The Role Of Children In 1984 By George Orwell

After reading George Orwell’s utopian polemic, 1984, I chose to discuss the role and importance of children of Oceania in said text. 1984 holds two contradictory views on children, the authorities and patrols see the children as a symbol of hope whereas parents detect their children as threats. Children offer hope for the strengthening of Oceania’s society regarding Big Brother’s ideals of how the society should be, because the children demonstrate strong loyalty only to Big Brother. Parents detect their children as threats regarding their ability to live among other common people without being surrendered to the authorities, for the speculation that the parents may hold thoughts and beliefs defiant to that of Big Brother’s, by their children.
Young children, between 7 and 13, are supposed to learn and unquestioningly accept the content their school books and TV’s provide them with - as well as, work to become model citizens. These children were born into loving hate, war, and most of all Big Brother. Children easily swallowed this lifestyle and their parents were too fearful of Big Brother to interfere and correct them, even before the children reached the age of 7. Some children proved to be a“Child hero” by turning in persons, often their parents, to the patrols, usually for thoughtcrime. These “Child Heroes” demonstrated to Big Brother that they were working to become model citizens. Parsons, Winston’s co-worker, when being apprehended with Winston in the Ministry of Love tells Winston that he is glad he was caught and proud of his daughter for turning him in. Also, many adolescents joined the Junior Anti-Sex League, an association admired by Big Brother and supported by his ideals, which advocated artificial insemination. This only emphasized and displayed Big Brother’s wish for pleasure in sex to be removed completely, and pleasure to be found only in war
Children not only produce the most savage yells at demonstrations, but for slight disrespect some would commit inhumane actions to the perpetrator. For instance, Parsons’ children set fire to a woman’s skirt for wrapping meat in a Big Brother poster. Children were taught that a lack of creativity is admirable, and falsities regarding history and the identification of weaknesses. By identification of weakness, I am primarily referring to Oceania’s popular chant “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” - and the glum, diabolical attitude it creates in children. Children, naive and malleable, are the next generation of the Oceania society. In 1984 it states,“The stability of the Party depended on the unquestioning, devoted drudges of people.” - and children offered that, since they sincerely wanted to prove their devotion to pleasing Big