George Orwell’s classic novel, 1984, has gone through the ages as a novel depicting a bleak future with a government in complete control over its citizen’s actions and thoughts. The novel explores the actions of Winston Smith, a questioner of the established Party or Big Brother. He and his lover Julia, another ardent critic of the Party, try to join the underground Brotherhood, a group, led by Emmanuel Goldstein, trying to take down the party. They get caught and in the end, O’Brien, a loyalist of the Party, brainwashes both of them into loving the party and Big Brother. Orwell depicts this future society in order to make people question government when they still have the chance, because the characters of 1984 were brainwashed to the
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First, the three previously stated slogans of the Party are juxtapositions, which when pondered over, make sense in the context that they are in. War is Peace makes sense because the constant warfare between the three current countries is a way of diverting resources to the constant war and so, keeping all of the citizens living on rations, and so dependent on the government. This maintains peace because, if the people had more, they would begin to gain power and question the government, which would certainly lead to conflict. Freedom is Slavery because if citizens were to have freedom, they would be slaves to their conscience, and so the government makes all their choices for them, so that they are not slaves to their conscience. Ignorance is Strength because when the middle and low classes are kept ignorant about the high class, they will not try to attain that class. This stops the current struggle to move up in classes, and so is strength because everyone is happy and ignorant of the existence of better lives. Secondly, the Newspeak work “doublethink” which is used quite often is an example of irony. Doublethink means to know that something is incorrect but know that it is correct at the same time. An example of doublethink is when, in Hate Week, the speaker speaking against Eurasia, which is the country that he knew his country had always been at war with, got a message notifying him that Eurasia actually became an ally and Eastasia was the new enemy. At that point, he knew that he knew that his country had always been at war with Eurasia, but that now, it was at war with Eastasia and always had been. Lastly, hyperbole and exaggeration is used on the news extensively to make it seem as if an abundance of supplies were made, the country had a major victory, and so on. This is used to make the people
First, the three previously stated slogans of the Party are juxtapositions, which when pondered over, make sense in the context that they are in. War is Peace makes sense because the constant warfare between the three current countries is a way of diverting resources to the constant war and so, keeping all of the citizens living on rations, and so dependent on the government. This maintains peace because, if the people had more, they would begin to gain power and question the government, which would certainly lead to conflict. Freedom is Slavery because if citizens were to have freedom, they would be slaves to their conscience, and so the government makes all their choices for them, so that they are not slaves to their conscience. Ignorance is Strength because when the middle and low classes are kept ignorant about the high class, they will not try to attain that class. This stops the current struggle to move up in classes, and so is strength because everyone is happy and ignorant of the existence of better lives. Secondly, the Newspeak work “doublethink” which is used quite often is an example of irony. Doublethink means to know that something is incorrect but know that it is correct at the same time. An example of doublethink is when, in Hate Week, the speaker speaking against Eurasia, which is the country that he knew his country had always been at war with, got a message notifying him that Eurasia actually became an ally and Eastasia was the new enemy. At that point, he knew that he knew that his country had always been at war with Eurasia, but that now, it was at war with Eastasia and always had been. Lastly, hyperbole and exaggeration is used on the news extensively to make it seem as if an abundance of supplies were made, the country had a major victory, and so on. This is used to make the people