...Modern Totalitarianism. In the 1940s through the 1960s, the world lived in a time of war. In September 1939 World War II broke out , and was followed by the Cold War of 1947 that lasted up until 1991. The historic wars of these times influenced literature and the writers of the time, as they shaped their novels and books around these events. Writers such as George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut created novels of dystopian societies to alert nations that communism was not as great as it sounded. British writer George Orwell wrote the novel 1984 published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. in 1949. 1984 is a political novel written with the purpose of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, and many Americans supported communism as possible political systems for the west. Therefore, Orwell wrote his novel in order to expose the cruelty and oppression of communist countries. In his dystopian nation, Orwell gave a sneak peak of what a country could become if the people gave all the power to the government. In 1984, Orwell portrays the perfect totalitarian society in which the government monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that having a disloyal thought is against the law. They do so with the use of technology such as tele screens and microphones across the city which allowed the government to monitor all the citizens almost all of the times. In order to keep the citizens of London...
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...‘Controlling the minds of the people translates to the control of the body’ how far do you agree? Totalitarianism is a common theme ground between ‘The Colour Purple’ and ‘1984’ where both protagonists seem to be ‘suspended’ and ‘were lost in a period that offered no hope of progress’ George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ have a society where there is complete control and oppression, which eventually translates to the control of the body, we are presented with the party members and the black women protagonists being the proletariat of society, and never truly being free because ‘As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free’ however, we are presented objects and behaviour that can be described as liberating,...
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...Deconstructing Concealed Identities: Literary Analysis Paper True feelings and intentions are often hidden by masks and disguises worn by humanity. Whether it is to hide genuine feelings or to protect oneself from judgement, people disguise themselves from the rest of the world. This is made very apparent throughout literature. In many instances, characters are seen masking sensibilities such as rebellion, anguish, and jealousy. Such occurrences include Julia from George Orwell’s 1984, Estella from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and Ethan from Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. One case to be considered is that of Julia’s hidden rebellion in George Orwell’s 1984. Winston’s love interest, Julia, is first introduced to the readers as a good...
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...1984 or 2017? Our modern day technology is starting to mirror George Orwell's vision in 1984. Throughout the years, our technology has progressed and has become more efficient than it has been in previous years. Even our smartphones that we sit in our back pocket or the laptops we carry around us are more innovative than all of the technology combined in the 60s and 70s. This may be an advantage to our everyday life, but at what cost? The government can be recognized as “all knowing”. You may think that you are safe within the privacy of your own home or think you’re safe when it comes to your location settings being disabled, but is that always the case? Simply being routed back to a Wi-Fi connection, a hacker or government officials can...
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...Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare. While the term propaganda has acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative and nationalistic examples, propaganda in its original sense is neutral. It may also be construed to refer to uses which are generally held to be somewhat benign or inoffensive, such as public health recommendations, signs encouraging citizens to participate in a census or election, or messages encouraging persons to report crimes to the police, among others. Propaganda was not invented by the Americans. It began with the Roman Catholic Committee for the Propagation of the Faith, an order of the church which was established by a papal bull in 1622. (Baran & Davis, 2013). Throughout the beginning of the twentieth century, the meaning of propaganda was debated as to whether or not it was a good or bad form of communication that could be corrupted...
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...Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984, the concept of the government tracking him down and keeping him as a thought criminal due to his rampant thoughts and uncontrollable subconscious is his one fear day in and day out. Orwell’s 1984 was published in 1948, this was his idea of how civilization would turn into a dystopia completely under the control of the government where even thoughts are monitored, it was his fear of how WW II would affect the world and communism would take over. Winston becomes paranoid of his subconscious leading to his demise but soon realizes that there is no need because the government has a weak structure that relies heavily on the obedience of its...
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...For my Independent Literary Response Project I have chosen to compare the following two texts; George Orwell’s, “1984” and” Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”. These texts were chosen because upon researching them I developed a great deal of interest in the plots, and upon starting to read them I was immediately submerged in the capturing storyline. I very much like science fiction novel and ideals involving the topics of seemingly impossible or unimaginable scenarios, and both of the works that I chose have a certain aspect of science fiction to them. “The Road” is book solely about a young boy and his father living in an apocalyptic word that is run by gangs, rapists, cannibals and families clinging on the edge of life. Almost no life exists anymore, the conditions people face each day are unforgiving: abandoned houses, rotting corpses, raging fires and near to nothing as food goes....
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...It is tempting to assure ourselves that oppression, in the absence of slavery, legally mandated segregation, and its other overt manifestations, has been eradicated from modern society––we cover ourselves with a blanket of goodwill and inclusivity, and pat ourselves on the back as we remain oblivious to the fact that oppression’s lessened tangibility does not actually negate its existence nor its ability to cause suffering. In 1963, when society still demanded rather than overlooked oppression, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in direct response to the clergymen who criticized his peaceful demonstrations against segregation in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. King argued that positive change...
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...‘Dystopian fiction is less about the powerful and more about the powerless’ To what extent is this true in The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984? Dystopian fiction usually revolves over a power struggle between an oppressor and the oppressed, alternatively this can be given the label of powerful and powerless. However, the exposure given to one of these groups is often inclined to be imbalanced. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry has biased exposure towards the powerless due to the simple fact of the third person limited narrator perspective from Jonas, a member of the aforementioned sector of respective society. This is similar to the 1984 narrator where Winston is never truly aware of what goes on when he wasn’t physically present. But, it could be for this exact reason that in 1984 the dystopian genre inclines towards the powerful, highlighting the hold over the powerless. Contrary to this, The Handmaid's Tale (THT) has blurred lines as to whether the dystopian fiction prevalent in the novels are more or less about the powerful. This is majorly due to conflicting plotlines and enigmatic characters, significant in both of the books. For example, the character of Nick could be characterized for the powerful and powerless. Nick behaves with Offred in a manner which confuses the reader about his loyalties. Ultimately, this essay will aim to prove an option that is a fusion between the two rivals of dystopian fiction offering the complex concept of the powerful powerless. The powerful...
