What Is The Theme Of 1984 By George Orwell

In 1944 George Orwell wrote his very famous book “1984” during this time there were many problems going on worldwide such as war and Hitler. Orwell at the time lived in Burma and had a job as Imperial police but still lived in poverty. George while his time alive did not have an exact stand on politics and Government up until around this time during 1944. He tells us how during his life in poverty he began to hate authority and began to see the negative effects of certain types of Governments especially those in Spain and Russia. George also wrote a series of letters during his time prior to publishing his book “1984” that explained many of his previous works and the reasoning behind 1984. During one of his popular letters he stated that the
He also spoke about issues he saw during his life with language. In his book he specifically points out the language Newspeak in which is a fake language based off of English but is a simpler version of it. His point of this is to emphasis language as being a key factor to our freedom. He even makes multiple statements remarking this, “When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.” trying to help convey to readers that language and authority are directly related and affect one another, as one decreases in value so does the other. Another quote from his letters include “when thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Throughout 1984 the Newspeak language is largely talked about and orwell gives us the idea that when Government controls language they can also control how we think. For example, the correct version of freedom does not actually exist in Newspeak and therefore freedom does not exist because the word does not. The idea that if our Government can change and alter what we learn not only in language but also in things like school can completely change what we know and think even in our own
They are given standardized test and forced to believe what they are told, where is the independent thought? How do we as individuals know if what we learn in history class is actually true or not? The effects of language are very big and thus pointed out also when Orwell attempts to rewrite Shakespeare into his language Newspeak. This portrays how much as a simple dictionary change, can affect the meaning of writing. In 1984 we also find out that the books that do exist around Winston are actually made from Robots and machines and therefore are unoriginal and can be changed to however the producers feel like (that being Big