Conformity And Love In George Orwell's 1984

Towards the end of Orwell’s novel that presents a dystopian society, the antagonist, O’Brien, a close member of the inner party, warns Winston, the protagonist and one of only two reasonable people left, that “We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them” (319). Winston, who has been taken prisoner for his political dissent, receives this grave warning tied down to a chair with O’Brien’s face staring at him from above. This alarming solution to the infamous mystery frightens Winston a significant amount, who after sacrificing so much, has just learned his fate. Orwell has brought about this fate to emphasize the perpetual triumph of the party over its enemies. In George Orwell's 1984, the author creates the totalitarian state of Oceania to warn the reader of the potential corruption and oppression of such a government.

Another behavior of human nature majorly violated in 1984 is how they allow one to process information. To take in information through the five senses, sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound, and react in the appropriate manner is how humans survive. The party, however, completely deprives the citizens of Oceania the ability to process information individually. Through the Thought Police, the party has the ability to restrict and even control how everyone is allowed to think, almost destroying any type of rebellion before it can even begin. They take their control one step farther and developed the process of Doublethink. This process makes it nearly impossible for anyone to rely on their own senses, but instead on what the party tells them to see, think, or believe. With the party holding this much control over its citizens, it can be easy to believe the party has violated human nature so far that rebellion or change doesn’t seem possible. However, as Winston states in his diary, “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.” (69). The Thought Police can only do so much. Because of Doublethink, they do not concern

<Interesting Intro> 1984 takes place in a society where the government controls everything and everyone, including ones thoughts. Some characters battle with the outward conformity, where they are supposed to act and think like a party member, and with the inward questioning that makes them rebel against the party. The author, George Orwell, witnessed totalitarian societies with his own eyes. Because of this, Orwell sends a message through the book by trying to show how totalitarian societies are bad. Orwell uses Winston as a symbol that shows how totalitarian societies are not beneficial to the people and can make them live double lives.

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

In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the author challenges the traditional humanist depictions of love and selflessness by showing that these human qualities are unattainable in the dystopian world portrayed. Orwell, however, does instill some hope with the fact that the proles maintain some sense of humanity. The Party is determined to extinguish all humanity within the party members by controlling all parts of their lives, but if the proles can maintain their basic human goodness then there is a small glimmer of hope that the party can be overthrown. Due to the extreme repression placed upon the party members, basic human qualities like love and selflessness are reduced to nothing more than pure instinctual behaviors.

There is nothing truly more terrifying than conformity in its purest form and George Orwell, the author of 1984, illustrates that point perfectly in his novel which showcases all of his ideas.  But what really causes the erasement of the individual and the subsequent rise of the ostensible status quo?  Orwell takes the time in his novel to demarcate the many causes that have an acute effect on individuality and how potently a general ‘norm’ can influence a mass of people.  Manipulation of the individual and of the masses runs rampant in this dystopian world as mandated activities like Two Minutes Hate serve to distract and confuse the people, as well as organizations like the Anti-sex league and Spies being used as indoctrination centers

Hate is considered to be the extreme opposite of love in today’s society, but what if in another sense hatred can lead to love and love lead to hatred? In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, the idea that a hate based society can survive is explored. This hate based society managed to survive due to the sheer control the “top” of the society has on it, the “top” being the Party. The rest of the people in the society are controlled as a mob by the Party. Through constant surveillance, enforcement of law, and manipulation of life itself, the people are left to do what the Party bids of them through a god like figure known as Big Brother. The most apparent manipulation that can be seen throughout the book is the manipulation of love and hatred. The Party uses the hatred for Emmanuel Goldstein and Eurasia or Eastasia to rally the people in hating the enemy and loving Big Brother. Through the manipulation of human emotion the Party can do whatever they want because they have the power to do so. Given how one's hatred can fuel one's love and vice versa for an entity which in turn causes the person to do anything for said entity, virtually anything can be possible due the fact that it is demanded through emotion. This is why in the novel 1984 shows that a society based on hate can survive.

