George Orwell You And The Atomic Bomb Analysis

Eric Arthur Blair, more commonly known as George Orwell, uses his literary prose as an essayist to inform the world of the greater dangers of the Atomic Bomb. Orwell explains in “You and the Atomic Bomb,” written on October 19, 1945 in the Tribune, the possible political and social implications of the new technology. Orwell introduces the topic by stating common thoughts that the common man shares such as how difficult these bombs are to manufacture and how wide the technology has spread. The English essayist transitions to state how massive and expensive weapons give power to few and innovation on a smaller, cheaper scale disperses power to the people. These weapons have developed through the ages, such as the musket during the American and

The world felt shocked and wondering after the use of such devastating weaponry and began to wonder what the implications of such weaponry meant for the future. Orwell had experience writing about social injustice and political ideology and presented his qualified opinion on what the ramifications of atomic weaponry. Orwell responds to an emotional situation in a factual and influential way. He supports his opinion that advanced technology, only a few can utilize, creates powerful central powers with examples throughout history. By depicting “the great age of democracy and of national self-determination was the age of the musket and the rifle” and citing how these weapons influenced the American and French revolutions, Orwell supports his argument with factual information (Orwell 5). With factual information providing for the base of a solid argument, Orwell connects to his audience evoking an emotional connection right from the title and into the first sentence. The title “You and the Atomic Bomb” grabs the attention of the reader while personalizing the message and begins with “considering how likely we all are to be blown to pieces by it within the next five years,” to further provoke and emotional and lasting response from the reader (paragraph 1). The people of London and surrounding area who read the Tribune would be

By using a direct point of view, as if he conversed with the audience, Orwell presents his argument in a personal fashion using second person. “You and the Atomic bomb” directly connects the audience with the topic Orwell presents. He also includes himself with the audience such as “likely we all are” and “such information as we- that is, the big public” to identify with the people he tries to convince. Association with the audiences makes the argument more personal. Once this connection has been made, Orwell evokes further emotion from the audience choosing descriptive diction in a satirical sense in some situations. Orwell states a satirical aside of “At any moment, so the rumour went, some lonely lunatic in a laboratory might blow civilization to smithereens, as easily as touching off a firework” to emphasize how people have been overreacting to the new technology (Orwell 2). He dismisses the idea that many people have access to the technology. The alliteration of lonely lunatic draws attention and makes the statement stand out as well as the simile comparing the ease of setting off a bomb to a firework. Statements that draw the attention of the audience cause further curiosity of what the author will say, and Orwell uses this attention to polarize the audience as well. Antithesis creates this polarization by contrasting ideas in a parallel manner. To build his argument,