George Orwell’s 1984 TOPIC: What are some of the core views about the relationship between language and power conveyed in the novel? George Orwell's '1984' reveals how the manipulation of language can lead to a totalitarian society and unrivalled power. Orwell’s focus is to portray how language can be used as an instrument of power, transforming an entire populace into an oppressed society. The novel conveys the result of totalitarianism through the manipulation of language, particularly with the use of media, including how easily the populace accepts propaganda as reality. The degradation of dialect reveals how it is almost entirely impossible to object to the Party’s core beliefs.
However, the most ideal theory for how Big Brother came to an end is that the middle class, also known as the Outer Party, overthrew the government themselves and took over the power. Goldstein describes how Big Brother came to power and holds control of it; he explains which possibility for the downfall of a government is the most accurate. The book also discusses the geographic division of the world in between three major regions: Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. Goldstein argues that “each of the three powers… is in fact unconquerable, and could only become conquerable through slow demographic changes which a government with wide powers can easily avert” (pg 207). Therefore it is assumed that Big Brother’s downfall could not have happened because of a more powerful government took over, since all three nations are equal in power and cannot take over the other.
This quote sums up the general objective of Big Brother’s regime, ultimate control and unfaltering devotion. If citizens had their own memories, or disagreed with what they were told, they would realize how corrupt a society they were living in was and rebel against it. This is the case in Winston’s situation, he recognizes how corrupt the government is and can no longer stand to live monotonously in his society. The Party frequently changed the past to see who would
The Soviets strived for communism, where everyone, at least in principle, had equal shares and no one was above another, while the United states wanted to spread their values of democracy to re-developing countries across the globe. Communism was seen as such a threat to the United States because they believed the Communist Party wanted to spread and take over the entire world and the U.S. insisted that they were a force that must be stopped. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a key film, made during this time period that reflected greatly on the themes of the Cold War. In the film the protagonist, Miles, is a once sane, intelligent doctor who has been strung out, by many strange events that indicate an alien invasion is happening into a hysterical man. It starts out with relatives and children accusing loved ones that they’re not really themselves, that they have no emotions.
Eisenhower’s administration was to a somewhat large extent successful in addressing Cold War fears after World War II through attempts at promoting capitalism and preventing the spread of communism. The end of the Second World War put many American citizens in fear. Some of the fears addressed by Eisenhower were mass hysteria, the Kremlins affect on our people, depression and keeping the economy up. (doc a) Communism was a huge fear at this time, and the secretary of state, John Dulles was able to help with this problem during Eisenhower’s presidency. His major concern was the spread of communism in America.
There is no doubt that both the book and novel versions of 1984 present us with a world that has no hope. By the end of both, Winston has not only been defeated and his wished-for revolution turned out to be a hoax, but he has become a true traitor to everything he stood for. As Winston told Julia, “"What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you that would be the real betrayal” (Orwell 166). By wishing for a terrible thing to happen to Julia instead of him, Winston stopped loving her (286)
Along with fears of the past came the difference of politics as the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR was a communist country and the United States was a capitalist society. These two nations became very dominant over each other and chose to start a nuclear arms race that would make both countries continue to fight in a form of competition. Unlike other countries, America made a decision to remain allies with the Soviet Union. This decision is one that haunted them for the next 46 years. David Halberstam, in “The Fifties” speaks strongly about the drastic changes that our society dealt with as a result of these hard times, and the ways in which the average individual worked with struggles in society.
In many ways, Stalin transformed himself to replicate Lenin by adopting his ideas and goals, although the way in which he met these goals are highly controversial by historians. Stalin was quickly acknowledged as a murderous dictator while he used a tactic of systematic killing of political opponents and innocent civilians on a massive scale. The objectives that Stalin was able to accomplish during his political career were truly outstanding and beneficial, however; the way in which he met these goals was truly unethical. Joseph Stalin was an
Communism in the Cold War "The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want, they spread and grow in the evil soil of the poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive." as said by Harry S. Truman on march 12, 1947 in The Truman Doctrine. While Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all had the same same Cold War intention of ending communism, their ways of achieving their goal were different.The Cold War was an angry dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union about whether we should spread or contain communism (Ayres 817).
The classic novel 1984 by the George Orwell explored the brutality of totalitarian regime. He wrote this book as a warning because he predicted that if the government continued to grow rapidly unimpeded, it would lead to a dystropic future. His warning were suppose do have come true in 1984 but didn’t. His warnings are still valid as the world we know today is racing its way towards the immensely bleak future that Orwell predicted for us. There are many reasons as to why I believe that his warnings are still apparent today.