Human Integrity In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell’s political parable, 1984, portrays an oppressive and dictatorial government, which thereby presents to the reader a palpable sense of danger and malevolence born out of the creation of a counter utopic totalitarian regime. Orwell’s nihilistic creation of Oceania, presents a world wherein every aspect of private and public life is abhorrently regimented and regulated by the autocratic ‘Big Brother’. The whole population at large is forced to conform to the ideals and beliefs of the tyrannical ‘party’ as a means of not only survival but also a means of being able to live an unabated existence. The party opposes all forms of individuality and

George Orwell’s 1984 is more than just a novel, it is a warning to a potential dystopian society of the future. Written in 1949, Orwell envisioned a totalitarian government under the figurehead Big Brother. In this totalitarian society, every thought and action is carefully examined for any sign of rebellion against the ruling party. Emotion has been abolished and love is nonexistent; an entire new language is being drafted to reduce human thought to the bare minimum. In a society such as the one portrayed in 1984, one is hardly human. In George Orwell’s 1984, the party uses fear, oppression, and propaganda to strip the people of their humanity.

Authors often use their works as a way to express their own opinions and ideologies. However, it is the skill of the author that determines whether these ideas are combined with the plot seamlessly, making a creative transition of ideas from the author’s mind, to the reader’s. There is no doubt that George Orwell is a masterful writer, and one of his most popular works, 1984, clearly expresses his negative views of the Totalitarian government. A common theme in the dystopian society in 1984 is betrayal: The Party is very intolerant towards any form of disloyalty, and anyone who plots against them or Big Brother will eventually either betray their own mind and accept Big Brother as their leader, or be betrayed and revealed to The Party by

Orwell’s novel of 1984 depicts a dystopian society in which people are brainwashed with propaganda and bound to the chains of a strong dictatorship, also known as the Inner Party. Humanity has been filled with lies, as not a single person knows the truth that lies beneath the dictatorship. History is constantly being rewritten to mask their true identity. Any skeptical thoughts may make you disappear."Big Brother" is constantly observing you along with a telescreen watching every facial expression and recording any abnormal body language. However, two citizens called Winston and Julia rebel against "Big Brother's" totalitarian rule which triggers an astonishing warning towards future generations. Orwell is warning future generations of a society

George Orwell focuses his belief of the “[disbelief] in the existence of the objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer”. He envisions the decay of future society and implements his ideas through his creation of “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Indications of a psychological fear are examined initially through the progression and change of the human mind, which is built upon the oppression of the Party. Through the construction of a world with no freedom and individuality, the human mind adapts the change of truth and pay utter submission from the Party, to escape the presence of their ultimate weakness. With those who are rebellious of the rules of the Party gradually brings out the ugly nature of humanity. Through the fragility of the human mind, it reinforces Orwell’s idea of a corrupted society, as there no longer remains a variety of human emotions for the next generation to pass onwards. Thus conclusively portraying the defeat of human mind unable to withstand the physical and mental tortures from the Party.

The world that Orwell presents in Nineteen Eighty-four has often been called a nightmare vision of the future. Writing sixteen years into that future, we can see that not all of Orwell’s predictions have been fulfilled in their entirety! Yet,

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.

Moreover, Orwell uses the technique of loaded words to develop his theme of thoughts being controlled. “With a tremulous murmur that sounded like “My Savior!” She extended her arms toward the screen. Then she buried her face in her hands. It was apparent that she was uttering a prayer” (Orwell 16). Citizens are brainwashed and controlled to have deep feelings about Big Brother and that it is everything. Other citizens are also brainwashed the same way because they see others doing this and follow the people around them, “The horrible thing about 2 Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in” (Orwell 11). Peer pressure makes people think it is right to do many things. “Controlling minds and truth is ultimate power. Truth is subordinated to the Party” (Davis 250). Fake history is also created. Citizens will believe anything the Party puts in books. Their minds are too controlled to rebel against the party. Fake enemies are also created. It relieves the citizens’ anger when they are allowed to say anything against them. It is shown that Orwell uses the technique of loaded words to expand his theme of controlling thoughts.

