Throughout the twentieth century, many authors wrote their perspectives on the world’s future. Novels such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley told of realities in which governments took extreme approaches to take control of its citizens’ lives, but a particularly alarming publication was George Orwell’s 1984.
Written near the start of the Cold War in 1949, which saw the massive proliferation of nuclear arms and expansion of governments that polarized the globe into an East and a West, Orwell depicts what could happen if citizens allowed their governments to continue this power grab unchecked (Bossche). He uses rhetoric to recreate abstract concepts in the world’s dysfunctional political system as tangible entities in the plot. 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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A large example of this is his use of the human body’s state to depict the status of humanity, an important facet of government. The main character, Winston, was able to use his physical body to rebel against the government’s will, by falling in love with and engaging in lovemaking with Julia – actions which are forbidden by the Party (Jacob 3). After they are captured and tortured, their physical bodies are frail and damaged, and they have neither the will nor the energy to continue resisting the will of their overlords. Orwell uses this as a metaphor to warn readers of the steady, subtle descent from freedom into domination by the