1984 Research Paper
The goal of this paper is to analyze the book 1984 by George Orwell. 1984 is about life with no personal freedoms. Winston is the main character, a man of 39 years old, who is not extraordinary in intelligence or character, but hates the world he lives in. He works in the Ministry of Truth, a place where the truth and past events are rewritten to satisfy the party's beliefs. Winston is aware of the untrue, because he makes them true. This makes him very upset with the government of Oceania, where Big Brother, a larger than life leader, which we don't know exists or not, controls the people. His unhappiness increases to a point where he rebels against the government in small ways (for example, his diary). Writing is his diary is considered as a thought crime. A thought crime is any bad thought against the government. Winston commits many thought crimes and becomes paranoid about being caught, which he knows is inevitable (Greenblast 113). He becomes paranoid because a young woman who is actively involved in many community groups follows him. Winston is obsessed with the past, a time before what became present day Oceania. He goes into an antique shop and buys a shell covered in glass, which is another crime and punishable. He sees
dark. A better name for it would be the Ministry of Hate. George Orwell lived during a time when Europe was in a period of rebuilding after World War II. During that time Soviets gained six nations as satellites. England was helpless and had to worry about their own problems and had to watch the Soviet Union take control of half of Germany. The leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin, closely resembles Big Brother. They were both larger than life figures in their respective countries. In the Soviet Union you could easily have found large posters with Stalin's face on them. The same holds true in 1984; Big Brother's face is everywhere. A famous quote from 1984 is "Big Brother is watching you" (Orwell 5). Meaning if his Thought Police don't catch you, his telescreens and hidden microphones would. In the Soviet Union, Stalin's KGB sought criminals who plotted against the government. In Stalin's regime over 10 million people were killed. In 1984 hundreds of criminals were killed daily. Another aspect of the 1940's was the new broadcast TVs and mainframe computers. The new technologies could be used for means of control. Orwell saw communist countries using these technologies for control (Kolakowski 125). This is where Orwell's idea of telescreens and hidden microphones came from. Before World War II, Orwell had his worst encounter with communists. While Orwell was in the Spanish Civil War, he was running away from Soviet communists who were trying to kill him. After that experience he got out of the army and became a writer full time. "Another shock to Orwell was when the Nazi-Soviet pact signaled the breakdown and the beginning of the mental and emotional state out of which grew Animal Farm and 1984"(Greenblast 105). Orwell may of have extracted what he saw in his world while writing but it was done to get people's attention of problems in the existing world. "Orwell's primary purpose is to distort disturbing conditions tendencies and habits of thought that he saw existing in the world"(Stansky 105). Orwell saw, the whole world steadily moving toward a vast ruthless tyranny. He felt nothing could stop its monstrous progress. 1984, in spite of its setting in the future, is not primarily a utopian fantasy prophesying what the world will be like in thirty or forty years but a novel about what the world is like now (Greenblast 112). Orwell always relates characters in his books to points of view and real people. In Animal Farm every farm animal represents a person in the Soviet Union. In 1984, Orwell represents his point of view in Winston. He shows a totalitarian leader, in O'Brien and Big Brother, while Julia is the desire and lust in every human being. George Orwell had deep resentment against totalitarianism and what it stood for. He saw the problem of totalitarianism in his existing world. He also understood how the problem could fester and become larger due to instability in Europe's economy after World War II. He purposely makes the story, 1984, unrealistic and blown out of proportion to capture people's attention and makes them think maybe it wouldn't be unrealistic in the near future. With his deep resentment toward totalitarianism it became the focal point of his novels. George Orwell's novels were directed toward against totalitarianism and for Socialism and what it stood for. the same woman following him. Many thoughts race through his mind "I wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards. Two weeks ago I thought seriously of smashing your head in with a cobblestone. If you really want to know, I imagined that you had something to do with the Thought Police" (Orwell 101).
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ministry Truth, Soviet Union, Smith Polices', Winston Smith, Ministry Love, Animal Farm, O'Brien Winston, George Orwell, Stalin's KGB, Police Orwell, ministry truth, soviet union, ministry love, winston smith, world war ii, winston julia, world 1984, war ii, george orwell, world war, government winston, bad government winston, deep resentment totalitarianism, telescreens hidden microphones,
Approximate Word count = 2433
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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