It is clear that power and authority are relevant themes in both Nineteen Eighty – Four and A Taste of honey, as the protagonists in both texts lack power throughout the plot novel and within themselves. A Taste of Honey is set during the capitalist times in the 1950s in a patriarchal society, women where deemed powerless by their male counterparts. In contrast Nineteen Eighty – Four, a dystopian novel, is set in a totalitarian world controlled by a higher authoritative power, that keeps the characters constantly living in fear. Similarly to A Taste of Honey, Big Brother takes the form of a personified male authority. Highlighting the point that women held no power over their lives, the characters within the text prove this, because the power in both texts …show more content…
In Nineteen Eighty – Four, power is represented by the totalitarian rule of Big Brother. Through the use of the ‘Thought Police’ Big brother attempts to control the thoughts and actions of the Oceania, stealing their power and freedom. The Party aims to eradicate any type of free will. Any violation of laws result in serious punishment, as they would have committed a ‘thought crime’ . Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novels grasps this concept when he writes, ‘Freedom is the freedom to say the two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.’ Freidrich Nietzsche wrote that ‘only that which had no history is definable’ which directly relates to Ingsoc’s slogan ‘who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.’ These ideas make it clear that if someone can change the past, they can control the future. If the population are unaware of their history they have no guidance or example of how they are supposed to behave, so it is easier for the government to control their behaviour. We also have to note the government is predominately male, so we witness numerous counts of misogyny. Such
Big brother and the Party are watching everyone in Oceania almost 24/7 with telescreens and thought police. An example explaining the telescreens in the novel is, "The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely". (1.1.3) They always being monitored and all their facial expressions, actions or thoughts can be seen and reported to the party if it’s not something in which they like. The only time anyone is completely safe is for the few hours in the night when you sleep. Big brother makes everyone believe that there was no past and that there was no history before the present. History is being altered, and since there is “no past” no one has proof that the past is better than before the revolution occurred. Everything is based on the proles, this kind of society isn 't sane; it is very unappealing and unpleasant.
During Joseph Stalin’s regime of the Soviet Union, 1984, the Classic Dystopian novel by George Orwell, was burned and banned, because the book shone a negative light on communism. The book, 1984, follows the life of Winston Smith, who lives in a country called Oceania. Oceania is a totalitarian society, ruled by a government known as The Party, whose leader is called Big Brother. In Oceania, every movement and sound every person makes is constantly surveillanced, and one wrong facial expression, statement, or action can cause the ‘Thought Police’ to take the person away to never be seen again. A small percentage of the population questions The Party’s dictatorship, and the novel follows Winston’s struggles to keep his hatred of The Party
The Society of Oceania is ruled by a totalitarian power hunger all-knowing government that seeks power and control over its people and society by a figure known as Big Brother. The poster of Big Brother is a so called figure head of the government that installs fear
Furthermore, in “1984” the main character Winston realizes that their government dictates the history keeping the citizens uninformed to a life with freedom. The ignorance of the people relinquishes the citizen’s freedom and power to the party. Winston points out that this countenances them to manipulate the people, “who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell 360). When The Party is able to control the history they are able to manipulate their citizens to believing that the government that is being practiced is appropriate
Thirty-three years ago, the unpleasantry that novelist George Orwell dreamt of never became the reality he predicted it would in 1949. The year 1984 was supposed to take society on an absolute turn for the worst, becoming a global dystopia in which everyone lived under the regulation and dominance of one of three totalitarian superstates. Orwell wrote of this future in his book 1984, creating the fictional universe of Oceania in which the lives of Winston Smith and the other characters in Oceania seemed genuinely real, especially by use of various literary devices. Motifs such as the linguistic concept of Newspeak and the majority of society’s convergence of feelings towards the Party and Big Brother appear multiple times throughout the pages of the novel. Through such recurring ideas, a major theme stands out - the lack of self-expression. Living under an authoritarian and oppressive government, party members such as Winston are forced to follow the socialist policies of Ingsoc. In the book it is written that, “The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of dependent thought” (Orwell 193). If everyone were to give into the Party, self-expression would be entirely eliminated because everyone and everything would be censored. With such motives made clear, Winston along with a minority realize the absurdity in the Party’s ways. Nevertheless, many more others do not, loving Big Brother and embracing
VII). Almost everything about the past is forgotten, rewritten, and the fact that the citizens of Oceania live in fear, this allows society to accept every piece of false information that is given to them as the truth in the eyes of Big Brother. With this new concept of Newspeak, Big Brother is able to control society’s thoughts through a language. By creating Newspeak, the Party made it impossible to conceive rebellious or disobedient thoughts, because no words would exist that would allow them to express these thoughts. As the Party is constantly updating Newspeak, which is the new version of their English, Big Brother is getting closer to their ultimate goal. The ultimate goal for Big Brother is that no one will be capable of committing thought crime or even better will question the Party's supreme power. "All ambiguities and shades of meaning had been purged out of them. It was quite impossible to use the vocabulary for literary purposes or for political or philosophical discussion" (Book II Ch. III). By creating Newspeak, the Party is able to eliminate free thought, and is able to control the minds of the citizens by using language as mind control. "... the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of free thought" (Book I, Ch. V). Big Brother also has the Thought Police for monitoring all thought.
