novel analysis

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NOVEL ANALYSIS
(1984- GEORGE ORWELL)

Submitted by: Submitted to:
Bacolod, Jon Clare M. Ms. Razel Borromeo
III-Magnanimity A.Y. 2013-2014
In partial fulfillment to the requirement of the subject ENGLISH III

I. AUTHOR’S BIO NOTE

(25 June 1903-21 January 1950)
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Bengal, India, in 1903, into a middle-class family. The son of a British civil servant, Orwell was brought to England as a toddler. The boy became aware of class distinctions while attending St. Cyprian’s preparatory school in Sussex, where he received a fine education but felt out of place. He was teased and looked down upon because he was not from a wealthy family. This experience made him sensitive to the cruelty of social snobbery.
As a partial-scholarship student whose parents could not afford to pay his entire tuition, Orwell was also regularly reminded of his lowly economic status by school administrators. Conditions improved at Eton, where he studied next, but instead of continuing with university classes, in 1922 he joined the Indian Imperial Police. Stationed in Burma, his class-consciousness intensified as he served as one of the hated policemen enforcing British control of the native population. Sickened by his role as imperialist, he returned to England in 1927 and resigned his position. He planned to become a writer, a profession in which he had not before shown much interest.
In 1928, perhaps to erase guilt from his colonial experiences, he chose to live amongst the poor of London, and later, Paris. In Paris, he published articles in local newspapers, but his fiction was rejected. His own life finally provided the material for his first book, published in 1933. Down and Out in Paris and London, which combined fictional narrative based on his time spent in those two cities with social criticism, was his first work published as George Orwell. The pseudonym was used so his parents would not be shocked by the brutal living conditions described in the book. The next year, Orwell published Burmese Days, a novel based on his stay in Burma. Subsequent novels contain autobiographical references and served as vehicles for Orwell to explore his growing political convictions.
In 1936, Orwell traveled to Barcelona, Spain, to write about the Spanish Civil War and ended up joining the battle, fighting against Spanish leader Francisco Franco on the side of the Republicans. Wounded, he returned to England. Two nonfiction books, The Road to Wigan Pier, a report on deplorable conditions in the mining communities of northern England, and Homage to Catalonia, the story of his participation in the Spanish Civil War, allowed Orwell to explicitly defend his political ideas. Dozens of pointed essays also revealed his political viewpoint.
By that time, Orwell clearly saw himself as a political performer whose tool was writing. He wrote in a 1946 essay, “Why I Write,” that “every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”
Orwell’s next book, Animal Farm, a fable about the events during and following the Russian Revolution, was well liked by critics and the public. He had had trouble finding a publisher during World War II because the work was a disguised criticism of Russia, England’s ally at the time. When it was finally published, just after the war, however, it was a smashing success.
The money Orwell made from Animal Farm allowed him, in 1947, to rent a house on Jura, an island off the coast of Scotland, where he began to work on 1984. His work was interrupted by treatment for tuberculosis, which he had contracted in the 1930s, and upon his release from the hospital in 1948, Orwell returned to Jura to complete the book. Under doctor’s orders to work no more than one hour a day, but unable to find a typist to travel to his home, he typed the manuscript himself and collapsed upon completion of the book. For the next two years he was bedridden. Many critics claim that Orwell’s failing health may have influenced the tone and outcome of the novel, and Orwell admitted that they were probably right.
Orwell did plan to write other books, according to his friends, and married while in the hospital, but three months later, in 1950, he finally died of tuberculosis.

