Paradoxes In 1984 By George Orwell

Within a totalitarian society, the individual is suppressed and is instead morphed into a collective group of loyal followers. Those with power exert control over these followers through means that elicit fear and discourage revolt. In 1984, the common theme of human individuality is explored throughout the entirety of the novel and is highlighted through the aspects of humanity that the Party attempts to eradicate. Specifically through the use of paradoxes, newspeak as a metaphor and foreshadowing, George Orwell examines the consequences of government oppression on personal identity.

One of the most notable ways in which paradoxes are utilized by George Orwell is to convey the nature of the party’s indoctrination and the ways in which it

In the appendix section, Orwell guides the reader through the future of Oceania in terms of the advancement of the language of Newspeak and its consequences among individual thought. It is mentioned that by the year 2050 the transition from Oldspeak, traditional English, to Newspeak is said to have been fully accomplished; “It was intended that when newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a hereticaly thought-- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Insoc-- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words (pg 300).” Newspeak in essence serves the purpose of suppressing the expression of thought and, in other words, eliminates the human right to freedom of expression. Orwell further emphasizes the symbolic nature of Newspeak through an elaborate explanation thf grammatical structure which newspeak is based upon. As Orwell states, “[t]he plurals of man, ox, life were mans, oxes, lifes. Comparison of adjectives was invariably made by adding -er, -est (good, gooder, goodest) (303).” It can be noted that the new grammatical structure of Newspeak greatly contradicts that of traditional English where the plural of the words man, ox and life would be men, oxen and lives. Also words such as “gooder” are labeled as gramatically incorrect and non-existent under traditional

The more apparent ways in which Orwell implements foreshadowing is through Winston’s diary entries. In the first diary entry after committing thoughtcrime, Winston writes: “ theyll shoot me i dont care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck (pg ---)”. Orwell specifically chose to give Winston’s diary entry a raw and frantic appearance through the lack of apostrophes and capitalization of the letter “i”. Also no periods are added and the phrases are repeated which makes Winston’s words resemble the mumblings of one gone mad. This not only ndiciates the mental instability and teh fragility of his mind but his potential submission to the party itself. This potential acceptance by Winston of the party is also forshadowed through Orwell’s choice of the conjuction “they’ll”, they will, which expresses certainty and indicates that Winston will indeed be killed at some point. Winston’s encounter with the Parson’s children also serves as an event which foreshadows his eventual capture; " 'Youre a traitor!' yelled the boy. 'You're a thought criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines!' Suddenly they were both leaping around him, shoting 'Traitor!' and 'Thought-criminal!', the little girl imitating her brother in every movement " Orwell repeatedly