...The theme of Political Strife in Orwell’s 1984 Student’s name Institution name Abstract Orwell’s 1984 is another masterfully done piece of work that captures the political scenario across the world. Having written it in 1964, the book foretells the political events of the coming 1984 generations. This is a purely prophetic book that is inspired by Orwell’s sharp observation and political analytical skills. In this book, the life of the characters is purely determined by the political happenings of the time. (Bloom, 2007). Many literary and political analysts have found a place to refer to in interpreting political realities of the world in George Orwell’s works. Orwell is remembered for his other book Animal Farm that continues to spark emotional reactions from all over the world every day. A look at how the political theme gets manifested can help one to understand better the happenings in the story and their general applicability to the world we are living in. The Theme of Political Strife There are a number of themes that Orwell (1964) brings out in his book 1984. It is a prediction of the coming political sceneries in future since its publication came earlier before the year 1984. Among the major themes that can be found in the story are betrayal...
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...Technology through the eyes of George Orwell Summary of the story The novel 1984 published in 1949 takes a look at society of future in 1984. This society called Oceania is a totalitarian one, where state controls everything including the people’s thought. The government, which runs Oceania is called INGSOC (English Socialism). The controllers are known as “The Party”, whose leader is Big Brother. Winston Smith, the central character, a 39-year old man lives in London. He secretly hates Big Brother. He decides to rebel by keeping a diary in which he reveals his rebellious thought. He knows the crime he is committing and also that one day the thought police would discover his crime and probably kill him. The lowest class in the social hierarchy of Oceania are “proles”, who are relatively free of police surveillance. He befriends Mr. Charrington, the prole owner of a junk shop, who shares similar interest in the past life before the rule of Big Brother. A dark haired girl, in another department slips a piece of paper in Winston’s hand. It says, “I love you.” Winston is surprised and disturbed as any sexual relation between Party members is strictly forbidden. Nevertheless, he falls in love and they meet secretly. A love affair begins and the girl finally introduces herself as Julia. They are careful enough to meet in places unlikely to be watched. Winston and Julia eventually hire a room above Mr. Charrington’s junk-shop as a place for the two of them to...
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...Love in George Orwell’s 1984 Love can play many roles in society. It can bring many people together happily or it can tear families apart so they will never speak to ach other again. Love can also be a political force. It can be an act of rebellion by individuals. It can also be a means to control individuals. This is what has occurred in George Orwell’s book 1984. George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903 as Eric Arthur Blair, in Bengal, India. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, was an administrator in the Opium Department of the Indian government. (Mullen 3) Eric, his mother, Ida Mabel Limouzin Blair, and his older sister left India for England in 1908. (Flynn 9) In England the family lived as a “shabby-genteel family,” in his own words, at Henley on Thames. This was a happy time in his life and an inspiration for some of his writing, such as the essay, “Such, Such Were the Joys.”(Mullen 3) Also at this time Eric first showed signs of poor health. His mother recorded in her diary her concern for his bronchitis and a weak chest. (Flynn 11-12) In 1911 Eric went to St. Cyprian’s prepatory school. He was eight. (Flynn 19) Eric’s family kept him there at a great sacrifice to his family but at reduced fee because the headmaster hoped Eric would be able to win a scholarship. At the age of thirteen Eric went to Eton College after winning two scholarships. Eric was at Eton from 1917 to 1921. (Hopkinson 276) Eric praised Eton by complimenting its tolerant and civilized atmosphere...
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...Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four (1984). A year later after he was born, his mother brought both him and his sister to England in which his father, a British civil servant stayed in India because he was stationed there. Even as early as a child, he was already battling with the flu and bronchitis although at an early age, he was already into writing. When he got older, he went to school but then was set back a few years for college because his family couldn’t afford it so he ended up joining the Imperial Police Force in 1922. After five years, he resigned and decided to continue his journey as a writer. He came up with his first book Down and Out in Paris and London which was about how life was living in the two cities. He didn’t want to embarrass his family’s name so he decided to use his pseudonym ‘George Orwell’ as the author for his future works. Orwell then wrote about his other experiences overseas, British Colonialism in Burma and part of the country’s Indian empire. In 1937 he married Eileen O'Shaughnessy and then later on went to Spain to battle in the Spanish Civil War. He got badly injured being shot at the neck and arm. After being partially healed, he later on battled another sickness-tuberculosis in 1938. Despite battling his sickness, he still decided to keep writing to support himself. Orwell found himself acting as a propagandist to advance the country's side. He loathed this part of his job and resigned in 1943. Around this time, Orwell became the literary editor...