II.BACKGROUND OF THE NOVEL
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel by George Orwell published in 1949.The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the super state Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public mind control, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or, in the government 's invented language , Newspeak, called Ingsoc) under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite that persecutes all individualism and independent thinking as "thoughtcrimes".The tyranny is epitomised by Big Brother, the quasi-divine Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality, but who may not even exist. Big Brother and the Party justify their oppressive rule in the name of a supposed greater good, The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party who works for the Ministry of Truth (or minitrue), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to re-write past newspaper articles so that the historical record always supports the current party line.Smith is a diligent and skilful worker, but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother.
George Orwell "encapsulate the thesis at the heart of his unforgiving novel" in 1944, and three years later wrote most of it on the Scottish island of Jura, from 1947 to 1948, despite being seriously ill with tuberculosis. On 4 December 1948, he sent the final manuscript to the publisher Secker and Warburg and Nineteen Eighty-Four was published on 8 June 1949. By 1989, it had been translated into sixty-five languages, more than any other novel in English at the time. The title of the novel, its themes, the Newspeak language, and the author 's surname are often invoked against control and intrusion by the state, while the adjective Orwellian describes a totalitarian dystopia characterized by government control and subjugation of the people. Orwell 's invented language, Newspeak, satirizes hypocrisy and evasion by the state: for example, the Ministry of Love (Miniluv) oversees torture and brainwashing, the Ministry of Plenty (Miniplenty) oversees shortage and famine, the Ministry of Peace (Minipax) oversees war and atrocity, and the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue) oversees propaganda and historical revisionism.
In the novel 1985 (1978), Anthony Burgess suggests that Orwell, disillusioned by the onset of the Cold War (1945–91), intended to call the book1948. The introduction to the Penguin Books Modern Classics edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four reports that Orwell originally set the novel in 1980, but he later shifted the date first to 1982, then to 1984. The final title may also be a permutation of 1948, the year of composition. Throughout its publication history, Nineteen Eighty-Four has been either banned or legally challenged as subversive or ideologically corrupting, like Aldous Huxley 's Brave New World (1932); We (1924), by YevgenyZamyatin; Kallocain (1940), by Karin Boye; and Fahrenheit 451 (1951), by Ray Bradbury.[14] In 2005, Time magazine included Nineteen Eighty-Four in its list of the one hundred best English-language novels since 1923. Literary scholars consider the Russian dystopian novel Weby Zamyatin, to have strongly influenced Nineteen Eighty-Four.

III.ELEMENTS OF THE STORY

Symbols
Victory Gin, Victory Cigarettes
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Discontented with his life, Winston turns to vices as a means of escape and self-medication. In Winston’s case, it’s alcohol and cigarettes. He drinks gin to sedate his paranoia, like that time he downs a shot or two before finally writing in his journal. He smokes cigarettes for a similar reason: to calm himself down. These common vices help Winston check his doubts and paranoia at the door.
The Red-Armed Prole Woman
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Winston sees this woman as a symbol of freedom. Party members never sing, but hearing her song through the window of his rented room fills Winston – and soon, Julia – with hope for the future. What is this hope? That the proles will become cognizant of their plight and rebel against the Party. After all, Winston reasons, the Proles constitute the only group capable of success because of their sheer size (85% of Oceania population). Unfortunately, as Winston and Shmoop note, the proles aren’t smart enough to get their act together. Thwarted again.

The paperweight, the old man in the prole bar, St. Clement 's Church
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
The paperweight and St. Clement’s Church have SYMBOL written all over them. These items are remnants of the past that, because of the Party’s control, no longer have any basis in "reality." By surrounding Oceanians with propaganda, party doctrine and contradictory "facts," the people of Oceania no longer have a past. Their memories aren’t even reliable because, after all, what would you think if you distinctly recall X, but X is nowhere to be found in dictionaries or historical documents. Even your friends give you are "are you crazy?" look when you ask them. Thus, in Oceania, it becomes impossible for people to question the Party’s authority. Not to mention that whole threat-of-torture thing.
The ubiquitously placed Telescreens
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
With their dual ability to blast Party propaganda and to view and hear the exact goings-on in a room, these telescreens are a visible symbol as well as the direct means of the Party’s constant monitoring of its subjects. They also symbolize the tendency of totalitarian governments to abuse technology to further their own ends instead of to improve living standards.

Big Brother
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. Scared yet? Big Brother is the face of the Party, the leader behind the great power. The best part is that we never come to confirm his actual existence. He might not even be real. Maybe the Party just hired an intimidating-looking male model to make those posters. The face of the Party, Big Brother acts as reassurance and a trustworthy entity for many (his name is warm and fuzzy and easy to embrace). Yet, he is also your biggest enemy and threat – if you are one of the criminals (he is watching your every move).

Emmanuel Goldstein
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
The ultimate symbol of opposition to the Party, we are not sure whether Goldstein actually exists. Publicly, he is known as a Party enemy, but he actually serves the Party’s purposes as a scapegoat. Every time something goes bad or wrong, the Party attributes it to Goldstein – conveniently. Could Goldstein be a device created by the Party? We wouldn’t put it past those guys.

Julia 's Scarlet Anti-Sex Waist Sash
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
This represents a citizen’s devotion to Party doctrine and Party cause. A symbol of chastity in the book, Julia’s sash actually represents her duality. A devout Party member by appearance, Julia uses the sash to disguise her true actions (she has sex all the time).

