The Effects of Alienation in 1984

The term alienation refers to the isolation of one’s self from a belonging society. When a person is alienated they no longer feel as if they belong or have the same views as the group or society they live in. How does one become alienated from something that they once belonged to? This is a question many have discussed throughout history. In Voltaire’s book Candide, Marx’s book The Communist Manifesto, Hoffer’s The True Believer, and Memmi’s The Colonizer and the Colonized, all these authors address man’s alienation in modern society and come up with solutions for man’s alienation within each book.

Sukarno once said, “The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a human being is isolation.” In George Orwell’s 1984, the main character Winston Smith deals with isolation. 1984 takes place in an authoritarian society where how one thinks could get them killed. Winston struggles to find someone to shares his anti-government thoughts throughout the novel with his interactions with two main characters, Julia and O’Brien. Although Julia provides Winston with a much desired physical relationship, O’Brien ultimately justifies Winston’s anti-Big Brother thoughts, because of his high position in society.

Man no longer exercises his essence as a species-being in productive labour for the good of others, but on the contrary, he becomes detached from his essence and the product of his labour is abstracted as a means to produce for the sake of capital. In this sense man becomes reduced to nothing but a machine; the more capital the product of his labour acquires, the more the worker will be encouraged to produce through the influence of wages. The appeal of this profit for the worker sustains his alienated state by further sacrificing his ‘body and spirit’ for the sake of his wages;

Social aspects in the novel 1984 conforms to the conventions of the dystopian genre. Specifically, fear of the outside world and foreign people is spread to promote reliance on the government. “Then the sheep-face melted into the figure of an Eurasian soldier who seemed to be advancing, huge and terrible, his submachine gun roaring and seeming to spring out of the surface of the screen, so that some of the people in the front row actually flinched backwards in their seats. But then in the same moment, drawing a deep sigh of relief from everybody, the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother…” (Orwell 15). This was Orwell’s description of the climax, when the treacherous Goldstein turns into an Eurasian killing machine by spraying

In the novel 1984 by George Orwell there are many causes which lead to Winston Smith’s alienation. Winston lives in the dystopian society known as Oceania, which is controlled by the “Party” and a dictator named “Big Brother.” “Big Brother” watches over and controls the thoughts and actions of the citizens in Oceania. Winston feels oppressed by the control of the “Party”. The actions of the “Party” affect Winston and lead him to feel alienated. To alienate is to make someone feel indifferent. One way alienation is defined as is, “alienation, in social sciences, the state of feeling estranged or separated from one’s milieu, work, products of work, or self”. (Alienation Society) In 1984 it is very evident that

Alienation is when someone is being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should be involved. Throughout The novels Ordinary People by Judith Guest, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and the play Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, alienation is shown. In Ordinary People, Conrad suffers from depression. His brother Buck died in a Boat accident which Conrad feels responsible for. Ever sense that Conrad and his family have never been the same. Conrad falls apart and struggles with everything from school to just life. He does not want to be around anymore. He alienates himself from his friends, family, and just his life goes down hill. His depression causes alienation which results in him wanting to end it all and commit suicide. In Frankenstein, The Monster that Victor Frankenstein creates is alienated right from the start. Doing this to the monster effects him in a very bad way. As a result the monster looks and others perceive him as a terrible beast while really he just wants people and victor to treat and think of as a human. He is alienated from society which leads to him causing many problems and wanting to get revenge by ruining his creator, Victor Frankenstein’s life. Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus, alienates himself from everyone as a result of the curse he proposed in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus feels that he has to follow through with the curse because it is the noble thing to do. He leaves Thebes and wanders for years in exile until he comes upon the holy ground of

Like many I was aware of the eugenics movement in the United States in the 1920’s. However, after reading the story of Carrie Buck and learning more about the nature of the procedurals involved in these sterilizations I have a new found understanding of the roles Power and Othering played in the unlawful tests conducted on Carrie buck and many members of her family. The way in which those elite of the 1920’s mimics the party and the thought police in George Orwell’s 1984, is incredibly interesting to ponder. There are even instances of power and othering having the exact effects among nations today as well. The similarities between these major themes that we have continuously

Throughout the countless eons of human civilization, the desire for ultimate power and control over resources, people, and/or general geographical areas is very prevalent. This authoritarian mindset resonates with the high class of past peoples and that of the three countries in 1984 by George Orwell. The Party preserves itself by the ultimate interventional espionage of one’s own people and criminalized animalistic instincts. The Party also isolates the people from those of the other two countries as to prevent dissidence amongst the poles. Naturally, this suppression of deep-rooted characteristics proves to spawn a variety of incidents for the Party and the people.

In the process of eliminating the thought of the people, the Party is able to not only monitor the human actions, but also restrict what can and can’t be thought of. In order to make sure that these “robots” stay stable, “It is deliberate policy to keep even the favored groups somewhere near the brink of hardship…”(Orwell 196). The “deliberate policy” shows that it was intended by the government of Oceania to keep the citizens, “favored groups”, near hardship. These hardships, times of deprivation, are a way for the Party to be the fallback for the people. When citizens don’t know what to do, they look up to Big Brother for encouragement. Hardships are also times of when people need comfort, and once again the Party is there with arms wide open to assure that those in need of help are secured. The difficulties of the people are used as a weapon by the Party. Being the one entity that is looked up to during times of despair and confusion allows for the loyalty of the people to strengthen even more so. The brainwashed citizens believe that the Party is the one true savior and are unified by not only a common enemy but by a common guardian. Through feeling this “affection” from the Party the people have a sense of safety and security which makes them believe even more in the words of Big Brother. As a child looks for their parent for assurance that

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

Marx’s theory of alienation is concerned primarily with social interaction and production; he believes that we are able to overcome our alienation through human emancipation.

Alienation, a term used to describe the feeling of no connection with others or the separation from former attachment. When it comes to sociologist aspect, especially on Marxism, this term describes the stage of losing one’s identity. To Karl Marx’s belief, Alienation means the loss of control over the process and product of work (Bell, 1959). Thus, under the capitalism, workers are alienated by the production system.

THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.

Topic: One of the essential elements to Marx’s alienation concept is that of people or workers being alienated from each other under capitalism, it is still relevant in explaining the problems of the modern world.

Alienation refers to the prospect of isolation in existentialism. It is a part of existentialism because for one to have an existential mindset, they must differ from the rest of the common thoughts and formulate them on their own. This results in an unavoidable isolation from everybody else. Before Andy asked Red for a rock-hammer, Red knew, “Andy had no cell-mate, and … that was just the way he wanted it” (King 27).