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George Orwell's The Rise Of Hopelessness And Censorship

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The Rise of Hopelessness and Censorship Throughout the dystopian novel 1984, Orwell illustrates a nation with no ambition by incorporating varying tones, irony and paradoxes into the writing. The meanings of irony and paradox possess similarities because the two literary devices contain contradicting thoughts. However, a paradox reveals the truth through a contradicting statement while irony differs by containing humor. Additionally, the author's tone creates a tremendous influence on the citizen's judgments by placing emphasis on certain words or expanding on the characters' thoughts. The three literary devices assist the focusing on Big Brother's philosophies of submitting every persons' thoughts and controlling every movement. The control …show more content…

Winston describes feeling lifeless and grasping no hope in the beginning of the novel because the party was always watching. “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed-no escape” (27). Residents in Oceania that recognize the repetitive viewing of the government, perceive a lost hope for the society. With no hope for the society, Winston “was alone...What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side?...the party would endure forever” (26). When describing the Party at the beginning of the novel, Orwell's tone portrays hopelessness as the citizens fall entrapped by Big Brother. Towards the middle of the novel, a tone of fear overwhelms the citizens. The Thought Police reviews all writings, and if the writings happen to go against the governments' teachings: death follows. “But before death, there was the routine of confession… groveling on the floor and screaming for mercy, the crack of broken bones, the smashed teeth and bloody clots of hair” (103). Evaluating the thought of death for certain writings eliminates any thought provoking idea going against Big Brother. Since the party controls every thought and idea, “no emotion was pure, because everything was mixed with fear and hatred”(126). Throughout the novel, tone instills feelings of hopelessness and fear because independent thoughts and actions disappear from citizen's

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When works of literature deal with social and political issues, they use different means to portray a message. The dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell, explores political issues while presenting the reader with a warning of dangers as a result of totalitarianism government. In contrast, the utopian novel, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn presents the reader with political issues such as abuse of power within a totalitarianism through a juvenalian satirical tone. While both Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn and 1984 by George Orwell focus on political issues by utilizing powerful literary elements to depict the author’s message, 1984 develops a more effective portrayal of the message through the use of powerful diction, development of significant characters,

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Steven Seidman’s Contested Knowledge (fifth edition) is a concise 365-page sociological theory textbook encompassing classical and contemporary sociology. It begins on a personal and autobiographical note in the preface with Seidman describing his emergence from the late sixties as an optimistic and bright-eyed undergraduate. He then expresses concern over witnessing sociological theory being isolated from its public purpose, as he himself felt when struck by the disillusionment of his “sterile and pointless” theoretical work, removed from his “original moral and political motives for becoming a sociologist”. The AIDS crisis in the 1980s shifted Seidman’s focus away from sociology and onto a myriad of other areas: feminism, post-structuralism, race theory and so on. Returning to sociology in later years, Seidman appears to have come to terms with the discipline of sociology, adopting a relativist stance.

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This form of control makes everything in Big Brother a mental game. Winston notices this and wonders, “If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable…what then?" (53) Winston understands that his mind is the only non-malleable element in this society. All books are burned, newspapers are rewritten, and all stats published by the Party is propaganda. His mind is the only thing he can control but yet he has very little control over it.

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Appearing at Number 8 on the Radcliffe Publishing Course list of “Banned and/or Challenged Books Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century”, 1984, written by George Orwell in 1949, continues to be a controversial novel. The novel's most recent successful banning occurred in Jackson County, Florida in 1981, for its pro-communist views and explicit sexual matter (“Banned”). Despite its critical praise and awards, this novel has been challenged as an inappropriate book for school libraries and classroom reading. When those who mount these challenges take words and passages out of context to illustrate their outrage, they misinterpret the content and intention of their work. Orwell has written a well-crafted and thought provoking novel-- a work

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Censorship of History One day thousands of Chinese citizens were slaughtered by their government, and the event known to the rest of the world as the Tiananmen Square Massacre was essentially erased through censorship. Victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre weren’t mourned, familys were forced to remain silent in their grief because of the government’s prohibition of the truth. George Orwell wrote his famous novel 1984 in 1948 forty-one years later the Chinese government proved to the world what could happen when there is a significant power imbalance. The Party in Orwell’s work said “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

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While reading the novel 1984 there were many signs of censorship within the party and everyone involved. Media manipulation also played an important role in the everyday life for the people of Oceania in George Orwell's 1984. The thought police, telescreens, the change in language and how they speak, and vaporizing people in society are all examples of the different ways the part sensors information in the novel. The thought police in the novel are believed to read and monitor the thoughts of the people in Oceania.