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...In the book Nineteen-Eighty Four by George Orwell he talks about how the government watches them. How they doesn’t have privacy to do anything they want. Winston is the main character of the book, then there is big brother he is like the government. Big brother is always watching everyone, they have something that's like a television, which is called a telescreen where they can see you, however you can't see them and you also can't turn it off only turn down the volume. The privacy of American citizens is being violated similar to the privacy violations in 1984 now that big brother is always watching everyone with the telescreen, they don’t freedom and they also have thought police. In Nineteen-Eighty Four Winston talks about how BIg Brother...
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...how the way you think of it. In the book 1984 written by George Orwell, he talks about the government is presented as a totalitarian state and how it is set up in this book also how George Orwell describes the life in Oceania. Some allusions that Orwell uses are deliberately used to describe Oceania of what it is and what it should not be “Though Winston is technically a member of the ruling class, his life is still under the Party’s oppressive political control. In his apartment, an instrument called a telescreen—which is always on, spouting propaganda, and through which the Thought Police are known to monitor the actions of...
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...Monday November 2nd 2015 1984 By George Orwell There are vast amounts of ideas regarding utopia and several authors who have contributed their work which have been studied for many years (decades) in literature. Utopia is something that is imaginary; it is an ideal state of command and vision of political or social perfection. 1984 by George Orwell is one of the most widely read books based on a tale for our future society that involved nothing less than extinction of humanity itself. 1984 is based on a totalitarian government, which is a type of government that tries to take over all aspects of life without any other parties or opinions that can conflict with the exercise of it. This novel is a story based out of London where the city is very run down and dirty, there is not a lot of food to go around and mostly everything is disgusting regardless. The main character, Winston Smith, is a man who works for the government and hates the way he lives in this society he is forced to be a part of. Every day he repeats the same routine and tolerates what is expected of him or follows the consequences if he stepped out of societal boundaries. One day, a woman named Julia, who worked in the same building as him, turned his life around ever so quickly. They both wanted to rebel against “Big Brother”, the party which controlled their lives. Behind 1984 there is a sense of injustice; man versus a political system that targets individuality and people’s thoughts. The political structure...
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...In the art of literature, the author has many techniques that they can use to their favor. One of these techniques is the plan of making the reader wait to build interest in the book. This is used by both Toni Morrison and George Orwell in their novels Beloved and 1984 respectively. The idea of making the reader wait plays a large part in these novels to drive the plot forward. In the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, the idea of making the reader wait for plot details is apparent. Through the entire novel, allusions to the slavery that all of the characters have gone through are plentiful. However, it is only as the novel goes on that the reader is able to learn all of the information that surrounds these characters and their past lives. This helps to keep interest building in the reader as they must now keep reading to gain the closure that they desire while trying to learn about the characters. An example from this novel that shows this to be the truth is the information on how, Sethe, the main character's kids died. From the beginning of the novel we knew that they had died by the hands of Sethe herself. However as the reader moves farther into the novel, more and more information...
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...Novel Notes “1984” Step 1: Dean, Michael, and George Orwell. 1984. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2003. Print. * George Orwell was born in Bengal, India as Eric Arthur Blair. Orwell is a novelist, essayist, and critic. * He had strong opinions and addressed some of the major political movements of his time. * Orwell’s father was stationed in India and stayed there when George, his mom, and his sisters moved to England. Orwell and his father never had a strong connection. * Orwell composed his first poem around the age of 4, he then struggled in the years to come with getting his writing career off the ground. * Also wrote Animal Farm, a novel attacking Stalinism. * Once graduating from the university he became very interest in political matters, which led him the writing of 1984. Step 2: What is the significance of the novel’s title? Orwell originally envisioned the title to be "The Last Man in Europe." But his editor, Frederic Warburg told Orwell he should change it. Therefore it became 1984, as we know it today. But there is much speculation as to where 1984 came from. There are two ideas I learned about. 1. Orwell, in 1948, may have thought a simple, two-digit end switcheroo would be a good title. 2. Or named it after his wife’s poem, "End of the Century, 1984." What is the novel’s setting in time and place? Does setting influence characters or actions? How much time is covered in the story? * Setting Time & Place:...
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...In 1949, George Orwell wrote and published his final novel 1984 about a utopian society, Oceania, on the surface and a dystopian society when looked into further into through Winston Smith’s perspective. This character goes against the totalitarianism government ran by the Inner Party and Big Brother. Orwell gave a dramatic utopian and dystopian fiction book that is also political and social science fiction because Orwell often wrote about going against totalitarianism. Utopia is defined as ‘an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.’ which is exactly how George Orwell portrayed Oceania to be for a majority of the citizens or Party members. Oceania’s government or Big Brother can do no wrong, especially in the eyes...
