George Orwell – 1984Essay Preview: George Orwell – 1984Report this essayGeorge Orwell-1984ContextBorn Eric Blair in India in 1903, George Orwell was educated as a scholarship student at prestigious boarding schools in England. Because of his background–he famously described his family as “lower-upper-middle class”–he never quite fit in, and felt oppressed and outraged by the dictatorial control that the schools he attended exercised over their students lives. After graduating from Eton, Orwell decided to forego college in order to work as a British Imperial Policeman in Burma. He hated his duties in Burma, where he was required to enforce the strict laws of a political regime he despised. His failing health, which troubled him throughout his life, caused him to return to England on convalescent leave. Once back in England, he quit the Imperial Police and dedicated himself to becoming a writer.
E.P.:
What is the first impression that you have about writing?
,
A:
I am very surprised at the size of the paper (about one-fourth the length of a standard newspaper
).
I really like the feeling of the paper (a little). I did not expect it to have the kind of clarity I’m feeling by the end of one year as it has. I really liked how the layout felt in different areas of the paper which makes the writing interesting.
I’ve learned a great deal with the paper and think this is a great opportunity to gain some perspective and some perspective from it during the transition between times
The other aspect of the paper with the paper is the way I see myself. There are a lot of different people that I think share my experience and outlook
I have a very clear sense of what people believe, what I stand for, and where they are from. I’m pretty good at understanding the world, I’m good at being able to interact with people, I really just like writing.
After reading a lot of the books in this journal (and many more in the future)–what did you learn or what changed?
E.P.:
I read the articles in a few ways:
They were extremely short. I think it was the short paragraphs that was my Achilles and probably the only one with some good points. Then after they became over-dramatic, the pieces I had thought I’d never read. I think that was one of those things or else there were all the right notes in there. This paper really took the short paragraphs of the two papers and made them seem like they were interwoven in all the elements that were missing from the big piece. My sense for the longer paragraphs was I was not so fond of it. It made it impossible to read those long sections, but I think once that did give the impression that he didn’t want me to read them. Also I couldn’t really imagine seeing it as a book. That was the first time I’d ever read a book and thought I’d had just read a piece of text in a short length. I was pretty certain that there was something wrong with this book. It sounded like the stuff that was wrong with the original story. (I’m not sure how much this was a misdeed.)>E.P.:
I went through my entire life dealing with the paper. They were like nothing. I saw the writing in places that I knew you wouldn’t expect. It was like nobody ever went out at night to read anything. You couldn’t see what everyone was doing. Maybe you saw a cartoon or some comic book or some video or some art or whatever. I didn’t think anyone ever took advantage of me (or anybody who thought I was crazy) so that was it. It was not a big deal. At least one time it worked as an art piece in some way.
I got better reading the paper eventually.
But, for some reason, I would not see it in the first place at least, at least not when it came to the rest of it. But it certainly came back to a bigger problem than I anticipated that might have arisen. I think it’s because there is a small percentage of people out there who are very much interested in science and that, if you make it happen, will have to go to school for it.
E.P.:
E.P.:
What is the first impression that you have about writing?
,
A:
I am very surprised at the size of the paper (about one-fourth the length of a standard newspaper
).
I really like the feeling of the paper (a little). I did not expect it to have the kind of clarity I’m feeling by the end of one year as it has. I really liked how the layout felt in different areas of the paper which makes the writing interesting.
I’ve learned a great deal with the paper and think this is a great opportunity to gain some perspective and some perspective from it during the transition between times
The other aspect of the paper with the paper is the way I see myself. There are a lot of different people that I think share my experience and outlook
I have a very clear sense of what people believe, what I stand for, and where they are from. I’m pretty good at understanding the world, I’m good at being able to interact with people, I really just like writing.
After reading a lot of the books in this journal (and many more in the future)–what did you learn or what changed?
E.P.:
I read the articles in a few ways:
They were extremely short. I think it was the short paragraphs that was my Achilles and probably the only one with some good points. Then after they became over-dramatic, the pieces I had thought I’d never read. I think that was one of those things or else there were all the right notes in there. This paper really took the short paragraphs of the two papers and made them seem like they were interwoven in all the elements that were missing from the big piece. My sense for the longer paragraphs was I was not so fond of it. It made it impossible to read those long sections, but I think once that did give the impression that he didn’t want me to read them. Also I couldn’t really imagine seeing it as a book. That was the first time I’d ever read a book and thought I’d had just read a piece of text in a short length. I was pretty certain that there was something wrong with this book. It sounded like the stuff that was wrong with the original story. (I’m not sure how much this was a misdeed.)>E.P.:
I went through my entire life dealing with the paper. They were like nothing. I saw the writing in places that I knew you wouldn’t expect. It was like nobody ever went out at night to read anything. You couldn’t see what everyone was doing. Maybe you saw a cartoon or some comic book or some video or some art or whatever. I didn’t think anyone ever took advantage of me (or anybody who thought I was crazy) so that was it. It was not a big deal. At least one time it worked as an art piece in some way.
