Totalitarianism In George Orwell's '1984'

Through his failure, Orwell portrays the dangers of a disunited society for the individual. Even though Winston willingly chose to oppose the Party and offered his life towards the eradication of his oppressors, his sacrifice proved futile without communal support to usurp the tyrannical regime. Despite the common suffering the people endured, their fear of the individual torment each would suffer motivated them to submit to the government. In Winston, Orwell highlights the frailty of an individual person in comparison to a mob. When imprisoned at the Ministry of Love, Winston’s will crumbled under torture and he even offered the life of the one individual he had earlier seemed hesitant to sacrifice, Julia. Hence, Orwell illustrates the need for a united social front for individuals to change the society in which they live in. Otherwise, self-preservation shall remain dominant within each individual, leaving them vulnerable to continuous manipulation through propaganda.

The text state’s “You will understand well enough how the Party maintains itself in power. Now tell me why we cling to power. What is our motive? Why should we want power? Go on, speak,’ he added as Winston remained silent...’You are ruling over us for our own good,’ he said feebly. ‘You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themselves, and therefore─’ He started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot through his body. O’Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five. ‘That was stupid, Winston, stupid!’ he said. ‘You should know better than to say a thing like that’…’Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power…Now do you begin to understand me?’(Orwell, 262-263). This embodies the fact that Winston still disobeys the Party and what they stand for. The text states “He could not fight against the Party any longer. Besides, the Party was in the tight. It must be so: how could the immortal, collective brain be mistake? By what external standard could you check its judgments? Sanity was statistical…He wrote first in large clumsy capitals: FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. Then almost without a pause he wrote beneath it: TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE…His mind, as thought shying away from something, seemed unable to concentrate. He

He implies this ideology on the government’s excessive use of Propaganda. The novel begins with Winston Smith, a protagonist, walking into his house gloomily. Inside his home, a “telescreen” play loudly and continuously. As Winston looks outside, he sees that, “Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black-mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own” (Orwell 6). Orwell implies the reality of how the totalitarian government is able brainwash people with the power of propaganda. By using imagery, “eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything,” he describes the vivid picture of a depressing environment of totalitarian society. This sequentially reflects people’s psychological mind due to the government’s misuse of propaganda. Orwell further stresses totalitarians’ abuse of power through the use of appeal to fear, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” This statement reminds the citizens who hold the

Orwell shows Winston’s state of mind. This passage shows a worrisome state that Winston is in. It also shows that a younger generation lacks independent thought and will do anything to show loyalty

Orwell misleads the reader through the characterization of O’Brien who at first is presented as a fellow rebel and a member of the Brotherhood but is revealed to be a zealous member of the Inner Party. The conflicting ideas posed through this character reflect the inability for Winston to trust what he knows. During Winston’s first acknowledgement of the other man he mentions his “coarse brutality” as well as his “delicacy of gesture.” These contrasting descriptions form the first images of ambiguity surrounding this character. Through the conflicting ideas presented we are led to trust Winston’s interpretation of the situation, despite the effect of unease that the contrast prompts. The narrator later considers O’Brien’s facial expression, “Perhaps it was not even unorthodoxy that was written in his

In George Orwell’s 1984, , the protagonist, Winston Smith, is living in a world where there is one source of power that controls everything, the party. Their control of knowledge is the source of their power. Winston wants to believe that he can do something to change the current situation to grant everyone what they need, freedom. The concept of freedom is a dangerous aspiration, the light at the end of the tunnel.Winston is enticed with his own idea of freedom. Although his idea of freedom is quite simple to exercise, through his overconfidence, misplaced trust and ignorance such aspirations become impossible for him to execute.

