preview

The Novel 1984 by George Orwell Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

1984, Orwell’s last and perhaps greatest work, deals with drastically heavy themes that still terrify his audience after 65 years. George Orwell’s story exemplifies excessive power, repression, surveillance, and manipulation in his strange, troubling dystopia full of alarming secrets that point the finger at totalitarian governments and mankind as a whole. What is even more disquieting is that 1984, previously considered science fiction, has in so many ways become a recognizable reality. Orwell uses Winston Smith, our main character, to exemplify the message he repeatedly tries to get across. Winston is a middle-aged man who is alone, or so it seems. It quickly becomes clear through his awkward behavior that he is constantly being …show more content…

He uses the themes of excessive power, surveillance, manipulation, and the like to describe a totalitarian regime that cannot fall. One of the most interesting themes in the book was portrayed in the ruling party’s use of manipulation. The ruling party uses constant bombardment of propaganda to diminish a person’s potential hate for the party. The idea was to twist a person’s hate of the party into hate to a wanted rebel (although it is never clear whether this rebel truly exists). They would lie and say that the rebel (who was known as Goldstein) wanted to hurt the people and cause havoc. The party would hold rallies for people to scream and yell and hate Goldstein, thereby focusing their rage on something besides the party. They knew that if you gave the people a common enemy, they would cooperate. The party would even lie about how lucky the population was compared to the rest of the world due to the auspices of “the Party”. The regime would also consistently monitor everyone, to make sure no one was speaking out, or even thinking of speaking out (which is considered a “thought crime”, and when noticed, the “thought police” will immediately be dispatched to punish the “criminal”). They would use the people to do unbelievable amounts of labor to provide

Get Access