1984 Historisism Lit Analy

22 March 2013
Barbara Tuchman stated that “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” Barbara Tuchman much like George Orwell saw literature as a gateway to our past and a prediction of our future. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984 Oceania is portrayed through the eyes of Winston Smith. Winston describes Oceania as a totalitarian government in which he is a member of the Outer Party. 1984 is George Orwell’s vision of a future England. Orwell’s inspiration of 1984 was created by the use of propaganda and fear Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin’s used to suppress their people.
The use of propaganda by the government of Oceania is mirrored to the use of propaganda in the Second World War. In 1984 the Ingsoc is the English socialist party in control. The Ingsoc uses its powers in the Ministry of Truth to control the press, entertainment, education and the arts. Hitler used the same control over the media and arts to express his ideas of extreme nationalism and racisms. 1984 referenced the manipulation of education with O’Brien stating “Who controls the past controls the future; that controls the present controls the past,” (Orwell, 248). The party uses this control of history to fool the people of Oceania that things are better than they were. This deception gives the people short memories so they believe everything they are told. The use of youth organizations is also a prevalent action of the Ingsoc. The Junior-Anti Sex League is similar to the Nazi version of the Hitler Youth and the Soviet’s Young Pioneer Organization. The idea of these organizations is to involve nationalistic feeling in the youth of the nation. The United States today even uses the Boy Scouts of America as a youth group to promote patriotism. The use of propaganda inflicts some voluntary cooperation among the people of Oceania while the use of fear forces cooperation, but if the citizens are unwilling there will be consequences.
The totalitarian society in 1984 used fear as a main weapon to force people to do as they wished. A quote from 1984 says “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” (Orwell, 4) This signage along with the “Big Brother’s Watching” posters placed on government buildings throughout Oceania causes the citizens to live in constant fear of surveillance. Telescreens are the Ingsoc way to watch your everyday movements. These screens are similar to the Nazi’s Gestapo and the Soviet’s KGB. These organizations instilled fear in every citizen because word of retaliation against the government could lead to death or imprisonment at forced labor camps. In 1984 Winston recalls the disappearance of his mother,
“He never saw his mother again. After he had devoured the chocolate he felt somewhat ashamed of himself and hung about in the streets for several hours, until hunger drove him home. When he came back his mother had disappeared. This was already becoming normal at that time. Nothing was gone from the room except his mother and his sister. They had not taken any clothes, not even his mother 's overcoat. To this day he did not know with any certainty that his mother was dead. It was perfectly possible that she had merely been sent to a forced-labor camp.” (Orwell, 163)
In a matter of hours Winston’s family was taken from him. The most important statement in this quote is the sentence “This was already becoming normal at the time.” (Orwell, 163) This shows the commonality of the situation Winston was in. The German’s and the Soviet’s maintained control over there citizens with forced labor camps as well. Hitler’s Final Solution wasn’t just organized towards the Jews it was for political opponents as well. The Soviets use of forced labor camps was present as well; Joseph Stalin sent political enemies or opponents to camps or exiled them. 1984’s propaganda and use of fear by the Ingsoc directly correlates to Hitler’s Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. Oceania’s control of propaganda was with Youth programs and manipulation of History much like Germany and the Soviet Union in Pre-World War II. Today there is even a modern form in America with the Boy Scouts of America to promote Nationalism. The use of fear by the two European dictators is similar to Oceania’s forced labor camps, suppression of opposition is prominent both in History and in 1984. George Orwell was warning the reader of a past he believed would repeat itself. We know today that his predictions of a totalitarian society in the year 1984 were incorrect, but today the idea is far from fiction. Orwell must have believed this quote from Sir Winston Churchill “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (Bowers, Web).

22 March 2013
Work Cited
Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print.
Bowers, Brenda. "And So I Go: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." And So I Go Yesterday Today and Tomorrow. Word Press, 10 May 2008. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.

Cited: Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print. Bowers, Brenda. "And So I Go: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." And So I Go Yesterday Today and Tomorrow. Word Press, 10 May 2008. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.