Social Attitudes Of Freedom And Control By George Orwell And Fritz Lang

The characters presented in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis and George Orwell’s novel 1984 are unique in terms of their personalities however share similar values of freedom, purity and honesty. As a result, the comparative representation of characters in these texts has substantially informed my understanding that composers affirm values like individuality, freedom and equality in order to respond to contextual concerns and warn of a future where these values would not exist.

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.

First published in 1949, Orwell certainly believed that the novel would have some higher purpose in the political sphere, and it did. But perhaps it wasn’t the purpose that was truly intended? Nearly seventy years after its first appearance, 1984 can be found on many high school, college and political group reading lists. Coining terms such as “Big Brother,” or “thoughtcrime,” the novel created an entirely new type of dystopian society defined by many as “Orwellian.” But with close reading one can see that George Orwell wrote 1984 for a very specific purpose. In 1984 Orwell writes about the dangers of deviating from a true socialist society.

t has been sixty-six years since the first printing of George Orwell’s acclaimed book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Almost seven decades have passed and many still wonders, was Orwell right? Has our society become a totalitarian wasteland? Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel, taking place in what Orwell calls Airstrip One, or what is known today as England. When one closely observes the happenings in today’s world, one can see evidence of the Orwellian predictions that are established in the book. With those events, there are many parallels between Nineteen Eighty-Four and our society today with the usage of government surveillance, the decadence of language, and the annihilation of culture.

Orwell’s novel has played a significant role throughout history. At the time of its authorship in 1949 some countries were exhibiting horrific

Throughout the 1940’s the totalitarian governments of Nazi Germany and communist Russia served as a major influence for George Orwell’s 1984. 1984 incorporates the dangerous tools used by the fascist governments in Europe such as propaganda, party control, and the control of history used during the times. George Orwell was alive during a time where totalitarian governments were more common. This concerned Orwell causing him to write novels warning the people about the dangers this type of government can cause.

George Orwell’s warning of a dystopian society expressed in 1984 was heavily influenced by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany, and their use of brainwashing, desire for power, and torture tactics. 1984 mirrors the fascist Nazi empire, which was rapidly growing throughout Europe, and its effect on the people that lived within it. Because Orwell lived during a time where totalitarian governments were becoming more common his writings were impacted by these governments. These influences led him to write novels informing the people of the rest of the world of the dangers that these types of governments presented.

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is the ultimate negative utopia. Written in 1949 as an apocalyptic vision of the future, it shows the cruelty and pure horror of living in an utterly totalitarian world where all traces of individualism are being abolished. This novel was composed to denounce Hitler?s Germany and Stalin?s Russia and to create a warning to the rest of the world. It takes the reader through a year in the life of Winston Smith as he transforms from a rebel to a fanatic of totalitarianism.

Sean: Our session will focus on the way a comparison of the time and place within Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” reflects the wonder and fear of the 1920s and 1940s. Specifically focusing on the ideas of “Power and control, and Mind Manipulation, the eradication of the individual.

George Orwell often criticizes totalitarian regimes as being dangerous and exercising too much control throughout his dystopian novel, 1984. Written only a few years after World War 2, during which Europe experiences years of destruction at the hands of totalitarian regimes seeking global control, Orwell draws much of his influence of 1984 from this era. Through the use of exaggerations and tone of the novel, Orwell seeks to condemn totalitarian regimes for wielding too much control.

Within the timeframe that 1984 was written many conflicts were taking place around the world, namely the Cold War, a proxy war, based on the conflict between the Unites States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR). The Cold War era was a time when democracy was pitted against communism in a race for world power. In fact, America, a liberalist society, silently fought the communistic society of the Soviet Union. Therefore, George Orwell’s, 1984, is a dystopian novel that portrays the ultimate totalitarian society through the manipulation and fabrication of the environment in order to gain psychological control.

He wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in the 1940s, during the onset of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Just five years before publishing, the Tehran Conference had set out to create distinct zones of influence in the world. Orwell used these zones as inspiration for the novel’s three perpetually warring totalitarian states: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. He viewed the world as heading into a totalitarian state should the war escalate, and paralleled the events that unfolded in his novel. Six years earlier, in his 1943 essay “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” Orwell says, “Nazi theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as ‘the truth’ exists. ... The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ – well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five – well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs” (Orwell, “Looking Back on the Spanish War”). Looking at the horrors that came out of the Nazi Party, as well as the crimes against humanity, Orwell was able to see the harsh realities of near-totalitarianism being carried out. Hitler was grasping at absolute power, and the results were devastating. Orwell saw this, as well as the reaction of society

"Big Brother Is Watching You” (Orwell 1). One may ponder the thought of living in a world where the powers that be controlled, every step one takes and every move one made. Image the control being so drastic that it controlled one’s telepathic thought. There have been many who envisioned the thought of government surveillance. One of these visionaries is George Orwell. Orwell implemented his warnings to private citizens of his era, about these dangers through fictional writing. On June 8, 1949, George Orwell published a book titled 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (GWB). In his book, Mr. Orwell effectively shapes the aspects of how the ramifications of World War II opened the doorway to a radical totalitarian government.

By examining how societies consider their inhabitants, composers raise concerns about the direction their respective societies were heading. Fritz Lang’s German expressionist film, Metropolis (1927), conveys contemporary fears about an increasingly industrialised Europe by portraying a futuristic cityscape built on the subjugation of the working class. In contrast, George Orwell’s polemic satire on totalitarianism, 1984 (1949), draws on events in Stalinist Russia, presenting a surveillance-based regime whose goal is to destroy the human spirit in pursuit of permanent power. In both dystopian texts, the characters’ attempts to cling to their humanity reflect the indomitability of the human spirit, but their struggle encourages the composers’

Dystopian societies illustrate how historical contexts can influence the political and social values of the time, exploring the extent of the potential for exploitation of power. Fritz Lang’s German expressionist film, ‘Metropolis’ (1927) and George Orwell’s satirical novel ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ (1949) dramatise the impact of oppressive controlling forces upon the individual illustrating an abuse of power, emphasising the potential of its exploitation of the populist. Lang reflects the anxieties of the Weimar Republic, under the hyperinflation after World War I, highlighting the consequences of rapid industrialisation and the subsequent disunity between the working and upper classes, whilst