Imagine living in a world where politics are everything and all forms of individuality and personal identities are shattered. A world where everybody is stripped of their rights to talk, act, think, or even form their own opinions, simply because they do not agree with the government’s beliefs. These aspects are just a few of the examples of things dictators would have control over in a totalitarianism form of government. Aggressive leaders such as Hitler and Joseph Stalin are examples of such dictators. They used their power for terror and murder, and their motive is simply to maximize their own personal power. George Orwell had witnessed World War II, the fall of Hitler and Stalin’s dictatorships, and the fatal outcomes that have come from these governments. To warn future generations of the harsh effects of totalitarianism governments, he wrote the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Published in 1946, Nineteen Eighty-Four describes life in a totalitarianism form of government, following the main character, Winston Smith, as he takes risks in discovering how he believes life should truly be. Literary critic Irving Howe states, “Were it possible, in the world of 1984, to show human character in anything resembling genuine freedom...it would not be the world of 1984” (62). In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the government uses its power to suppress individuality among the people.…
Cellphones and technology have become a major part of todays’ society. A totalitarian government is centralized and has total control over its people. On the other hand a democratic government makes major decisions through majority vote. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Winston’s perspective depicts his life living in Oceania under a totalitarian. In this age of cell phones and mobile devices equipped with recording capabilities, when anyone says or does could wind up on the “internet” within minutes, showing similar tactics as Big Brother, but not entirely. Oceania’s totalitarian government is different from contemporary Canada by eliminating independent rights, creating psychological control and allowing no freedom of any sort.…
George Orwell’s 1984 is a book about an average man and his troubled life in the year 1984. The story takes place not in the 1984 that we know to have come and past, but in sort of communist ruled era that Orwell originally portrayed in 1949. The book centers upon Winston Smith, a simple man who works for the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history as seen fit by the government, or as it is called in the novel, the ‘Party.’ 1984 takes place in the city of London, which is now located in a country called ‘Oceania’. The residents of Oceania are divided into three main social/economic castes; the ‘Inner Party’ (upper class government officials), the ‘Outer Party’ (middle class government workers), and the ‘Proles’ (regular citizens.) The inner Party rules over Oceania in a shockingly dark and oppressive manner. The Party controls every aspect of life for the residents of Oceania, and they do so in some arguably inhumane ways.…
Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920 until his death in 1953. He has done a lot of good things for his country but during his reign, he also has a lot of mistakes and these mistakes we also can see in the story called 1984. 1984 tells the story of a country’s authoritarian regime and the “big brother” in this country how to maintain his regime. I find a lot of common between the Stalinist regime and the regime from 1984. I put my point or view is divided into three parts, and now I will describe it one by one.…
Orwell did not change anything about Totalitarianism when interpreting into the novel. He put on worshipping country leaders, strong dislike, and war hysterics. Children are brought up in families to work for the government as spies. They watch their elders both day and night (Voorhes 88). Big Brother is supposed to represent a soft element from a children’s story to society. Yet to the readers, he represents a political monster to add to Orwell’s science fiction novel, with horror elements mixed in. 1984 may have been inspired by the super-weapons of the cold war. The technology used in the cold war made a ‘social demand’. These technological advancements all served for the purpose to spread mass murder or even to at least intimidating sheer elimination. This can be seen throughout the novel, like when Syme disappeared (Deutscher 119-120). “ He lunged out a huge filthy pipe which was already half full of charred tobacco. With the tobacco ration at a hundred grams a week, it was seldom possible to fill a pipe to the top. Winston was smoking a Victory Cigarette which he held carefully horizontal. The new ration will not start until tomorrow and he had only four cigarettes left” (Orwell 58). During World War II, the government rations out good and often lowers the ration size so small due to overpopulation.…
George Orwell's prediction in the novel 1984 could very well be a reality. Aspects of this totalitarian dystopia appear throughout the United States. It is a constant battle between the government and the people. In 1984 the government forgets that it should cater to the needs of the governed. Orwell was trying to warn everyone of the impending doom that faces the United States. He feels like the U.S is steadily increasing towards becoming a totalitarian government. I agree with Orwell in that his warnings outlined in 1984 are still relevant in today's society and appear quite often. Of course I don't believe a totalitarian government is about to take over our government in the U.S., however we all don't live free from the laws that keep our society functioning. We are all governed in some way, with our civil liberties bound at one point or another. Just like in Orwell's 1984, the United States is controlled by political parties that lead our country. The U.S has two major political parties, the Democrats and the republicans. Much like the U.S., Orwell’s 1984 also has two parties, the Inner party and the Outer party. In the United States, one party tends to come to power and gain control. This is also true in the Novel with the Inner Party controlling everything. The government outlined in the novel 1984 shows many similarities to the United States government.…
In George Orwell's 1984, the strategies used by Oceania's "Party" to achieve total control over the population are similar to the ones emplaced by Joseph Stalin during his reign. Indeed, the tactics used by Oceania's "Party" truly depicts the brutal totalitarian society of Stalin's Russia. In making a connection between Stalin's Russia and Big Brothers' Oceania, each party implements a psychological and physical manipulation over society by controlling the information and the language with the help of technology.…