Orwell establishes Winston’s character. At this point in the story, Winston recognizes that is was insane to become hostile with The Party alone. He writes out Party slogans to convince himself that The Party is always right. This allows the reader to see that Winston is trying to become a believer in The Party but cannot escape is own independent

You see, George Orwell wanted people to take this book as an advice that people should defend the truth and that you need to fight for the truth and Winston executed that perfectly by rebelling against the Party, alongside with The Brotherhood. Winston rebelled by doing the opposite of what he should have done, like keeping a diary, having sexual affairs with women outside of his marriage, hating on the party; and hating Big Brother. George Orwell’s vision of humanity still exists in the future. It is likely to happen because in 1984 there was a quote somewhere along the lines of Winston saying “Do it to Julia!

George Orwell depicts control through a tyrannical government that seeks to control its people into complete submission. In this novel the main character “Winston Smith” tries to seek truth by looking beyond his tyrannical government, while his government seeks to destroy this curiosity in him. In the end the government wins in killing off the part of Winston that they considered a detriment to their dystopian reality. Unlike the allegory where the humans are only stopped by something much simpler to comprehend in this modern time.

Apart of the manipulation and fear the “government finally broke down Winston by threatened he with face eating rats Winston had a great fear of rates so that made to a punishment worse than it really was”(247). “Julia told Winston about the love affair when she was sixteen who later committed suicide to avoid arrest and a good job to him said Julia” (109). The combination of fear and pain caused Winston to betray his love for Julia. Orwell is trying to show that the human body is to choose our instinct for survival over greater

Winston’s life is replete with misery and pain, but has been give brief moments of happiness and love by Orwell to create a sense of hope for Winston, and subsequently, hope for a future free of the imprisonment of totalitarianism, although Orwell makes clear throughout the novel that there is no happy ending. Totalitarianism does not allow the possibility of such an ending to thrive in the minds of people; If Winston were to escape this fate, Orwell’s definition of totalitarianism and everything that encompasses it would have been lost. Orwell has written the book in a way that the readers become so attached with Winstons character that he gains a form of individuality that can only be given by the reader. Winston is a symbol of the values democracy, love, peace, freedom, and decency which are found within a civilized society. When the character of Winston is destroyed, these values and connection to the reader are also destroyed with him as Winston Smith is a representation of the struggle faced between bad and good in every aspect of

In Orwell’s novel he creates a fictional society in which the government rules all the people and holds complete power over everyone. The government is referred to as ‘The Party’ and they depict themselves and flawless, generous, and so very helpful to all of mankind. They feed the people lies and tell them that without them (The Party), the citizens would be hopeless and could not possibly survive. The government holds onto their widespread power by instilling fear upon all citizens. They openly let the people know that they have spies hidden everywhere, and they have various technological devices that will ensure that every person is acting exactly how the government wants them to. For example, the ‘telescreen’ was a device that was mandatory in every citizen’s house and was installed by the government. It was basically a video recorder that could watch a person’s every move, as well as read off important news from the government rulers. The main character in Orwell’s novel, Winston Smith, expresses his thoughts about the telescreen by realizing that “at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and,

The conflict in the quote above is a man vs society conflict, because winston is expressing his hate of the leader of the party(big brother), and his wish to see big brother's leadership fall. Winston is fighting against society, because big brother and the party control all aspects of of live in Oceania's society. It is considered a crime to go against Big Brother, and when caught people are killed by being shot in the neck. Winston already knows the consequences of his hate for Oceania's, and the fact that he still comitted "Thoughtcrime (Orwell 22)" shows the reader the dept of Winston's hatered for Oceania's government. Winston commits more crimes such as adultry, and disbelieving Ingsoc, he is eventually caught and taken to "the Ministry

This quote is important to the text because the author wants to convey the point that the Party will forever live on in the future because at this time, everyone was afraid of the totalitarian government but Winston which allows them to be able to take full control over the society. Orwell specifically added this to his novel because the Party has been present all throughout the book, therefore appealing to the audience that once one is a part of this society there is no going back and will learn to accept it, even if it requires manipulation to believe in this specific and controlling government. This quote stands out from the others because it establishes that there is no way around this government such as being convicted for thought crime

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.