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...October 22, 2014 English 102-16 Blog #3 Professor Reeb Blog#3 My question is how is surveillance today like it is in 1984? George Orwell’s 1984 showed a world in which people are being under controlled of the governmental system. Orwell uses a quote that caught my attention,“ Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom”(663). This brought my attention because I felt that the Thought Police were watching the citizens under surveillance through telescreens, therefore the Party had a possible chance to watch all of the screens all the time. People actually did not believe this was true and it was happening to them. No one really knew how the Thought Police actually figure this out but they actually used wires to connect them to the telescreens. They had helicopters flying around trying to look into the people’s windows. In the book, Winston thought how dangerous the telescreen was for someone because they are watching you and putting you in public. I feel like many privet companies are using these systems to watch their employees and property. Surveillance devices are now becoming so small that it is now possible to make a little camera or microphone fit into a small hole in a corner wall or anywhere someone can’t actually see it. For example, Polices use small microphones to get information when they are being undercover. The government is controlling us by invading our...
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...How was police brutality before and now leading into 1984? Over the years police brutality back then to now has changed in both good and bad ways, including more hate crimes towards policemen, and policemen taking their job too far to the point where there was no fairness for the victim, and technology has changed the way that police search for criminals. Police brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct, which include: false arrest; intimidation; racial profiling; political repression; surveillance abuse; sexual abuse; and police corruption. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Although no reliable measure of these incidence exists let alone one charting...
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...Ben Burrows English 12 Daulerio George Orwell's famous book 1984 was written as a political novel to warn people of the dangers of facing Communism in a totalitarian government. This book not only warned the world of potential dangers of being ruled this type of government, but it also presented some controversial new societal trends and technological advancement ideas for the future. Little did society know that Orwell's technology predictions in this book would actually come true in the near future. Orwell was especially concerned with the technological role in these governments, allowing them to control and keep an eye on their citizens. People in the time period that this book was written had a hard time grasping what Orwell was predicting. Many of his ideas and concepts were said not to happen for thousands of years, some were even claimed impossible to be done. In actuality, as we know today, a good amount of Orwell's predictions in the book 1984 have already became a reality. Orwell presented these ideas to warn people of what might be ahead and to be careful, but it may have created an opposite effect. His ideas may have actually had society work towards making his predictions come true. Orwell's book 1984 revealed how powerful technology could be, as the Party, or "Big Brother", used its complex technology to monitor and implement fear into those it identifies as its enemies. One of the devices the Party used for this purpose was the "telescreen"...
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..."If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." This quote from the book 1984, by George Orwell, portrays a theme that is consistent throughout the novel: freedom. Imagine a world where you have no freedoms; you cannot state your opinion and even having your own thoughts could be detrimental. Well, George Orwell decided to take this idea and create a story out of it called 1984. This novel is definitely worth the read and deserves to be discussed. First, I will assess the importance of reading this novel. Then, I will compare Orwell's vision of the future to our reality by looking at the government's power, our civil rights, and how technology advancements have affected our freedoms. Although...
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...The Works of George Orwell The Literary Canon is an authoritive list, as of the works of an author. To enter or actually be entered into the canon is to gain certain obvious privileges; it is governed by influential critics, museum directors, and their board of trustee’s as well as scholars and teachers. To appear in the Norton or Oxford anthology is not a sign of greatness but a status of accessibility to a public reading. Belonging to the Literary Canon confers status; social, political, economic, and aesthetic, belonging to the canon is a guarantee of quality. George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair, to English parents Richard Walmesley (a civil servant) and Ida Mabel (Limouzine) Blair in Motihari, Bengal (now Bihar) India in 1903 and died a year after writing Nineteen Eighty Four in 1950. He graduated from Eton College in 1921. His political beliefs follow those of a democratic socialist. His interests include fishing, carpentry, gardening, and raising animals. He served in the Spanish civil war as well as World War II where he held the rank of sergeant. George held many jobs during his career as a writer he was a police officer in Burma, a dishwasher in Paris, a teacher in England, as well as a shopkeeper, he also produced educational radio programs for the BBC. Among his writing accomplishments he wrote fiction as well as nonfiction novels his two most famous being “Nineteen Eighty Four” and “Animal farm” both of which have been adapted for film. In “Animal Farm” and...
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