Uncertainty In 1984

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.

The prophetic nightmare of George Orwell gives us many warnings that are becoming increasingly true in our modern society; however, among all of the auguries and prediction none rival his warning about the severity of our reliance on technology. He shows us the dangers of technology through the protagonist Winston’s eyes. The prophecies in this novel are ones that we need to head in today’s society. With apparent advancements in technology we have begun to fall down the same awful Orwellian spiral, loosing to technology our privacy and thought.

Nations all around the world are still healing from the wounds of twentieth century totalitarianism, yet more seems to be on the horizon. In his 1984 magnum opus, George Orwell warns future generations of the many dangers of allowing government, or the powerful few, from being the chiefs of law expression and history using the eerie, all-powerful dystopian Party. Unfortunately, it is a warning few have truly heeded in the past half century. Resulting from a lack of written laws, the Party may prosecute its citizens relentlessly and without reason. Moreover, the Party maintains an iron grip on all published information, ensuring a death hold on all free expression and education. Yet, above all, the Party controls history; it rewrites, revises and republishes the past to secure their totalitarian future. In spite of these warnings, the decades following the publication of this novel saw nations continue on the

George Orwell’s work of fiction 1984 is a futuristic, dystopian novel about citizens living in a totalitarian London. In this society, the government maintains power by controlling as many aspects of its citizens’ lives as it possibly can. The protagonist, Winston Smith, attempts to fight against the government’s controlling ways. For some time, critics have argued that this book was intended as a warning of the scenarios that could emerge if citizens traded freedom for security and allowed governments to take away too many of their rights. 1984 is a powerful warning against the risk of allowing governments to control too many aspects of the lives of their citizens through propaganda and the acquisition of personal information. These methods

Whether Orwell is recreating the ghastly atmosphere of fear and torture in Nazi Germany or in the most repressive part of the Stalinist regime, we see clearly the opposition between the charismatic leader and his inner corps of privileged lieutenants, and the collective mass of dehumanised persons who are no longer individuals. Paradoxically,

How does our past define us? What does it mean to be human? What is the meaning of life? George Orwell’s 1984 considers such questions through a harsh, depressing viewpoint by putting an average man like Winston Smith into an environment where every single act and thought is monitored. Through this perspective Orwell creates a dystopian future which is unique: not a zombie-infected world or the Wasteland, but a future that could happen without us even realising it. A future where the destruction of the truth, the removal of human dreams, emotions and privacy, completely and utterly destroys the very meaning of life itself.

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.

In both 1984 and Brave New World, the purposeful installation of an ignorant society by the government plays a role in limiting individual rights. Through the statement “history is bunk”, Brave New World brings to attention one of the central ideas generated in 1984 (Huxley 34). In Orwell’s novel, history is used to shape the present and is wielded on a daily basis in order to provide a source that consistently supports the Party’s actions; it can then be understood that humans unethically lose access to truth and authenticity. Likewise, in Brave New World individuals are cemented in the present because it is lodged in their brains from birth that history has no value; in fact, “reflexes [were] unalterably conditioned” so that people in the

With the power of altering the past, it gives the people no say and no knowledge of the history that came before them. Many are unaware the “Knowledge exists,” (34) of their past. They are not given a choice of choosing the right of deciding whether or not to alter the past. Their voice is lost. Only a handful of people know the truth and besides the government, Winston, is one of them.

Government mutilation of the past is a topic that resurfaces frequently throughout 1984. In Oceania, the Party has complete control over printed materials, including all literature and records. The Party continuously alters information to frame the past in such a way that ensures their image remains untainted. With history twisted in their favor, the Party is able to maintain admiration from Party members, and therefore, power and control. The book suggests lacking access to accurate, unadulterated history causes society to be more easily subjugated and susceptible to obstructions of justice. In the book, Party members blindly accept information presented to them by the government because they simply know no better. They have no objective knowledge

The manipulation of information in 1984 is a significant factor of its continual submission of its citizens to the Great Power. Changing information may also lead to the power of changing the past. This is obvious and an intention of Big Brother, his continual success is bleakly based upon his power to lie. There are scenarios we see today that perfectly incorporate to 1984.

Readers of George Orwell have long appreciated the significance of his representation of a futuristic dystopian world. ‘Big brother is watching you,’ ‘Thought police,’ ‘Ministry of love,’ ‘Hate week,’ are expressions that Orwell used to represent his preoccupation with the totalitarian regimes of 20th century. More than one out of four Americans said they have red his dystopia and use his expressions in their language. Many critics claim that the novel opened up new prospects of political awareness. ‘1984’ is a political fiction in which the government eliminates all forms of political opposition, be it real or imaginary. The atmosphere of the novel is completely depressing because there is no hope for change. The government dominates people morally and forces them to live in constant fear. His terrifying vision of a future in which all aspects of society are controlled by a tyrannical system attracted the

“1984” by George Orwell is one of the best books ever written, not only in the twentieth century, but perhaps in the whole history of mankind. Orwell writes about a society where a totalitarian government controls the whole world. One of the main themes Orwell discusses in his novel is history itself. But first, what is history? In this case, we could describe history as the collective memory of a society. And history is important because it helps us know who we are and where we came from; history also helps us to compare between the present and the past, to change our future. Orwell describes how the Party in his book uses the memory, and thus, the history, of the society as a form of control through manipulation and forgery. Throughout, he demonstrates one thing: without our memory, without our history, we are nothing.

As the future nears, most of humanity is starting to realize that “2+2=5”(. There is manipulation that occurs constructed by the government to control every aspect of reality, technology taking human jobs, those who control the present write history, social hierarchy, and wars that have no purpose. 1984 by Eric Arthur Blair is known by his pen name, George Orwell may not have just been a postmodernism science fiction novel, but even a warning from his disillusionment present and Orwell’s fear of it’s coming in the future. George Orwell used his gift of

Living in a world that continues to make advancements technologically and politically, a book written more than 50 years ago still warns the world of what could happen if government becomes too forceful. Because of George Orwell's strong hatred for totalitarianism and its life dictating qualities, readers can get a taste of the perfect "dystopia". Though the people of today have been warned and are afraid of an all controlling government, they continue to allow the concept of 1984 to become more and more real. If people continue to just watch their governments make decisions and not ask questions, they will fall victim to its power. If a man not of this time understands the terror of totalitarianism, everyone should