Imagine a harsh and frightening dystopia where controlling governments misuse technology, revise history and use fear and manipulation to maintain order. Is this a far cry from our society today? George Orwell’s, 1984, uses a grim, negative tone and irony in appealing to the reader’s emotional capacity for sympathy, fear, and desire while posing the rhetorical questions of reality versus truth. Written in 1949, George Orwell’s political novel, 1984, gives an exaggerated account of how individuals and regimes use propaganda and fear to gain power over people’s words, thoughts, and actions. Its purpose was to warn readers of the dangers of totalitarian government and to sound the alarm in Western nations about the rise of communism after the
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The party's slogan: “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength” (Orwell, 4) is inherently ironic. “It’s an example of "doublethink", the act of believing contradicting ideas simultaneously” (1984: Important Quotes). Since war is supposed to be the opposite of peace, you would not expect the two to be grouped together. The same goes for freedom and slavery. Yet this completely contradictory slogan is accepted by everyone in the Party. As with the main character, the reader sees the irony here while the Party and most of the people simply do not acknowledge it. “The controlling party’s name Ingsoc comes from the English socialists’ party but does not resemble how actual socialism treats the working class. The party's idealized hero is called Big Brother, however they have managed to eliminate the familial love that would be associated with a brother” (Lorcher). Even the ministries of the government are contradictory to their names. The Ministry of Love tortures people. The Ministry of Truth fabricates lies and changes written history to suit its needs. The Ministry of Plenty creates shortages and the Ministry of Peace wages war. To further appeal to the pathos of the reader, Orwell shows his fear of a “Big Brother” controlling government by telling Winston’s story where we only get information through the characters
The party's slogan: “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength” (Orwell, 4) is inherently ironic. “It’s an example of "doublethink", the act of believing contradicting ideas simultaneously” (1984: Important Quotes). Since war is supposed to be the opposite of peace, you would not expect the two to be grouped together. The same goes for freedom and slavery. Yet this completely contradictory slogan is accepted by everyone in the Party. As with the main character, the reader sees the irony here while the Party and most of the people simply do not acknowledge it. “The controlling party’s name Ingsoc comes from the English socialists’ party but does not resemble how actual socialism treats the working class. The party's idealized hero is called Big Brother, however they have managed to eliminate the familial love that would be associated with a brother” (Lorcher). Even the ministries of the government are contradictory to their names. The Ministry of Love tortures people. The Ministry of Truth fabricates lies and changes written history to suit its needs. The Ministry of Plenty creates shortages and the Ministry of Peace wages war. To further appeal to the pathos of the reader, Orwell shows his fear of a “Big Brother” controlling government by telling Winston’s story where we only get information through the characters