Book: ‘1984’ by George Orwell
Question: “How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?”
This response will include:
• How Orwell’s life experiences have reflected upon his work
• A method used by the party to control the masses in the country
• How Orwell views the world and his fear of the totalitarian states
• The message Orwell wishes to convey and reveal to the readers
1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell. Published on the 8th of June 1949, it is one of Orwell’s most renowned books. The story takes place in London which is part of the country Oceania. The citizens of Oceania are governed by a very dominant group of people, The Party, who are further commanded by the Big Brother. The Party implements conformity …show more content…
It is described in the novel as being "the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year." This emphasizes the extent of totalitarianism of the party to shrink and make language less expressive for the people In order to control their minds effortlessly and stifle their creativity. Moreover, it is engineered to remove any possibility of rebelliousness by narrowing the minds of the people by removing words that signify opposition or disagreement. For example, the way to communicate the word ‘bad’ or something that is exceedingly bad is through the words ‘ungood’ and ‘doublepllusungood’ respectively. Without a word of freedom, the idea and concept of freedom is vanished from the minds of the people Oceania. “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course we use these forms already, but in the final version of Newspeak there’ll be nothing else. Don’t you see the beauty of that Winston?” Certainly, if a language is left untouched advance onward and enlarge with words as newer ideas are put forward. However, Newspeak, as seen in the conversational dialogue between Winston, the protagonist, and Syme represents a typical antagonist to the evolution of language. As the sordid menace of Newspeak becomes noticeable to Winston, it is apparent that the shortening of a language by eradicating vocabulary …show more content…
Totalitarianism rule shown in ‘1984’ is the ultimate state of Orwell’s worst nightmare. Orwell has said: because there is some lie that I want to expose". It is this fundamental lie upon which the political structure of 'Nineteen Eighty-four' rests. The very slogans of the party are contradictions: "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength". For The Party, political dominance and power is all. As a result, they are shown to work for the better of the country and people of Oceania. In reality, power and dominance over the people of Oceania is their actual objective. This shows, Orwell’s main goal in writing was to reveal the faults in the rules of totalitarianism or of a similar political