Totalitarianism In George Orwell's '1984'

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After reading George Orwell - 20201 김나영

Before reading by George Orwell, I had read by Thomas Hobbes. In this book, Hobbes assumes that the situation before the existence of the state is the struggle of all people for all. And in this natural situation, it is said that the nation was born because individuals' lives and safety were given the highest priority so individuals had to transfer their rights to one another to make a strong sovereign personality that can ensure their safety. He also made it clear that for the state to exist forever, there must be a powerful sovereign rule and a citizen to obey it. Leviathan is the name of a monster in the Bible, a name given by Hobbes as he thought the nation as a person of one personality. …show more content…

In fact, if you read Leviathan, you might think that living with absolute power can be a way to make your life more comfortable because, that way, his safety is fully protected. However, after reading 1984, which painted the aspect of such a life, I discovered how inhuman totalitarianism is. 365 days 24 hours, every breath is monitored. The system of the party(Big Brother) which destroys the beauty of language as well as cultural life. A brutal society that wipes out humanity under the slogan of "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength". All of this was enough to surprise me, but I believed that an abnormal society would someday lose its power and that is what the end of the book would