Winston 's Mother
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Appearing only in his dreams and memories, Winston’s mother represents better, pre-Party days when life was safe and not quite so oppressive. As the novel progresses, however, we also come to see that she represents Winston’s intense sense of guilt. If Winston didn’t actually kill his parents (and we’re leaning toward this), then Winston’s mother is the epitome of a pleasant past colored by the lies and manipulation of the Party.
The Place Where There Is No Darkness
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
This phrase first comes to Winston in a dream, when he imagines that this is where O’Brien wants to meet him. Heavy foreshadowing here, because he does indeed get here eventually – at the Ministry of Love, where the lights never go out. This symbolizes Winston’s ultimate, doomed fate. It’s also more of Oceania’s ironic use of language. The place of NO darkness is metaphorically the darkest and gloomiest location. Unless you think rats and torture are all sunshiny and happy.

Winston 's Varicose Ulcer Above His Ankle
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
A thing that swellings and itches, and after you scratch it, flakes. Sounds gruesome, right? So is sexual repression. Have you noticed how the ulcer seems to bother Winston most in the mornings? How about when its symptoms subside after he starts seeing Julia? Or how it becomes engorged again when Winston is separated from Julia? Exactly.
Memory Holes
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
These were only briefly mentioned in the novel, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant. Memory holes are those things in the ground that the Party insists any scraps of paper get tossed into. They lead to a furnace. Let’s think about this for a second. Memory…furnaces…memory…are memories being burned here? Why yes, they are. By destroying paper, the Party destroys documents and therefore evidence of the past. Which, given all the thought control going on, would seem to be the only real link left to history. Well, it was, anyway, until it got sent to the furnace.

IV.ANALYSIS
Thesis Statement: Nearly every aspect of the society presented in 1984 by George Orwell is controlled, including the most natural impulses of sex and love.
The telescreen is the main element of the story. The whole society is under its supervision. The idea of always being watched changes life drastically. It doesn’t matter where or who you are, you can be arrested, betrayed en deleted out of life and history. Society is controlled including the most natural impulses of sex and love. Nobody is allowed to be themselves to form their own opinion and to be an individual. Everything and everyone works in the interest of the State. Family ties as we have now are completely unthinkable. Even parents who raise their children according to the rules of the State run the risk of being reported for treason by their own children. There is no room for such a thing as parental love or falling in love.
When Winston receives the note from Julia he knows she is also opposed to the State. She wrote that she loved him and he loves her, too. But are they really in love or is it just the joy of being able to share the hate against the State? Because when you never get the chance to love someone, it could be just an explosion of pent-up feelings. I think that the idea of finding someone you always hoped they would exist, can bring about such a deep bond that may be considered love. From this you can see how extensive the influence of Big Brother is. But how does he operate?
Double Think is the mayor way the Party controls its members. Double think is the principal method why people consciously accept anything the Party tells them even if they know it can’t be true. They change the facts of life everyday and make up their own history. One day they change the country they in war with. Winston changes reports of the past so that almost every record of the past completely disappears. Everybody should be able to remember the old enemy but nobody seems to dare to oppose the change.
I was left with the question how this could come about. In this society even love isn’t allowed. Winston is about 40 years old and remembers some things from his childhood, he notices that things are changed to support and maintain the State. He can’t be the only one of his age group who recognizes these things. I think that many people knew what was going on but were too afraid to go against it. And so many people lived like Winston did, alone and frightened. May be after a while they were brainwashed but when the Party just started they didn’t do anything to stop it. Even though the numbers may be large, the fear can be too great to be conquered.
But on the other hand it’s a novel of ideas. The story is meant to set us thinking about the dangerous of a totalitarian society. In which characters are less important. I thought it was an good en interesting book.

V.BIBLIOGRAPHY
* Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen-Eighty Four, WWW.novelexplorer.com
* Orwell, George (1949). Themes, WWW.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/themes.html
* Orwell, George (1949), articles about the novel 1984, WWW.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/1984-background-info-html
* Orwell, George (1949), thesis statement, WWW.paperstarter.com/1984/htm http://www.shmoop.com/1984/symbolism-imagery.html

Bibliography: * Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen-Eighty Four, WWW.novelexplorer.com * Orwell, George (1949). Themes, WWW.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/themes.html * Orwell, George (1949), articles about the novel 1984, WWW.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/1984-background-info-html * Orwell, George (1949), thesis statement, WWW.paperstarter.com/1984/htm http://www.shmoop.com/1984/symbolism-imagery.html