Examples Of A Dystopia In George Orwell's '1984'
Essay 1984 is a dreary dystopia written by George Orwell set in London, Oceana. This society is controlled by The Party that brainwashes everyone into believing a reality they create. Their ideas of love are nonexistent and sex is an act done solely to produce the next generation they can control. Ultimately, there is no existing feelings or ideas of love; affection and sensuality is a heinous crime. So the question applied to our existence is: Can a society based on hate survive? Our ability to think individually and form our own opinions and emotions towards people, situations, and the memories we collect is what allows us to thrive and obtain genuine happiness and fulfillment. “The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.” (George Orwell) All the negative trial and tribulations we go through is only worthwhile if our end result is happiness or satisfaction in the things we pursue. There is no motivating factor if we do not think there will be a reward at the end of it. The party combats this by choosing what each individual thinks and does so the desire to succeed or achieve is gone.
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The Party diminishes any way to acknowledge the emotions your mind, or metaphorical heart, wants to feel because there is no room for individual thinking.
“But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred.” (1984) “Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.” (George Orwell) It was more important to The Party to be feared than admired or respected. They felt that hate was essential to eliminate the possibility of opposition or alternative ideas that conflicted with
theirs.
A hate driven society can by definition operate somewhat efficiently through obedience but provides no reward or true satisfaction. A hate driven society will lead to its own destruction by promoting selfishness and envy. The two will lead to a constant dissatisfaction and if no one can ever feel love for what they have or themselves, they will thrive in a cycle of depression and despair. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair.“ (1984 Quotes) An absence of love would imply they have no empathy for the people around them. In turn, no boundaries would be set to prevent them from committing monstrous crimes and hate acts against each other. People would disregard the lives of others for person gains. Essentially, everyone would kill each other in pursuit of what they want.
Humans have a natural an undeniable desire to love and be loved even to the smallest extent. If that is gone, the ‘give and you shall receive’ way of achieving happiness leaves with it because you feel no need to give so much as take. When you’ve taken all you can, you do at the expense of the people you took from, killing their opportunities and even them. Enough people adapt this mindset and destruction will become everyone’s sole focus. Soon enough, there is nothing more to take, just a void that exists due to the absence of love.
The Party diminishes any way to acknowledge the emotions your mind, or metaphorical heart, wants to feel because there is no room for individual thinking.
“But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred.” (1984) “Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.” (George Orwell) It was more important to The Party to be feared than admired or respected. They felt that hate was essential to eliminate the possibility of opposition or alternative ideas that conflicted with
theirs.
A hate driven society can by definition operate somewhat efficiently through obedience but provides no reward or true satisfaction. A hate driven society will lead to its own destruction by promoting selfishness and envy. The two will lead to a constant dissatisfaction and if no one can ever feel love for what they have or themselves, they will thrive in a cycle of depression and despair. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair.“ (1984 Quotes) An absence of love would imply they have no empathy for the people around them. In turn, no boundaries would be set to prevent them from committing monstrous crimes and hate acts against each other. People would disregard the lives of others for person gains. Essentially, everyone would kill each other in pursuit of what they want.
Humans have a natural an undeniable desire to love and be loved even to the smallest extent. If that is gone, the ‘give and you shall receive’ way of achieving happiness leaves with it because you feel no need to give so much as take. When you’ve taken all you can, you do at the expense of the people you took from, killing their opportunities and even them. Enough people adapt this mindset and destruction will become everyone’s sole focus. Soon enough, there is nothing more to take, just a void that exists due to the absence of love.