Failure to Disprove: Big Brother vs. Marxism The proletariat is the lowest of the low, confined to a life of merciless hard work where all they can do is envy what they believe to be is the dominant lifestyle. The 1984 society confines its citizens to a preordained position as proletarian, a dominant class member, or somewhere in between. Amongst the proletarians, there is Winston Smith, a man who was imprisoned, tortured and psychologically broken for essentially doing nothing. Karl Marx believed that Capitalism is an essential stepping-stone in a societies turn towards Communism. He believes that Capitalism is flawed and a socialist movement will eventually occur, sending the government spiraling towards its final state, Communism. Orwell’s …show more content…
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. …show more content…
In every realistic situation in a Communist state, there will always be people who run the government and have more wealth than others leaving a pure form of Communism impossible to obtain. In 1984 a Communist culture is shown and represents a society that isn’t structured to look exactly like Communism. Overall the people of the state do not have a good life and the Thought Police are always on standby to break down rebellions little by little and take out rebels one at a time. The Thought Police function in this manner so that there isn’t a possibility of there ever being enough people to start a rebellion. By doing so, Big Brother is able to instill a fear amongst the people of the state, a fear of the unknown. The people, particularly the proletarians, are kept in line by being placed into a constant state of apprehension, fearful of not knowing what may happen to them. The party slogans and the actions of the Thought Police are used as governmental props to provide a false sense of security to the people of the state. The security provided leaves people in a position of confusion, where they don’t know if they are threatened by the Thought Police or comforted by their actions. This leaves them unsure of what course of action to take, forcing them into a docile and submissive position. Rebels within the 1984 society stand out
With the power hungry Party and the most acknowledged face of Big Brother watching and monitoring everybody, the story of “1984” by George Orwell expresses the utmost control over their people and have the absolute power with their country Oceania. The Party believes that Big Brother will live on forever, because of the constant removal of those who are unfaithful and the rewriting of history. However, with the example of the main character showing disobedience against the Party, there is a chance for this type of ruling to fail and be destroyed by the people. The main possible cause of the fall of Big Brother is most likely the underestimation of the power of the people.
One of these policies is described when Orwell states “It is deliberate policy to keep even the favored groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increase the importance of small privileges” (191). This idea of maintaining constant hardship in order to increase the importance of small actions is an important tool used by the government in the book. It allows them to garner public support incredibly easily by means of very small or near inconsequential actions, thus reducing the chance of revolution. Revolution against the government is further prevented by the society present in the story. This is due to the fact that although some citizens decidedly are against the Party, the restrictive atmosphere prevents them from networking with other like-minded individuals. This idea is characterized well by Winston when he explains that, “they talked of engaging in active rebellion against the Party, but with no notion of how to take the first step”. Thus, the difficulty in creating a popular revolutionary movement is exponentially more difficult. A final obstacle facing revolutionaries in 1984 is that they do not know whether or not their ideas represent the majority in the society. Its an incredibly important point because as Machiavelli points out, “whoever conspires always believes that he will satisfy the people with the death of the prince, but if he believes he
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.
Human history is full of hundred and millions of evil deeds, tragedies , wars and disasters. From the past decades the social and economic problems has a huge impact on human livings ,which are still existed in our world. Many novels and plays are being made on the social and economic aspects of life which are based on different literary lenses. The novel 1984 by George Orwell is all about the man named Hinston smith who lives in the society which is controlled by the political party leader named big brother. He decided to be a rebellion and to fight against the big brother and get out from this darkness eventually ended up dying at the end. the novel 1984 demonstrated the many fundamental themes as a perspective of Marxist theory. The
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
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
“1984” is a chilling dystopian novel written by George Orwell, set in the 1980’s, in London, in the continent Oceania. Oceania is ruled by the Party, and their dictator Big Brother. Big Brother controls Oceania through four ministries, Love, Truth, Peace and Plenty. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he changes the dates, articles and photos of things to match up with what Big Brother is saying. Big Brother watches everyone through telescreens, which are in every room, and anyone who speaks out, or thinks to rebel, or even doesn’t get to their house at the right time, vanishes. “Big Brother is watching you” is the Party’s slogan, and is plastered all across London. In their society, the ideas of individuality, freedom and opinions
The proletariat in 1984 might be a source of power for those to take advantage of, but they are also the basis of freedom that societies are
A society in which independent thinking is a crime punishable by death, the government does not think of the common good by which all of the society will benefit, and the leaders are self-serving. Big Brother doesn't need to justify its ways because it holds all of the power in society through its ministries. In the novel, 1984 by George Orwell, there is one theme that stands out the most from the point of view from Winston, the main theme of the book is that government’s intentions are not benevolent, but self-serving this is show through government control, population control, and
Marxist Theory focuses on the idea that whoever controls the means of production in a
To love Big Brother is to love having your freedom completely and utterly denounced. Now, these simple uses of contradiction can be taken in context, not everyone’s opinion is the same on what they believe to be nice and who they want to believe in. However, to downright change the meaning of a word to it’s exact opposite needs no opinion. With party slogans such as “war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength,” (Orwell 4), it is difficult to understand what the intentions of these slogans are. With further comprehension and deeper knowledge on using contradiction as a rhetorical strategy, it is known that their intentions are to trick people into believing an inaccurate statement. One key element that has been acknowledged is that these uses of contradiction are not used when describing the Golden Country. Orwell does this to show the difference between the typical totalitarian atmosphere in Winston’s flat compared to the blissful Golden
George Orwell was the pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair, and he was famous for his personnel vendetta against totalitarian regimes and in particular the Stalinist brand of communism. In his novel, 1984, Orwell has produced a brilliant social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia, that has made the world pause and think about our past, present and future, as the situation of 1984 always remains menacingly possible. The story is set in a futuristic 1984 London, where a common man Winston Smith has turned against the totalitarian government. Orwell has portrayed the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control. The way that Winston Smith, the central
1984 is the land of no history, a land with 100% political acceptance rating. The Soviet Union a time of terror, starvation, and distrust. The two are similar in many ways however every difficulty the USSR had to cope with no longer exists in 1984. For example both nations have gone out of their way to abolish foreign influences. Stalin had to cope with a constantly growing array of media platforms from hundreds of different countries. Whereas Oceania only had to deal with two other foreign powers. Both of which had no interest in spreading their culture or interacting with other nations. The USSR and Oceania also shared many other similarities. Like their extensive purges, encouraging people to snitch, and their Idolization of their political parties most prominent male figure.
1984 by George Orwell is a dystopian- an imagined place in which everything is unpleasant or bad- novel that tells of the alarming future. The novel tells of a totalitarian government (called the “Party”) that uses manipulation and intense surveillance to gain control over the minds of its citizens. Orwell writes,"war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength (6)". These three slogans are the core of the Party. Set in Airstip One, which is a province of the superstate Oceania, the protagonist Winston Smith, searches for independence from the social norms. In the beginning of the novel, Orwell describes posters that say “big brother is watching you (3)”. The “big brother” these posters are referring to is a man with a
History has shown that communism is not an effective way to rule society. This is apparent in the novel 1984 and with the reign of the Nazi era. In the book 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith is a average person living in Oceania, Airstrip One, England. Winston wants a better life, he wants a life of freedom and tries to fight against Big Brother and the corruption of the society it has built. Like Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s, The Party wants supreme government with full power over people and will manipulate its people beliefs by dividing the social classes, using propaganda, and terror to force people to conform.