“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself,” (Albert Camus). As this quote clearly says, authors not only use their books as a way to entertain the reader but also as a way to prevent society from destroying itself. A way authors do this is by critiquing norms of society. For example, George Orwell uses his book 1984 to critique the normalities found in society. To be specific, Orwell uses the novel 1984 to critique the social, political, intellectual norms of today’s society which can be seen extensively throughout the book.
To start, George Orwell uses 1984 to critique to social norms of today’s society. One way he does this is through the use of telescreens. Telescreens are a propaganda tool used by the Big …show more content…
One way he does this is through the idea of newspeak. Orwell was a strong believer that the languages of countries under dictatorships, such as the Soviet Union or Germany, had deteriorated under their control. Orwell went on to say, “When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer,” in his essay "Politics and the English Language." To illustrate this idea that language can corrupt thought and that totalitarian systems use language to restrict ideas, Orwell created Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Newspeak is a controlled language created by the Inner Party as a tool to limit freedom of thought, and concepts that pose a threat to the party such as freedom, self-expression, individuality, and peace. This clearly resembles how the totalitarian states of the early twentieth century caused a deterioration in their own languages. By creating Newspeak, Orwell critiques the intellectual norms of society because it replicates the language deterioration found in totalitarian states. Also, through his creation and explanation of Newspeak, Orwell warns the reader that a government that creates the language and mandates how it is used can control the minds of its citizens. In short, George Orwell critiques the intellectual norms of society through his creation of the language Newspeak which, in turn, warns the reader of the effects a government controlled language can have on …show more content…
One of the ways he critiques the political norms is through Ingsoc. In 1984, Ingsoc is the political ideology of the totalitarian government of Oceania. Ingsoc exists for the purpose of Expanding the Nation of Oceania as believers of the ideology feel as if Oceania is the supreme nation and all other nations deserve to be removed. Orwell uses Ingsoc as a way to critique the political ideologies common in the early twentieth century such as fascism. For example, In Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, both Mussolini and Hitler pursued territorial expansion as they both believed their home countries were superior than all other nations. Clearly, to critique this, Orwell creates Ingsoc which is quite similar to fascism in its belief that the home nation, Oceania, is superior to all other nations. Another political norm of society Orwell critiques is the idea of continuous war. For instance, in Emmanuel Goldstein’s book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, it says, “ war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either