Connecting the government in the novel and the world today, they are getting closer alike. Examples of this are government betrayal, hidden inspection, and control over the citizens, in an authoritarian state (Butler).After the public read 1984, society started to doublethink the state of Europe’s governments and the concept of Big Brother. For generations, readers took the novel as a message of caution and prognosis (Johnson 1546). In this society, the law enforcement has absolute power and use endless amounts of brutality are used and sub-themes of the society of the novel and Orwell’s other works. He despised men of power greed and followers of people of power. The police’s education is slightly different from the average citizens. Those…
Nineteen Eighty-Four was written by a major contributor to anticommunist literature around the World War II period, and is one of the greatest stories of an anti-utopian society ever. Nineteen Eighty-Four was not written solely as an entertaining piece of literature or as a dream of what the future could be like, it was written as a warning of what could happen as a result of communism and totalitarianism. This was not necessarily a widely popular vision of the future at the time of publication, but it was certainly considered a possibility by many people. The popular vision of the future, if analyzed as from a character in the book's point of view, sometimes changes, depending on the character. The mass of people, the proletarians, have a single vision of what the future is. However, Winston, and others who have had the same experience as him, have a different view of the future after leaving the Ministry of Love. Their were many different visions of the future at the time when Nineteen Eighty-Four was written. Some people believed that the world superpowers would conquer the weak nations of the world and democracy would rule everything. Some believed that the world would stay as it was in 1948, as many individual nations, and somewhere in the future we would drive cars through the air and live on the moon. Others feared that communism, totalitarianism, and socialism would spread throughout the world, and that everyone would suffer under these undesirable economic and political structures. It was on this basis that Nineteen Eighty-Four was written. George Orwell's idea of a totalitarian society is frighteningly realistic, and could easily have been construed as a possibility of what the world might have been like in 1984. In the 19th century many different visions of the future have entertained our society, been marketed, and teased the minds of millions. Television shows such as the Jetsons and countless movies like Star Wars, Logan's Run, Back to the Future, and…
Throughout the evolution of man, power and control have been idealized. When power is attained by manipulative dictators, citizens may initially view them as a means to satisfy their need for structure and direction. An author's grim prophecy of mankind in a totalitarian society is depicted in George Orwell's, 1984. Citizens in Oceania are governed by the Party Big Brother, which succeeds in controlling their actions and minds. The concept of oppression is taken to a new level, until there is no sense of humanity within the society.…
In George Orwell’s novel, “1984”, the people of Oceania have absolutely no freedom because of the powerful government. If the citizens even look like they are thinking something negative about the government or if it looks like they don’t agree with something they are immediately taken and never seen again. The message of this novel is that too much government will take away every ounce of freedom, which leads to families and any kind of relationships destroyed.…
1984 Essay John F. Kennedy once said,” conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth” a statement that still stands strong as conformity and oppression can seldom be found in today’s world. Together in this world the people choose their leaders and enjoy the right to overthrow any government they think of as corrupt. With such a heavy surge of information onto the general public, politicians can hide nothing forcing them into honesty. Also, the media is a massive help in the decision of our future leaders highlighting topics some might never have thought of; giving us the ability to pick and choose between topics we feel relevant. In terms of fear this world turning into dark, stale place; comparable to something like the dystopian…
In 1984, George Orwell demonstrated what life was like to live under a totalitarian government, by showing the harsh realities that it can bring. In 1984 Orwell shows how controlling the government is and how the people lack freedom and how they are constantly told what to do. The people are televised and everything they do is recorded, from the time they wake up, to the time they go to sleep. They are never in private. They do whatever the government tells them without thinking. Controlled by the political leaders and their followers, ( The Thought Police ) they have no mind of their own.…
Throughout the novel, George Orwell warns of the dangers of totalitarianism by showing government infringement on the rights of the people in Oceania.“The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties… Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act.”(1984, pg.83). The party is trying to destroy any institution of loyalty outside of the party. Marriage, in the eyes of Big Brother, is no longer meant as a catalyst for love. Rather, it serves only to create children. “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the…
In the novel 1984 the party also known as the government in the novel demands loyalty to Big Brother. Totalitarianism is a system of the government that is dictatorial. Totalitarianism requires complete loyalty to the government. The party seeks to control everything. The goal of the party is to control the citizens and manipulate information. They manipulate information by erasing, recreating, or modifying the truth in history. The citizens of Oceania are not allowed to keep written records of their lives, anything that pertains documents of their lives must be destroyed in a memory hole. The party also monitors the behavior of its citizens they are not allowed to love their families because all love should be for Big Brother. The power the party has is to control the present by altering the past. If the people do not cooperate they use the military to perform tactics to get the rebellious people to love Big Brother. In the novel 1984 the party (government) employs totalitarianism and general manipulation to control and have absolute power over its citizens.…