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The censorship of information and the divulgation of others perpetrated by medias lobbyists is impairing the population’s freedom of thinking. While honest medias could enlarge the population’s vision and its ability to think objectively about the world, it is currently only dehumanizing people and making them more similar, exactly like in Orwell’s society. Indeed, in the novel the character that thinks, or “doublethinks” are accused of having “criminal tendencies” (page 59). In the novel, propaganda from the medias is unavoidable and intrusive in citizens lives through the use of telescreens. Indeed, “the giant telescreen in every citizen’s room blasts a constant stream of propaganda designed to make the failures and shortcomings of the Party appear to be triumphant successes “the telescreen, it was called could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it completely.”

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In this alternate 1984, the governments of three fictional nations – Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia – take control of mankind’s free thought by taking control of its media institutions, both written and spoken (Bossche). His points are relevant in the real world, because governments are developing institutions of surveillance and propaganda, just as they did in the novel. In the novel 1984, George Orwell employs the rhetorical techniques of symbolism, allegory, and

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Unlike Lang, Orwell introduces the importance of individual agency and its emotional ties through methods of subjugation. ‘Newspeak’ and the resulting ‘thought crime’ and ‘double-think’ are established by Big Brother in order for the individual to be incapable of recognising liberties they’ve had stripped. This reflects Orwell’s belief that it’s within words that strong emotions, and so freedom, can be elicited, an idea that extends on Lang’s notion of this, seen in the malleability of the workers whilst Pure and False Maria speak. Orwell presents self-determination as innate through use of The Appendix. Unlike Metropolis, 1984 is seemingly hopeless except for The Appendix which is written from a future looking at the past that occurs in the novel.

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There are several examples of irony in both 1984 by George Orwell and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Orwell and Twain also utilize satire as 1984 is itself a satire on dystopias, while The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn satirizes the inhumanity of man. Together, the irony and satire enable the novels to illustrate an in-depth exploration of the construction of society’s norms and shedding light on the importance of thinking for one’s self. It is clear that the hero of 1984, Winston Smith, is upset with his life because he knows that Big Brother and The Party are full of lies.

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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.

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Freedom is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. In the 21st century, the federal government ensures freedom as a human right, but to an extent. There is a thin line between where freedom ends and breaking the law begins, resulting in consequences from the government. In essence, no one is truly free; the government remains in power and continues to have control over its citizens whether or not it is publicized. The world can be seen spiraling into an Orwellian state as the advancement of technology infringes one’s freedoms and right to privacy.

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This deep exploration of the effect that people in powerful positions can have on the rest of society creates the theme of the novel and hooks readers

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Winston only knows the details of thoughtcrime punishment because he probably is involved in it and wants to know the punishment that awaits him. Furthermore, when Winston writes in his diary again, he thinks about the party and their way to brainwash an individual, and the author states, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows” (81). George Orwell’s hyperbole is how a simple equation is the key to thinking for oneself without another’s guidance.

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Fear is a psychological and physiological response to distressing or dangerous circumstances. Fears are often rational – the fear of death, for example, or of harm to oneself of those one cares about. Some fears are more irrational, such as phobias of certain animals or things not causing immediate danger. In any case, fear is a powerful response and causes someone to be weaker and more submissive. 1984 by George Orwell illustrates how fear, a natural human experience, can be used as a means for a person’s submission to authority, In the novel, Winston Smith, the protagonist, is a working-class citizen in a futuristic, dystopian London.

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