Scapegoat In 1984 And Animal Farm

Many countries believe that propaganda helps to institute a necessary level of patriotism in their citizens. Most authoritarian governments, the type of government that Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell illustrates, use propaganda. However, the use of propaganda also limits the freedom of people since propaganda can control thought and speech. Propaganda can influence people to believe that their country is the best country by either exaggerating the positive events that are happening in their country or by showing negative events that are happening in other countries. Nineteen Eighty-Four is more about the dangers of the government controlling people’s thoughts by propaganda than the dangers of an authoritarian government system.

1984 has come and gone. The cold war is over. The collapse of oppressive totalitarian regimes leads to the conclusion that these governments by their nature generate resistance and are doomed to failure. The fictional world of George Orwell's novel, 1984, is best described as hopeless; a nightmarish dystopia where the omnipresent State enforces perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propaganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. In the aftermath of the fall of capitalism and nuclear war, the world has been divided among three practically identical totalitarian nation-states. A state of perpetual war and poverty is the rule in Oceania. However, this is merely a backdrop, far from the most terrifying

Nations all around the world are still healing from the wounds of twentieth century totalitarianism, yet more seems to be on the horizon. In his 1984 magnum opus, George Orwell warns future generations of the many dangers of allowing government, or the powerful few, from being the chiefs of law expression and history using the eerie, all-powerful dystopian Party. Unfortunately, it is a warning few have truly heeded in the past half century. Resulting from a lack of written laws, the Party may prosecute its citizens relentlessly and without reason. Moreover, the Party maintains an iron grip on all published information, ensuring a death hold on all free expression and education. Yet, above all, the Party controls history; it rewrites, revises and republishes the past to secure their totalitarian future. In spite of these warnings, the decades following the publication of this novel saw nations continue on the

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.

When George Orwell writes his dystopian novel ‘1984’ in 1949, he is extremely disturbed with the state of the world after witnessing the methods of the Soviet Union and other fascist regimes during World War Two. During this period, the Soviet Union famously burned books and controlled all media outlets in an attempt to assert dominance over the people of the USSR. In response to his emotional disquiet over these issues, Orwell writes a warning to the world of what he fears would come to pass should totalitarian governments continue to grow in power. In ‘1984’, Orwell writes of the government destroying all media that conflicts with the current political ideology, ‘thought-police’ arresting anybody who shows even the slightest signs of thinking

Scapegoats allow leaders to have something to blame when things may not go according to plan, to distract from something that the leader wants to do that may not be favorable to the people, and it’s also something that the community can use to bring them together, to fight for the same cause. In Animal Farm, we see the pigs using Snowball as a scapegoat for everything that went wrong in the farm. When the windmill is destroyed the first time, Napoleon announces: “Do you know the enemy who came in the night and overthrown our windmill"? "SNOWBALL” blaming Snowball for the destruction, when Napoleon really does not know who was responsible. Using high modality language such as enemy encourages the animals to really think of Snowball as an foe, rather than the friend he was. Additionally, he rhetorical question makes the answer of Snowball seem as though the answer should be obvious. This leads the animals to assume that Snowball is not who he really is due to all the things he did to the farm. The pigs continue to use Snowball as a scapegoat throughout the novel because of how it allows them to blame all of their mistakes on someone else, making them appear perfect to the other animals. It also unites them with a common enemy. The animals unite in the thought that Snowball is now ‘evil’, giving the pigs more power over the group

The archetype of a scapegoat is represented by Pearl Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In the novel, the townspeople view Pearl as a personification of Hester Prynne 's sin, and they do not treat her fairly because they only see her as the result of a horrible crime. And although Hester doesn’t see Pearl in this light for the most part, there is a time in which her view on her daughter changes. The village blames Pearl because they need to find someone to blame it on, which illustrates the role of a scapegoat in a novel. A scapegoat is an innocent character in which a problem is blamed on. In this case, the puritans put responsibility on Pearl because they can not blame Hester anymore. She is

Fear within the ignorant animals of Animal Farm and defeated humans of 1984 exist to uphold each novel’s totalitarian government. Each of these George Orwell novels delve into the power and manipulation of an absolute dictatorship. Napoleon in Animal Farm and Big Brother in 1984 both claim the newly established system of authority is of superior quality than the preceding regime. Apprehension is due to both fictional and realistic threats, twisted for the government’s power-hungry use. Feelings of fear permit the pigs and the Party to control devotion and independence in ignorant citizens. Animal Farm and 1984 simulate fear utilized by authoritarian rule to control, keep citizens loyal and modify reality. George Orwell’s two novels warn

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

Totalitarianism is defined as a political system of government in which those in power have complete control and do not allow people to oppose them. Those in power are a single party dictatorship in which one party controls state, and all other parties are forbidden. Other important features that distinguish or help define totalitarianism include restricted or eliminated constitutional rights, state terrorism, and totalitarian rulers are known as ideological dictators. The government of Oceania, in the novel 1984, is an example of totalitarian society. Germany, under Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism is another example of totalitarianism. Orwell’s Oceania has both similarities and differences to the totalitarian states of the twentieth

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

“Every group feels strong, once it has found a scapegoat” (Mignon McLaughlin, 1913). A scapegoat is someone who is blamed for all the faults and corruptions that others have committed. In history, there are lots of scapegoat examples, the most popular being; Jesus Christ and the Jews in the Second World War. In the short story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson used persecution and tradition to demonstrate how scapegoating justified unfair killing. Both of these aspects relate to the World War that preceded only a couple years before the story was written. The persecution was blind and done once a year as a tradition that everyone expected to happen.

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.

Living in a world that continues to make advancements technologically and politically, a book written more than 50 years ago still warns the world of what could happen if government becomes too forceful. Because of George Orwell's strong hatred for totalitarianism and its life dictating qualities, readers can get a taste of the perfect "dystopia". Though the people of today have been warned and are afraid of an all controlling government, they continue to allow the concept of 1984 to become more and more real. If people continue to just watch their governments make decisions and not ask questions, they will fall victim to its power. If a man not of this time understands the terror of totalitarianism, everyone should

In the texts, 1984, written by George Orwell, and Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, the concepts of totalitarianism and censorship are addressed throughout in various ways. Both texts are of dystopian fiction, set in post-nuclear war nations, although they are somewhat of a different nature. The concepts of totalitarianism and censorship are addressed throughout the texts throughout the exploration of the issue of ‘knowledge is power’, the use and abuse of technology, manipulation and the desensitising of society. Although these are mentioned in both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, they are fairly different in the way they are approached by each totalitarian government, as the government in 1984 is much more severe in the way each of these issues are dealt with in the text.