In Book I Section II, Winston helps his neighbors,the Parson family, with their plumbing. While he is in their apartment,Winston views the “scarlet banners of the Youth League and the Spies, and a full-sized poster of Big Brother” hung on the wall. A short while later, the son and daughter come in and accused Winston of being a “thought criminal” and “traitor”. Both of these are slanderous imprecations that, if true, could lead to death. After this interesting interaction, Winston reflects, “With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy” (Orwell, 24). This quotation shows that the Party has succeeded in indoctrinating children at a very young age to their philosophies and ideas. The government uses organizations such as the Youth League and the Spies to “systematically turn” children into mindless members of the Party. ______________’s essay from The Abuse of Power in 1984 reads, “Orwell describes a world in which familial loyalty is deliberately undermined so that the displaced emotions can be appropriated by the state. The solidarity of the family is treated as a threat to party loyalty and is therefore systematically weakened” (_____,___). This quotation reveals that the Party intentionally removes the love and devotion that normally

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the nature of love and friendship in the nation of Oceania that Orwell writes about, the Party tries desperately to erase love for anything but Big Brother from the lives of its members. (Reese) 1984 displays that the party’s unlimited and absolute control of the people. For an example the telescreens are used to surveillance the people in their homes. The party has eyes in many places too. For instance the love of Winston and Julia somehow compromised by Mr. Charrington when he disclosed the relationship to the Party about them. Another example of the love in Oceania is the marriage of Winston and Katharine ended horrendously. (Reese) Winston thinks deeply about the condition of the world. (Notes) He said he wanted to throw her off of a cliff.

Everyone has different perceptions of love and hate, in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, an interesting new perspective on these concepts is conveyed through the story. Within the book, concepts of love and hate coexist for the sole purpose of manipulation through the ruling government, The Party. The nature of love, happiness, and friendship in the country of Oceania, where the book takes place, simply is that they do not exist with exceptions for their leader, Big Brother. The Party influences all concepts of emotion for the purpose of manipulation in order to remain in control over society. With all that was said, the true message of the book is that love and hate cannot exist without the other.

Love is both the foundation and the weakness of a totalitarian regime. At the heart of any totalitarian society, love between two individuals is eliminated because only a relationship between the person and the party and a love for its leader can exist. The totalitarian society depicted throughout the Orwell’s novel 1984 has created a concept of an Orwellian society. Joseph Stalin’s Soviet regime in Russia can be described as Orwellian. The imaginary world of Oceania draws many parallels to the modern day totalitarian regime established by Stalin. For example, in the novel it was the desire of the Party to eliminate love and sex, in order to channel this pent-up passion towards the love of Big Brother. Similarly, Stalin used propaganda

"Big Brother is Watching You"(Orwell 5). This simple phrase has become the cornerstone of the conspiracy theorists dialog. George Orwell may have writing a cautionary novel with 1984, but there is little possibility that he could have foreseen how close to reality his novel would truly become.

In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the totalitarian government is adamant that all citizens not only follow its policies, but wholeheartedly agree with them. In order to maintain his individuality and avoid the Thought Police, Winston lies about his allegiance to the government and his beliefs and thoughts. He learns that his lies are weak and shallow after he is caught, and he eventually realizes the true power of his lies when he deceives himself. The totalitarian government Orwell presents encourages deception as a means of survival, increasing the government’s power when the citizens are eventually driven to lie to themselves. As the Party grows stronger and individuality crumbles, Orwell displays the loss of humanity as a result of a government built on deception.

Love is the foundation and the weakness of a totalitarian regime. For a stable totalitarian society, love between two individuals is eliminated because only a relationship between the person and the party and a love for its leader can exist. The totalitarian society depicted throughout the Orwell’s novel 1984 has created a concept of an Orwellian society. Stalin’s Soviet state can be considered Orwellian because it draws close parallels to the imaginary world of Oceania in 1984. During the twentieth century, Soviet Russia lived under Stalin’s brutal and oppressive governments, which was necessary for Stalin to retain power. In both cases, brutality and oppression led to an absence of relationships and love. This love was directed towards

"To say 'I accept' in an age like our own is to say that you accept concentration-camps, rubber truncheons, Hitler, Stalin, bombs, aeroplanes, tinned food, machine guns, putsches, purges, slogans, Bedaux belts, gas-masks, submarines, spies, provocateurs, press-censorship, secret prisons, aspirins, Hollywood films and political murder" (Bookshelf I).