In George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, Winston, a rebel who lives in a dystopic society challenges the totalities regime of Big Brother. The all-knowing Big Brother controls everything in Oceania. Anybody who despised the Party will be punished, arrested or abused, until their heart desired Big Brother. In this novel, it is unknown whether Big Brother is fictitious or an actual human being. Nevertheless, he symbolizes fear, hate, and pessimism to the people of Oceania.
The Thought Police are the most insidious aspect of the dystopian society of 1984 by George Orwell because it destroys the relationship among the people while also destroying the freedom of choice and corrupting the future. The Thought Police are a group of individuals who are kept hidden and serves a purpose to monitor the populace for any signs of unorthodox thought or action and then afterwards to punish them. The Thought Police are sneaky because they superficially appear to just be people who are invested in the safety and security of Oceania, which does not seem evil. However, in reality, these brainwashed people greatly contribute to the fault of this dystopia. By being committed to Oceania, there is no longer trust within relationships
Winston Churchill once said, “History is written by the victors.” This means that victors ultimately document history and have jurisdiction over it. They control the past, present, and the future, establishing their accounts of “history”. In 1984 by George Orwell, Oceania and the Party is the victor and have absolute power over history. The totalitarian government authorizes practically everything and manipulates the citizens to the most extreme level. From psychological manipulation to Newspeak to altering historical records by the Ministry of Truth, the Party is the victor, and will use its maximum power to transform even the most rebellious citizens into loyal ones in seek of attaining complete control of the past, present, and future. They attempt to suppress language and communication, sexual desires, rebellion, and memory both physically and mentally by the means of utilizing technology, Party members, propaganda (Big Brother), and altering history. Doing so grants them power and jurisdiction over the people and brings them closer to their perspective of a “perfect” society.
1984, written warningly by George Orwell, pseudonym of Eric Blair, involves main character Winston Smith, a member of the “Party,” strongly resembling communism, in a nation named Oceania. The Party is referred to as “Big Brother” throughout the entire book due to the governments over-bearing control- no free thought, relationships, or expression of individuality is allowed, excessive spying- Big Brother watches everyone via “telescreens,” a device planted in every room, including bathroom stalls, and spying on your thoughts which creates a new crime known as thoughtcrime, and even rewrites history- erasing any recollection of the past and controlling the language so far that no part of vocabulary includes rebellion or anti-governmental ideas. Winston then becomes fed up with the oppression he’s faced
In George Orwell’s 1984 Power is gained most effectively through control, fear and violence. Compared to a government like that of America’s, 1984 creates a more threatening structure of government where the public is limited from freedom and happiness. 1984 shows a world of a society where only the upper class has power and freedom from the harsh treatment that the general population receives. The idea of Big Bother makes the population of Oceania believe they are being watched over by a powerful force and oppresses them so they feel powerless and unable to do anything against a “great” force like Big Brother. The well-being of others depends on their willingness to agree with Big Brother and abide by their laws, if you think otherwise then you will be an accuser of thought-crime will be vaporized and removed from society or harshly punished through rigorous treatment and torture methods as was Winston and Julia. Power creates problems for others in which they do not deserve.
In 1984, by George Orwell, the tyrannical form of government powered by Oceania ensures that all natives are divergent in their own way by utilizing the method of torture to receive the outcome that Big Brother wants, which happens to be power. The different levels and amount of violence is outlined by the severity of the crime that the subject perpetrated. Regardless of the subject’s cooperation, Big Brother makes ends meet and not only gathers the information, but also successfully incorporates the subject’s mind to believe what the government is doing is ethical. 1984’s
A key way in which oppression is achieved in these two novels is through ignorance. Even though both governments have successfully managed to make society ignorant, they differ in their methods. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the government strives to create only one point of view by destroying all other opinions. The party surrounds the society with many forms of propaganda, for example posters, telescreens and parades and in a sense becomes their only source of knowledge. As
The final major point to prove that Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel is that citizens are led to believe they are under constant surveillance from Big Brother, which causes them to conform to guidelines very easily. The first argument supporting this is the use of Telescreens as monitoring devices, conveniently placed in every nook and cranny of Oceania to allow the government to closely watch citizens, especially those suspected of committing Thought-Crime. These Telescreens, including the hidden ones, force the general public to believe they are being watched at all times, although this is often not the case. It is this watchful eye that causes people to become aware of their actions and the consequences they may ensue. Everybody
This state of constant surveillance demands complete conformity among the population. In Oceania, there are no laws, but non-conformity is punished by death. The thought police are an omnipresent force of the government, weeding out non-conformists and making them disappear on a regular basis. Even a slight inflection in the voice or a look of the eye can be construed as thoughtcrime. Propaganda, terror, and technology are the tools of the state, used to coerce and control the thoughts and actions of the populace. Reality is denied on a regular basis if it is non-consistent with party doctrine. The main character of the novel, Winston Smith, said that "freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2=4."(Orwell,69)In fact, if the party said that 2+2=5, the population would believe this to be truth. History is actually rewritten on a daily basis so as to appear consistent with party doctrine. The enemy of today becomes the enemy of yesterday, poverty becomes progress, war becomes peace, and slavery becomes freedom. This concept of denying reality in the face of obvious contradiction is known as doublespeak. It is central to the philosophy of Ingsoc, and is the greatest tool of the government's mind-control agenda.