How 1984 Became More Than Just a Year George Orwell uses his iconic novel 1984 about a futuristic dystopian society to relate his fear of an all-powerful government to readers and to help further his narrative for generations after his death. While his work remains at the forefront, he wasn’t the only writer in England at the time trying to convey a dystopian message. Other writers like Aldous Huxley (author of “Brave New World”), William Golding (author of “Lord of the Flies”), and Ayn Rand (author of “Anthem”) had very similar messages and were all from England as well. But oddly enough, Orwell’s main inspiration for writing “1984” actually came from a Russian science fiction/political satire writer by the name of Yevgeny Zamyatin. His novel …show more content…
As a force, Big Brother and the government that surrounds “him” have many weapons and tactics, but the key advantage that he has at his disposal are the community’s easiest members to influence – the children. By having their manipulation at his fingertips, he is able to belittle family structure and he has a free and everlasting source of propaganda machines. As stated by Orwell in the novel, “The children adored the Party and everything connected with it” and “It was almost normal for people over [the age of] thirty to be frightened of their own children.” While taking such time and care to influence its smallest citizens, the government and Big Brother seemingly could not care less about the adults themselves. There was enough urgency to put Big Brother’s face and eyes on every wall in the city, but things as simple as household repairs could take years to be formally addressed. In the case of the story’s main character, Winston, he is certain throughout the duration of the novel that Big Brother and its associates are his enemies and that they are close to figuring out his true feelings concerning the government. But he has another enemy that is doing more harm to him than he realizes, and it is constantly by his side – his own mind (precisely, his paranoia). Sure, there are people watching your every move in the society that he lives …show more content…
When writing “1984”, it is evident that Orwell’s goal was to express what he viewed as the outcome in a scenario where government control extends itself without the necessity of limitations. Though he did not necessarily view this as an inevitable and unavoidable part of the future, some of his visions did seem to manifest in later societies. The Soviet Union, which disbanded in 1991, seemed to serve as the closest example to the narrative that Orwell wrote about (History Reference Center 1). While this turmoil was taking place over in the present-day Russia, many of the injustices seen in “1984” were taking place or had taken place in the Western societies. “The irony lies in the fact that, to the extent that Orwell’s book was indeed an accurate prediction of the future, the fulfillment of many of his prophesies had their roots not in the repressive communist regimes of the East, but in the liberal democracies of the West, and the U.S. in particular,” (History Reference Center 1). So, as easy as it would be to see Orwell’s work as a product of pure fiction and theory, its ideological cousins have found their way into history nonetheless. Examples include the United States and how it portrayed Pearl Harbor, and Great Britain and how their portrayal of Richard III