Who has never dreamt about a society where everything would be perfect? A place where everyone would have what they want. While for some it would be about being rich, having a mutant society like X-men, others would ask for justice, freedom and equality. All of them are acceptable; it is your point of view of a perfect society. This type of society is known as Utopia (which, according to Merrian-Webster is “an imaginary place in which the government, laws, and social conditions are perfect”). Its complete antithesis is the Dystopia, a “futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control are maintained through a totalitarian control.” Moreover, a dystopian society is usually used in literature as a moral or political warning. However, I firmly believe that a dystopia goes far than that. There are other elements that shape a dystopian society, like nationalism.
Through George Orwell’s novel, 1984, I want to demonstrate how nationalism has a strong influence to incept a dystopia. Although 1984 is a novel that usually has been classified as a warning for the western about tyrannical and totalitarian governments, specially related to Communism and fascism, we
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Many of his works, especially in his essays, reflect his personal idea of nationalism. For example, in “Notes of Nationalism”, Orwell writes that it is “inseparable from the desire for power […] for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality”. Hence, he connects his idea of nationalism with the corruption of the government, which only has an objective, to obtain power. This same pattern can be clearly seen in 1984. One of the most important scenes in the novel, in which Winston asks to O’Brien why the Party subjugates Oceania’s population, he defines the Party’s objective as to “seek power entirely for its own sake [and] interested solely in