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...P1 For this part of my assignment I will be talking about two organisations promotion mix and how they use them. I will select a product from an organisation and explain how this organisation uses promotional strategy to promote their products. Sponsorship Sponsorship is a fee paid to an organization or groups for example sports, arts, entertainment in return for increased awareness. Awareness for that organisation increases because the logo is on display for everyone to see. Unlike advertising, sponsorship cannot communicate specific product attributes because it only shows the logo not the products. While advertising messages are controlled by the advertiser, sponsors do not control the message that is communicated. The business Apple uses sponsorship as a promotional mix. They have done this by sponsoring the American TV show American Idol. In return, Apple’s iPod becomes the official digital music player for American Idol, while the iPhone becomes the shows official handset. By doing this it pr0omotes their products, due to American Idol being a popular TV show millions of people will see Apple’s products. Nike use sponsorship as well, they sponsor popular athletes. These include superstars like Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Neymar. Cristiano Ronaldo is a prime example; he makes £14.1million per year from being sponsored by Nike. By sponsoring Ronaldo their logo will appear on what he wears. When he plays a football match, he will wear Nike boots and this...
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...George Orwell’s novel, 1984, the first entry Winston makes in his journal describes a memory in which images of a child’s arm being blown off were being displayed in the cinema. Not only that, but—to Winston’s horror—everyone in the cinema seemed to be pleased with it. They enjoyed it. This passage is nothing less than alarming. It is even more so when one notices the relationships between modern entertainment and the frightening film in the book. Violence in the media is becoming more graphic and prevalent each year. However, while violence is being censored less by the day, minor nudity, sexual acts or themes, and profanity cause an outrage if not properly censored. To put it simply, more restrictions need to be enabled upon violence and...
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...FIGURES OF SPEECH List of Figure of Speech and Examples Alliteration This is a very common figure of speech that involves using words that begin with the same sound. For instance, “Sally sells sea shells by the seashore” is alliteration – and try saying it fast to see how difficult it is! It is often used in advertising slogans to create something catchy that more people will remember. Assonance Remember the phrase “I Like Ike”? It was a very common phase for those who supported Dwight Eisenhower during his presidential run. This is a figure of speech that focuses on the vowel sounds in a phrase, repeating them over and over to great effect. Hyperbole “It was as big as a mountain! It was faster than a cheetah! It was dumber than a rock!” This figure of speech makes things seem much bigger than they really were by using grandiose depictions of everyday things. Hyperbole is often seen as an exaggeration that adds a bit of humor to a story. Irony This figure of speech tries to use a word in a literal sense that debunks what has just been said. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” from Dr. Strangelove is a great example. It is often used to poke fun at a situation that everyone else sees as a very serious matter. A. Situational B. Dramatic C. Verbal Metaphor Indirect comparison The use of metaphor compares two things that are not alike and finds something about them to make them alike. “My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts...
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...contraceptive belts. Huxley even describes this mechanism in this society worn by Lenina “And round her waist she wore a silver-mounted green morocco-surrogate cartridge belt, bulging (for Lenina was not a freemartin) with the regulation supply of contraceptives”(Huxley 185). In the novel, Lenina has a lot of sexual appeal. She has slept with many men in order to fulfill her duties to the government and to fit in with the obscure yet “moral” norms in the dystopian society. In addition, the monitoring of speech in this novel reminds one of the similar yet different environment held in George Orwell’s novel 1984. In the novel, the government sets a specific language for the people o follow and dubs it Newspeak. When the protagonist of the novel tries to argue for the fact that he should be allowed to use words of his choosing instead of following a certain set of rules, he is met with the following response: "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten"(Orwell Chapter 23). Now that the restrictions the society imposed upon its people are established, one can be fascinated by the modern day application that can be brought forth from this classic. In our world, alcohol could...
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...associated with balancing security and privacy requires an appreciation of how the loss of privacy impacts society. In his work on surveillance, Kevin Macnish highlights the issues that can come from having cameras in the workplace. He points out that “CCTV in the workplace is more intrusive, as this could well have chilling effects, lead to behavioral uniformity, carry some stigma, violate the privacy of some and lead to a fear of control” (Macnish). This idea is not only applicable in a workplace scenario, but still holds true in public spheres. In his famous book 1984, George Orwell describes the impact of ubiquitous surveillance on citizens. When describing the fictional society, Orwell, through the narrator, explains that “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (27). This describes a society where privacy is so nonexistent, that people only could be free inside of their mind. While Orwell’s example is, of course, fictional, past and present totalitarian societies, such as Nazi Germany and present day North Korea, provide actual examples of the harm that comes total loss of privacy in a police state. With these fictional and real examples in mind, it easy to understand the point Macnish makes about cameras in the workplace. When people know they are being watched, they lose the freedom to act without fearing permanent mistakes, and most of all, they lose their privacy. Macnish is correct that employees would act differently if they knew they were...
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...Human rights are a set of principles used to bring the world to freedom and equality; consequently, if they are not followed, injustice and imparity plagues the world. In Barbara Kingsolvers’ The Poisonwood Bible, there are key moments where an individual’s freedom of religion, opinion, and expression are denied, suppressing people’s ability to join society openly. This can also be recognized in 1984, a dystopian novel by George Orwell, where the citizens living in its world face restrictions to their right to life and liberty, and freedom from inhumane treatment, all taken by their very own government. The fact is that individuals, or a group of individuals, seek authority by taking the human power of rights and freedoms, ultimately taking...
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