to Adolf Hitler they have all taken advantage of the public and used them to their own advantage and personal needs. In the story Animal Farm by George Orwell this tyrannical, totalitarian, and corrupt form of government is seen. In the story the tired animals organize a rebellion against their owner and drive him out. They create their own government, with the pigs assuming control. But the corrupt pigs take advantage of this power entrusted to them, and oppress the animal for their own benefit. Even though the pigs abused the power they had, The naive and gullible animals themselves were the ones responsible for the pigs’ quick rise to power and control because the animals were tricked into supporting the pigs evil plans, they were too braindead to organize and execute a rebellion even after they realized the pigs were up to no good, and they were so foolish that they even supported the expulsion of snowball, the only good pig that worked for the good of the other animals.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegory based on problems resulting from the Russian Revolution. In Animal Farm, George Orwell uses tone, characterization, and stylistic elements to show that people in power use manipulation to stay in power.