Written shortly after the Second World War and a global rise in fascism, 1984 is an embodiment of various warnings and historical themes. However, these notions merely represent the very surface of George Orwell’s social and political messages. For, he does not simply demonstrate the injustice of absolute tyranny, - which is pretty much granted - but also demonstrates reasons as to how such a system can exist, and thus, how it may be defeated. Moreover, Orwell’s multiple messages must be interpreted from a literary perspective for one to appreciate their complexity and impact. But a few pages into the novel it’s noted that the the official slogan of the fictitious English Socialist Party - abbreviated as “Ingsoc” - reads, “war is peace /
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Similarly, he goes on to utilize subversive Emmanuel Goldstein as the dystopian equivalent of a comedy’s “straight man” to argue for democratic socialism. Goldstein (or, as we later discover, O’Brien and friends) states that once wealth, and presumably the means of production, have been equally distributed, “the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves”, subsequently “sweeping away” the “privileged minority”. (191) Basically, Goldstein’s character, of an assumedly all-knowing status, allows for Orwell to get across an inspiring social and political …show more content…
Although the circumstance of the novel are quite extreme, the struggles faced by the proletariat of reality and of 1984 are not entirely dissimilar. Knowing this, Orwell uses Winston’s observations of the proles to derive what is possibly the novel’s most inspiring message. According to the narrator, Winston thinks if the proles, “could somehow become conscious of their own strength, [they] would have no need to conspire.They needed only to rise up and shake the party like a horse shaking off flies… they could blow the Party to pieces by tomorrow morning.”
Similarly, he goes on to utilize subversive Emmanuel Goldstein as the dystopian equivalent of a comedy’s “straight man” to argue for democratic socialism. Goldstein (or, as we later discover, O’Brien and friends) states that once wealth, and presumably the means of production, have been equally distributed, “the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves”, subsequently “sweeping away” the “privileged minority”. (191) Basically, Goldstein’s character, of an assumedly all-knowing status, allows for Orwell to get across an inspiring social and political …show more content…
Although the circumstance of the novel are quite extreme, the struggles faced by the proletariat of reality and of 1984 are not entirely dissimilar. Knowing this, Orwell uses Winston’s observations of the proles to derive what is possibly the novel’s most inspiring message. According to the narrator, Winston thinks if the proles, “could somehow become conscious of their own strength, [they] would have no need to conspire.They needed only to rise up and shake the party like a horse shaking off flies… they could blow the Party to pieces by tomorrow morning.”