Newspeak

Orwell lived through a time period of complete totalitarianism under the control of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Traveling to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War, Orwell saw the repercussions of what a political regime does to a society. Because of the two men in the Soviet Union, Hitler and Stalin, who created such a sense of disaster and panic throughout the country, Orwell’s hatred for political authority grows even more passionately. He uses his experiences to convey to his audience…

1984 by George Orwell takes place in a dystopian, totalitarian based society. Citizens are constantly surveyed by the government through the use of surveillance technologies, which causes the citizens to be fearful and paranoid. However, through the rise of technology in modern times, society is moving toward the paranoid society of 1984, due to the increase of surveillance devices such as cellphones, GPS, and video cameras. The use of surveillance technologies in modern times correlates and is…

Loyalty is an important characteristic of human beings. Sometimes it can be abused or stolen, but as long as you stay strong with what you believe is true, you can resist. In the novel, 1984, George Orwell explains the nature of loyalty to oneself and to one another, and it's limits. Winston's view of the government changes because his experiences in this novel. George Orwell creates a great sense of resistance in Winston against the Party. As Winston began thinking about the past, before the…

George Orwell’s novel 1984 is about a highly oppressive authoritarian regime that controls the actions and thoughts of the people. This novel led to the term Orwellian, which describes the government in the novel. The word Orwellian has become synonymous with authoritarian, however, Orwellian does not mean the oppressive rule of people. The word authoritarian only encompasses an oppressive government with all power, but does not encompass all the qualities in an Orwellian government. Orwellian…

1984, George Orwell, an novelist and journalist, who’s dystopian novel portrays a government that controls all aspects of people’s lives. They use a variety methods to keep their citizens in control and Winston Smith is one of the people who challenges them. Orwell’s use of repetition, imagery and symbolism to create suspense in order to capture his audience’s attention throughout the novel. First, Orwell uses repetition in order to emphasize that the telescreen still holds power over everyone.…

In a period of strict intellectual censorship, Czech writer and playwright Vaclav Havel rebelled against the Czechoslovakian communist regime in the best way he knew how: by writing. An activist and dissident, Havel uses his essays and his plays to undermine the authority of the totalitarian communist government. In his 1978 political essay, The Power of the Powerless, Havel show his dissatisfaction with he calls the post-totalitarian system. He presents a moral argument against the system, that…

In a post- WWII society rampant with dystopian versions of the future, few novels capture the most evident dangers of totalitarianism and the exercising of mass-surveillance better than George Orwell’s 1984. Through examining Winston’s introspective moments while committing “thought crimes,” it is clear that institutionalized fear works to empower Big Brother by using party members own subconsciouses’ against themselves; a tactic which shows how the psychological impact of a surveillance state…

Through his writing of 1984, George Orwell crafted one of the most impactful commentaries on totalitarianism in literature. Containing ominous passages of a post-war dystopia, much of his work acts more effectively as a warning than a fictional story. Purposefully avoiding any particular political party to comment on, Orwell’s main focus is that The Party can maintain power through its methods of restricting free thought. Winston Smith, the protagonist, faces an internalized struggle with…

The novel 1984 reinforces the belief that the immorality and danger that accompanies holding people in prison without charging them creates concern towards the government. For instance, in 1984 there are four ministries: The Ministry of Truth, The Ministry of Peace, The Ministry of Plenty, and The Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Love’s name, like all others, is ironic as people who go against The Party are taken here to be tortured and killed. While in the Ministry of Love prisoners endure…

89 years ago, Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell, started his career in the writing of essays and novels. In 1949 he published his first dystopian novel, 1984. This story, like that of Children of Men directed by Cuaron, is set in an isolated London where the government has manipulated its people into submission. Evidently, these societies are not ones to strive towards, but what are these works trying to tell us? In these worlds, where morality is scarce and…