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Symbolism and Literary Techniques in George Orwell's
Orwell's views on totalitarianism
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Grace Edwards 4/4/23 Period 2 English 10 H 1984 Final The strength it takes to follow society is minimal, but the strength to create change is unbearable. In George Orwell’s 1984, Oceania is harshly watched and controlled by, what they call “the party” or “big brother,” a profoundly communist government that allows for no individuality or even freedom is thought/speech. Due to this controlling society, my advertisement allows Winston to promote awareness of the party’s power and control over everyone in society.
Winston Smith, the main character in the novel, faced many emotional challenges throughout the book. The problems that he encountered were primarily a result of his strong opposition toward the government of Oceania, which was more commonly known as “the Party”. The Party controlled every aspect of people’s lives, to the point where one wrong thought or physical action could cause brutal punishment. Although Winston was a minor member of the Party, he still secretly despised the way it had inflicted a totalitarian society upon him and the rest of the nation. All citizens were brainwashed to live in complete orthodoxy, and any act, no matter how trivial, that was displeasing to the Party was looked upon as a serious crime.
During Winston’s hours of torture and questioning, O’Brien described the future of Oceania and its citizens as being equivalent to a boot continuously stomping down on a face. He preceded this by explaining the steps already taken in order to destroy humanity and individualism including breaking the ties of friendship, disrupting the love between a man and woman, and perhaps most frightening of all, creating distrust between children and their parents. Ultimately the boot crashing down on the human face is a symbol for what the Party plans to do: continue crushing the individual human spirit into being a thoughtless body that is able to be manipulated into anything the party wants it to be. The strange thing though is that O’Brien seems to be preaching collectivity but in actuality he supports the individual. Note the word “the”.
To begin, the Party has all the power of Oceania and is represented through graphic visuals. “Imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever” is what O’ Brien told Winston to think of about him against the Party (Orwell 267). In this instance, the boot symbolizes the Party while the citizens of Oceania is the human face. O’ Brien wants Winston to feel helpless, like he himself is being stepped on and can’t escape. By belittling their people, the Party will think of themselves as bigger and better.
“The long-hoped for bullet was entering his brain” (Orwell). “Winston maintains, throughout the novel, two avenues of hope for a life outside the confines of the party and the watchful eyes of Big Brother, a life which may undermine or even overthrow the party’s hold on oceania” (British Novelist 15). Winston felt “peculiar reverence for O’Brien which nothing seemed able to destroy” (Orwell 273) although O’Brien
CONTEXT All around the nation, there are displays of the three most important lies in Oceania, “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (26) What Winston is describing is a society that does not let you have the right to feel what you want to feel. The Party uses language to reconstruct your thoughts and decide what your mind should think about. They lie through their slogans and describe opposite views through language, history, and hate. The Party’s goal is to reshape how one thinks by changing what people read and hear.
(16). These slogans are first introduced in the beginning of the novel and give the reader’s an idea of what “doublethink” is. The inner party forces the citizens to live in a constant state of fear and force them to do anything that they say. The second stage of reintegration is understanding. In this stage O'brien explains to Winston the purpose of the party.
Again the mentality of compliance with the orthodoxy is established throughout; instead of Winston having the freedom to believe what he wants, it seems as though he is brainwashed to adhere to what is right as declared by the Party. Through diction and tone, the portrayal of the scenario causes Winston to instinctively conform to everyone’s actions thus leading to the conclusion that a uniformed ideology is spread throughout the
The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, dreams of defeating The Party and being able to live in a place without despair. He despises the social systems that govern the citizens of Oceania and rebels against them. His protests of defiance depict Winston as a hero. However he inevitably experiences being tormented and brainwashed by the totalitarianism that occurs there.
1984, written by George Orwell, explores a society where there is explicitly no form or expression of individuality, in this society laws and concepts such as ‘Doublethink’ and ‘Newspeak’ have been created in order to manipulate the population of Oceania. In addition, Parties have been formed with each assigned with a particular area such as the Ministry of Truth, where in this Party history is adjusted and either almost rewritten or completely removed. Throughout this novel individuality becomes diminished whilst children are becoming conditioned to follow the ways of this totalitarian society. Winston’s involvement in the Ministry of Truth displays how altering objective truth contributes to the corrupted system that leads to the manipulation
Through the restrictions placed from the Party, the population of Oceania is forced into conforming. The cost of this is represented through Obrien explaining that there is a loss of beauty, of art, and no enjoyment of life. Individuality is shown through the development of Winston as a character. While meeting with Julia and expressing himself more, Winston becomes more of an individual rather than one of the other Party members. This initially has a positive affect on him, with the immediate increase in his health, however he eventually suffers deeply for it.
Similarly, the society of ‘1984’ is manipulated to act a certain way to maintain the control of the Party. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Winston is faced with conflicting emotions towards the treatment of people and the dictatorship of Big Brother. Undoubtedly, even whilst revolting, Winston exhibits a loyal and agreeable façade towards the Party, “to dissemble your feelings, to control your face, to do what everyone else was doing, was an instinctive reaction” (pg. 19). Our identity is a projection, a visual representation of our state of mind and the influences we are subjected to. In the same manner, we are constantly reminded of the rigid philosophies created by our society and are prompted to conform; our existence is created through being defined by others.
The Party’s approach to life has not always been for everyone, including Winston who frequently gets angry at their actions. In the beginning of the book, Winston says he was writing, “as though by automatic action… DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (1.1.18). His thoughts and actions toward Big Brother and the Party have become so strong that he is involuntarily writing words against them. Winston also resents the rule that there can be no love in Oceania, and leaps at the chance to break it.
By:Aman Parmar Internal conflict and strife affects people throughout their lives and the way an individual handles it may speak to who the character is, and how they view the people around them. In the book 1984 George Orwell created a world in which Winston, and many others lives are controlled by the party, resulting in fear, which may lead straight into conflict with themselves. Conflict between the characters and the party, and strife between O’Brien and Winston. The internal conflict and strife that is developed by the characters can lead to a certain thought or representation of an individual or group that can lead to two different outcomes, one in which makes the character understand, or the complete opposite, as they face challenges that they aren’t used to. Conflict between a person and themselves, can lead to both positive and negative thoughts of a person or a party, leading to realization, and the truth, and may also lead to believing what’s not the truth, regrets and overthinking.
Have you ever felt like you are obliged to a duty of making the world a better place even though no one told you to? that is how Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones felt when she came across a boy name Roger. In the story “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes describes one night when a boy attempts to steal a woman 's purse. This leads to the lady cleaning him up, having dinner with the poor boy and teaching him a lesson. One theme you can take away from this story is, a community is only as strong as it’s weakest member.
