It’s the tremble in our hands and the shiver down our spines. It’s that feeling of panic, of unease which can infiltrate and consume the human mind like nothing else. It is darkness, it is distress, it is fear; and it is our fears which ultimately shape our attitudes. But fear in itself is more than just an emotion, it is rather a state of being which, when evoked at a high level, can influence and shape not only the way we think and feel but consequently, the way we react to the world. However, an individual within a fear stricken context has the ability to overcome this fear if they develop the right attitude towards it and this can ultimately allow them control over themselves and those around them. George Orwell’s novel 1984 and the poem Auschwitz-Birkenau by Patrick Simpson explore the ability fear has to control thought and action and the way in which individuals have the ability to achieve control over themselves and those within their context if they overcome this fear.

1984 presents to us a futuristic, dystopian society under what is an extreme communist rule. George Orwell explores the way in which fear can control the movement of an individual. In this text we are presented with a society of people who have had a spark of fear ignited within them. Fear to stray from the party, fear to think separately from the party’s philosophies, fear to act out. And this fear is ultimately what shapes the way they react to the world and their attitudes and actions. In the back of their head they know that the party is a higher power and that one stray move could lead to their vaporisation and so this leads them into an almost robotic state where they are under full control of the party. This idea is presented when Winton’s fear finally overpowers his independent thought. It is at this devastating point where the fear of pain evoked in him through the party’s torture, from that first “inconceivable blow”, finally incapacitates those once strong independent thoughts of rebellion. Orwell writes “His thoughts wandered again. Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2 + 2 = 5.” The use of the recurring motif of 2 + 2 = 5 throughout the text further emphasises the psychological deconstruction of Winston’s thoughts due to fear. It is so extreme that it has shaped his attitudes and controlled his ability to think.
The same notion is evident in Auschwitz-Birkenau. This poem presents a society of people living under the Hitler regime in the town surrounding the concentration camp. The poet explores the way in which fear of those in power has left them in a state where they have stopped acting based on their morals and independent thoughts but rather on what the Government has indoctrinated in their heads. This fear of what will happen if they disobey those in power has left them living by what Hitler and his party propose. Simpson writes “The smell of death hangs in the air, over the people who go -- go about their daily lives; not noticing the monster only a few miles away.” The metaphor of describing fear as a monster almost personifies it and further paints a picture of its vastness and intenseness. And the fact that the people can go about their daily lives without noticing something so great reaffirms this idea of how powerfully fear can affect our attitudes and control our actions. This is again evident further on in the text when we read “They see it -- and do nothing. They smell it -- and do nothing. They hear the screams, they feel the stinging, singeing ashes, and yet, they are silent.” The repetition of the line “do nothing” and the use of harsh, alliterated adjectives further emphasises the ruthless control fear has over their attitudes.

But despite the power of fear, if an individual can overcome it, they can achieve great control over their own attitudes and those around them. 1984 explores this through the character of Winston. Throughout the majority of his life he remains with his thoughts independent and attitudes towards the world, unaltered unlike everyone around him and this is because he does not let fear of the party trounce him. This is evident through his small acts of rebellion for example when he writes in the diary “they’ll shoot me I don’t care they’ll shoot me in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother”. The illegal act itself proves Winston’s overcoming of fear and the writing itself, the use of brash but clear words by Orwell and the simple but powerful nature of the four words “down with big brother” highlight the way in which Winston has his own strong attitudes which remain uncontaminated by fear at this point in the novel.
Auschwitz-Birkenau also conveys the idea of the individual overcoming fear to achieve control. In the excerpt: “Liberation. Not because of work, but because of men who knew the truth, they liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. The iron jaws were forced open, and the people were let free.” The metaphor of the gate as iron jaws characterises the evil which they possess and the imagery of them being forced open exemplifies the power which exists with these individuals who have overcome fear of the Hitler regime, who have seen the truth and formed their own attitudes towards it and ultimately acted upon these.
It is the tremble in our hands and the shiver down our spine. It is an instinctual quality which lies evocable in all of us. And though it possesses great power and potential to control our thought and action, it is up to the individual whether our fears shape our attitudes.