Totalitarian regimes promote societal efficiency and control over every individual. As George Orwell demonstrates in 1984 and Aldous Huxley presents in Brave New World, for a single party to achieve a successful dystopian society, it must strip individuality, force loyalty, and practice manipulation. The most effective step in both worlds proves to be destroying any meaningful, personal relationships leaving only a person’s loyalty to the government. Sex, one of the most intimate behaviors among humans, remains prominent in both 1984’s superstate and Brave New World’s WorldState. However, Party members, Orwell’s miserable middle class, call any intercourse “‘making a baby,’ and… ‘our duty to the party’” (Orwell 67). Orwell declares any sexual act without aiming to conceive an act of rebellion because if one gives into the animalistic instincts, he or she performs without the interest of the Party at heart. Winston and Julia, Orwell’s protagonists who hate the Party, have sex, but not out of love. Instead of sexual attraction to one another, they had a political attraction to create a subtle act of defiance as “[t]heir embrace had been a battle [against the Party], and the climax a victory” (126). Though, in Brave New World, the government encourages everyone to have sex from childhood to adulthood with slogans including “every one belongs to every one else” (Huxley 43). This phrase also removes any feeling of individuality but adds an intense sense of community. Sex
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.
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,
George Orwell’s theme in 1984 is that an omnipotent and all-seeing government is dangerous and will demean individuality as well as free will. He portrays this through Winston’s failure to rebel while showing totalitarian governments cannot be stopped after they have been completely established. He also depicts his message through the citizens’ total belief in government propaganda no matter how absurd or inconstant as well as through the international solidarity and seemingly permanent nuclear cold war.
I stare at myself in the mirror. What do I see? I see a socially awkward teenager, I see someone who is oblivious to the immensity of real life, I see a dancing phenom. I like to compare myself to John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever, and it's not my groovy hairdo and careless attitude that builds this parallel, it's the fact that we’re both kings of the dance floor. Unlike John, I'm no connoisseur in the art of 70’s disco, instead, I’ve mastered the Latin dances of quinceañeras.
Totalitarianism diminishes the idea of individuality and destroys all chances of self-improvement, and human’s natural hunger for knowledge. In George Orwell’s famous novel, “1984”, totalitarianism is clearly seen in the exaggerated control of the state over every single citizen, everyday, everywhere. Totalitarianism can also be seen in the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, in which humans are synthetically made and conditioned for their predestinated purpose on earth. The lack of individualism will lead a community towards a dystopia in which freedom is vanished by the uncontrolled power of the state.
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
The novel 1984, by George Orwell, shows the world through a totalitarian government. The main protagonist, Winston Smith, is a party member who works to cover up the Big Brothers propaganda. However, he begins to write in a journal of his hatred for the society he exists in. This is considered an act of treason and is punishable by death for committing a “thought crime.” Winston is aware that he is being watched every day, everywhere, and anywhere. Despite this fact, Winston and a woman named, Julia, both defy Big Brother and begin an affair. This is the world where everyone is against everyone, and those who break the rules are punished severely for their crimes. Big Brother wishes to gain total control of the population by banning or prohibiting
Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, and George Orwell’s “1984” both portray totalitarian regimes who strive for complete control over their population. The methods that they use to achieve this are almost polar opposites. While one uses war/bombing, thought/relationships, and through the dreaded room 101 as a means of control, the other uses sex/orgies, relationships, and soma to establish order throughout the population.
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.