In 1984, George Orwell shows a Capitalist society that was pressured by fear of turning into a Communist state to take a radical course of action, just barely clinging to the few fundamental views it once had. Doublethink is a major contributor to Big Brother’s success as a party. It coincides with the Thought Police, by making every member of every class consciously think about what the say and how they phrase it. This constantly keeps everyone at bay and allows the Thought Police to weed out those who seem to be forcing themselves into society and those who are just barely putting in enough effort to get by. Doublethink is speaking in terms of equality, so that everything is contradictory to itself to even everything out. The party slogans are perfect examples of how Doublethink is an active part of society, “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (page 6). These slogans are not only contradictory, but they “equalize” one another and in a very simplified manner, explain to all members of society what they stand for. Big Brother looks to find peace through war, there is a constant talk of a war outside of their society and that Big Brother is the only force protecting their lives. This instills a fear within all citizens and causes them to let Big Brother do as he pleases, so long as they still have their lives.

Historically, literature has always echoed the key issues and themes present during that time. In the period which Orwell wrote this novel, totalitarian government was a popular concept seeing implementation around the world such as Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Mussolini’s Italy. In the novel 1984. While Orwell’s world is a fictional one, it can be said that he uses it as a voice for social commentary, and he predictions as to what a world would be like if totalitarian governments would rule the world. This essay will aim to explore how Orwell goes about doing this.

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’ .

Readers of George Orwell have long appreciated the significance of his representation of a futuristic dystopian world. ‘Big brother is watching you,’ ‘Thought police,’ ‘Ministry of love,’ ‘Hate week,’ are expressions that Orwell used to represent his preoccupation with the totalitarian regimes of 20th century. More than one out of four Americans said they have red his dystopia and use his expressions in their language. Many critics claim that the novel opened up new prospects of political awareness. ‘1984’ is a political fiction in which the government eliminates all forms of political opposition, be it real or imaginary. The atmosphere of the novel is completely depressing because there is no hope for change. The government dominates people morally and forces them to live in constant fear. His terrifying vision of a future in which all aspects of society are controlled by a tyrannical system attracted the

In George Orwell’s Kafkaesque novel, 1984, the world has become a dystopian society led by the Party, an oligarchy of power-hungry men who have succeeded in controlling the ignorant masses of Oceania, the newly formed nation established decades earlier when the Party took control. Using techniques such as espionage and constant threats of vaporization, the Party has been able to manipulate all levels of society from the urban poor, called the proles, to members of the Outer Party. The institution that truly holds all the power is the Inner Party, which makes up less than two percent of the nation. This group is represented by a figure named Big Brother, whom all the masses are forced to truly love and to whom they must show complete devotion. Those who dare to show unorthodoxy in their thoughts, as does the main character Winston Smith, are invariably caught and brutally punished. Those who demonstrate utmost compliance to Party and who live in a state of mind called goodthinkful are filled with ignorance; they blindly obey rule after rule while never considering the rationale of the Party or understanding the workings of the government. For them, the world is merely a large game of Simon Says. They follow their leader on a whim, not knowing why they are doing so but just knowing that if they don’t, their punishment will be torture and death. This ignorance, however, is not to a fault. In a dystopian society like in 1984, ignorance is bliss for all members of society except

Orwell’s warning of the dangers of totalitarian regimes to his contextual readers and future audiences is portrayed through his novel, 1984, because “Big Brother is Watching You”, exerting total control over the masses. The masses are effectively controlled by the thought police, telescreens and children who are “against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations”.... Orwell writes about the potential dangers that are inherent when power and technology are abused, resulting in mindless citizens and “a world of fear and hatred and torment”, which Winston perfectly captures with his metaphorical epiphany; “we are the dead”. Like the dead, society will become opiated, lacking individual thought, a highly valued asset of

Orwell utilises the dystopian narrative style to satirise Hitler’s fascism and Stalin’s communist Russia. Winston’s hyperbolic statement “ nothing was yours except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull” critiques the intrusive nature of Party Ideology, reflecting Orwell’s about the manipulative use of propaganda and surveillance. The loss of a private life signifies the fears that Cold war tensions would generate increasingly more sophisticated ways of encroaching on civil liberties theough spy networks ostensibly gathering intelligence. The circular logic in “who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” underscores the central motif of the “mutability of the past”, as totalitarian ideologies destroy individuality Orwell in relation to Lang, moves more deeply into the psychological realm of human experience striking fear in his reader though the violent image of “a hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces… seemed to flow through the whole group like an electric current”. The Two minutes hate mirrorHitler’s mass rallies where freewill submits to the collective expression of blind loyalty.