Can Man Forget He Is Human?
Eng 12B
2/25/2013
“Can a Man Forget He Is Human?”
Upon reading the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, I was prompted to keep a question in my head as I read it. Erich Fromm questions,“can man forget that he is human?” or what is it to be Human. This question was undoubtedly adhered in my mind as I read the book and made me analyze the story in a big picture, comparing it to modern governments and pondering the deeper meaning of the text. My goal in writing this reading response is to debate, through George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, that it is possible for a totalitarian government to strip away Human characteristics in society by analyzing the various methods of control that the government bestows on it’s citizens.
There are many acceptable methods of enforcement in governments today but in the Novel, there are things like police terror, Indoctrination, censorship, and persecution which constantly enforce the rash motives of the party. These methods are to continually prevent crimethought so that the party can maintain its control over its citizens. Orwell describes the heavily guarded fortress that is the Ministry of Love, “The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within a half a kilometer of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business, and only then by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons.”(Orwell Pg.5). Orwell’s description of the ministry of Love provides an example of how the government is constantly in control over its citizens. The continuous watching creates fear in the population of Oceania and ultimately takes away their human rights turning them into robots carrying out the corrupt slogans of the
2/25/2013
“Can a Man Forget He Is Human?”
Upon reading the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, I was prompted to keep a question in my head as I read it. Erich Fromm questions,“can man forget that he is human?” or what is it to be Human. This question was undoubtedly adhered in my mind as I read the book and made me analyze the story in a big picture, comparing it to modern governments and pondering the deeper meaning of the text. My goal in writing this reading response is to debate, through George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, that it is possible for a totalitarian government to strip away Human characteristics in society by analyzing the various methods of control that the government bestows on it’s citizens.
There are many acceptable methods of enforcement in governments today but in the Novel, there are things like police terror, Indoctrination, censorship, and persecution which constantly enforce the rash motives of the party. These methods are to continually prevent crimethought so that the party can maintain its control over its citizens. Orwell describes the heavily guarded fortress that is the Ministry of Love, “The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within a half a kilometer of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business, and only then by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons.”(Orwell Pg.5). Orwell’s description of the ministry of Love provides an example of how the government is constantly in control over its citizens. The continuous watching creates fear in the population of Oceania and ultimately takes away their human rights turning them into robots carrying out the corrupt slogans of the