Many people have sought to evaluate the vulnerabilities associated with states and markets that are under totalitarianism, which is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society. First developed in 1920 by the Italian fascists, and in particular Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy for over twenty years, totalitarianism embossed the minds of those who lived under it. This system was conceptualized mainly to highlight the similarities between Nazi Germany and other fascist states. There’s one underlying difference that one must understand for one to assess the restrictions that totalitarianism puts on one’s liberty. One should realize that totalitarianism states are states where there is a single party rule, where a dictatorship is type of government in which a single person rules. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell are famous authors who opposed totalitarianism, and through their philosophical ideals, attempted to inform people of the dangers faced by society under this restricting system, where people are inhibited from holding any sort of authority. George Orwell, in 1984, discusses concerns relating to big government and big brother and Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World, discusses predatory markets impinging on our personal freedoms. Through their works, they attempt to question societal beliefs on brute force and physical coercion verses the manipulation of preferences and tastes leading to willing submission. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley each
Today, Times Square Church embarks on a 3-day fasting and prayer for the teenagers and youths of this generation. And what a time it is for us to come together as a body to pray. The devil has been roaming about targeting teens and youths, and it's time to stop him in his tracks. All too often, we are busy focusing on other things that we turn a blind eye to what the devil is doing in the lives of some of our young ones.
One of the most important concepts that many individuals in modern day society value the most is the idea that they have the freedom to do whatever they please. The term freedom means “being able to act, think, and speak in any way one wants to without any type of hindrance,”(Dictionary.com). In the book, 1984, by George Orwell, the totalitarian society ruled by Big Brother, in many ways, controls its citizens by hindering any types of freedom a member of the society might have. In a society that is decorated with telescreens, hidden microphones, and strict rules, Orwell illustrates the many ways Big Brother uses that to its advantage to stifle the freedom of its citizens. However, under all the scrutiny of Big Brother, there are
Set in a totalitarian state and ruled by a government known as the Party, sexuality is heavily regulated. It is the goal of the Party “to remove all pleasure from the sexual act” (Orwell 58). Moreover, marriage only had one purpose, “to beget children for the service of the Party” (Orwell 58). Thus, both men and women found their sexuality being regulated and limited. In “Sexuality as Rebellion in George Orwell’s 1984” Paul Bail states that “the only legitimate purpose of sexuality is for reproduction” (215). Therefore, sex is not an act “in which to take personal pleasure” (Bail 215). Unlike, Edna who lived in a society where sex was no intended to be pleasurable for women, it applied to everyone in Orwell’s novel. However, one woman who this affects, in particular, is Julia. A young woman, Julia is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League, an organization created by the Party to help educate its citizens on their standards regarding sex (Orwell 111). Due to her involvement in this group, Julia is perceived to what Bail’s refers to as a “puritanical anti-sex fanatic” because it is her job to remind her society that sex is an act for the Party and not pleasure (215). Yet, upon meeting the protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, it is revealed that she rejects the same ideas that she
George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, examines a society in which the overwhelming domination of Oceania’s leading party of the totalitarian government, Ingsoc, causes its citizens to become automatons—except for one citizen: the protagonist, Winston Smith. Like the masses, Winston is subjected to the regime’s use of constant surveillance, alteration of historical records and memories, psychological and ideological manipulation, and torture. Although Winston is subjected to the regime’s various manipulations, which have the final goal of eliminating all individualism, Winston stands out from the masses. Throughout the novel, Winston actively rebels against the regime primarily by having independent thought and by forming a meaningful relationship with another citizen, a relationship that is restricted by the regime. As Orwell depicts Winston’s strong desire for individuality, he compels readers to pay attention to the totalitarian regime’s deliberate restraint of distinctiveness. By using Winston’s role to demonstrate the importance of individual thought and meaningful relationships in the identity of a human being, Orwell suggests that a totalitarian regime demands the loss of individuality in order to have and preserve total control.
May 25, 2013, a day that would forever change my life. The day that I knew that with a simple piece of paper my life would be filled with endless possibilities. On this day I graduated high school. To some this is not what they would call a milestone in life and that it could be achieved by anyone but to an eighteen-year-old, African American, female, living in a small rural town that is heavy laden with poverty, this is the most memorable moment of my entire life and somehow I imagine that this is how a Muslim must feel on his or her first journey to Mecca.