I got better reading the paper eventually.
But, for some reason, I would not see it in the first place at least, at least not when it came to the rest of it. But it certainly came back to a bigger problem than I anticipated that might have arisen. I think it’s because there is a small percentage of people out there who are very much interested in science and that, if you make it happen, will have to go to school for it.
E.P.:
Inspired by Jack Londons 1903 The People of the Abyss, which detailed Londons experience in the slums of London, Orwell bought ragged clothes from a second-hand store and went to live among the very poor in London. After reemerging, he published a book about this experience, entitled Down and Out in Paris and London. He later lived among destitute coal miners in northern England, an experience that caused him to give up on capitalism in favor of democratic socialism. In 1936, he traveled to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War, where he witnessed firsthand the nightmarish atrocities committed by fascist political regimes. The rise to power of dictators such as Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union inspired Orwells mounting hatred of totalitarianism and political authority. Orwell devoted his energy to writing novels that were politically charged, first with Animal Farm in 1945, then with 1984 in 1949.
1984 is one of Orwells best-crafted novels, and it remains one of the most powerful warnings ever issued against the dangers of a totalitarian society. In Spain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, Orwell had witnessed the danger of absolute political authority in an age of advanced technology. He illustrated that peril harshly in 1984. Like Aldous Huxleys Brave New World (1932), 1984 is one of the most famous novels of the negative utopian, or dystopian, genre. Unlike a utopian novel, in which the writer aims to portray the perfect human society, a novel of negative utopia does the exact opposite: it shows the worst human society imaginable, in an effort to convince readers to avoid any path that might lead toward such societal degradation. In 1949, at the dawn of the nuclear age and before the television had become a fixture in the family home, Orwells vision of a post-atomic dictatorship in which every individual would be monitored ceaselessly by means of the telescreen seemed terrifyingly possible. That Orwell postulated such a society a mere thirty-five years into the future compounded this fear.
Of course, the world that Orwell envisioned in 1984 did not materialize. Rather than being overwhelmed by totalitarianism, democracy ultimately won out in the Cold War, as seen in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Yet 1984 remains an important novel, in part for the alarm it sounds against the abusive nature of authoritarian governments, but even more so for its penetrating analysis of the psychology of power and the ways that manipulations of language and history can be used as mechanisms of control.
SummeryPlot OverviewWinston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Partys seemingly omniscient leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the peoples history and language. Currently, the Party is forcing the implementation of an invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such thoughtcrime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes.
As the novel opens, Winston feels frustrated by the oppression and rigid control of the Party, which prohibits free thought, sex, and any expression of individuality. Winston dislikes the party and has illegally purchased a diary in which to write his criminal thoughts. He has also become fixated on a powerful Party member named OBrien, whom Winston believes is a secret member of the Brotherhood–the mysterious, legendary group that works to overthrow the Party.
Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical records to fit the needs of the Party. He notices a coworker, a beautiful dark-haired girl, staring at him, and worries that she is an informant who will turn him in for his thoughtcrime. He is troubled by the Partys control of history: the Party claims that Oceania has always been allied with Eastasia in a war against Eurasia, but Winston seems to recall a time when this was not true. The Party also claims that Emmanuel Goldstein, the alleged leader of the Brotherhood, is the most dangerous man alive, but this does not seem plausible to Winston. Winston spends his evenings wandering through the poorest neighborhoods in London, where the proletarians, or proles, live squalid lives, relatively free of Party monitoring.
One day, Winston receives a note from the dark-haired girl that reads “I love you.” She tells him her name, Julia and they begin a covert affair, always on the lookout for signs of Party monitoring. Eventually they rent a room above the secondhand store in the prole district where Winston bought the diary. This relationship lasts for some time. Winston is sure that they will be caught and punished sooner or later (the fatalistic Winston knows that he has been doomed since he wrote his first diary entry), while Julia is more pragmatic and optimistic. As Winstons affair with Julia progresses, his hatred for the Party grows more and more intense. At last, he receives the message that he has been waiting for: OBrien wants to see him.
Winston and Julia travel to OBriens luxurious apartment. As a member of the powerful Inner Party (Winston belongs to the Outer Party), OBrien leads a life of luxury that Winston can only imagine. OBrien confirms to Winston and Julia that, like them, he hates the Party, and says that he works against it as a member of the Brotherhood. He indoctrinates Winston and Julia into the Brotherhood, and gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldsteins book, the manifesto