Analysis of 1984 by George Orwell

Research Paper Guidelines

Directions

Based upon the novel 1984, select a topic that matches the novel’s overall theme.

Once you select at least 3 themes you are interested in,

• Class Struggle
• Totalitarianism and Communism
• Sex, Love and Loyalty

Conduct research using various scholarly databases to write a thesis statement and identify evidence to support it.

The Research Paper should be at least 4-7 pages that includes a

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Introduction (thesis included)
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• APA STYLE

ANSWER

Analysis of 1984 by George Orwell

Abstract

George Orwell’s book, 1984, represents fears relevant in 1949 following the end of the second world war in 1945. People feared fascism, communism, and the oppressive power of governments. Orwell was a democratic socialist who detested these kinds of leadership and wrote the book to show humanity’s fate if totalitarian regimes were allowed to seize power. The novel examines the role of truth and facts within the political sphere and how they are manipulated. Orwell based the book on Stalin’s Soviet Union regime, which exercised despotism through brutal suppression of rival political groups. The novel follows the main protagonist, Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of the Party. However, Winston is frustrated by the repressive regime, thus begins a subtle rebellion against the Party by keeping a diary of his secret thoughts. Winston, together with his lover Julia, begins a foreordained fight for freedom and justice. However, they are discovered, tortured, and their spirits crushed, thus recommitting to the government.

Introduction

Examples of totalitarianism regimes in the 20^th century include; Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Benito Mussolini’s Italy, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin, and China under Mao Tse Tung. George Orwell effectively explores the themes of mass media control and government surveillance. The book highlights the importance of resisting mass control and oppression. In the novel, Eastasia’s country consists of China and its satellite nations; Eurasia is the Soviet Union, and Oceania comprises the United Kingdom, the United States, and their allies. The story’s setting is in England, known as Air Strip One, one of the provinces in Oceania’s mainland. Orwell effectively explores the themes of class struggle, totalitarianism and communism, and sex, love, and loyalty.

Class Struggle

The inner-Party, whose members make up 2% of the population, effectively govern while the outer Party comprises 13% of the population and carries out their orders with no hesitation. The remaining majority comprising 85 % of the prole’s population, are ignored as they are judged intellectually incapable of organizing revolts. The distinction between social classes is clear based on their living conditions (Kurnianto, 2018). The small inner-Party lives luxuriously in well-furnished apartments, have better quality regarding clothes, food, drinks, tobacco, have servants, and are provided with a private car.

Outer Party members live in single-room apartments with no amenities and enjoy low quality food compared to the elite Inner Party. The Outer Party have similar privileges in comparison to the proles. The proles live in abject poverty where the buildings they reside in are decaying, and survival on hand to mouth income. Inner Party members’ propaganda led the Outer Party members and Proles to believe that certain commodities were in short supply. This state of scarcity increased the importance of privileges magnifying the distinction between social classes.

Orwell supported democratic socialism as a way to fight against the oppression of the working class. Winston’s analysis of Goldstein’s book shows the history of the cyclical struggle between social groups (Baharuddin, 2020). The elite ruling class, the middle class, and the low-class members interchange roles, but the segregation system remains intact. The reversal of roles begins when the middle class seizes power by enlisting the low class’s support in a revolution, thus becoming the ruling class. However, the low-class members remain in service of the ruling until a new middle class emerges and the cycle continues. Winston’s hope for a revolution lies with the proles, the city’s social underclass due to their sheer numbers. The Party controls the middle class and has convinced them that the proles are at the same level as animals, thus keeping them from joining forces. The middle class has no absolute control of their lives as the Party limits their actions.

Totalitarianism and Communism

Totalitarianism is a form of government that limits freedom and seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life, such as actions, lives, desires, and events in its citizens’ life to the authority. Totalitarianism is apparent in Oceania’s dystopian country ruled by a dictatorial, single-party government called Big Brother. Big Brother reigns supreme, controlling information, history, physical and psychological needs. The Party has created a propagandist language known as Newspeak, which promotes party doctrines and limits free thoughts (Awan and Raza, 2016). The language uses contradictory ideas to overwhelm ordinary minds, such as war is peace, ignorance is strength, and freedom is slavery.  Newspeak had eliminated some words such as evil and replaced them with less harsh terms such as ‘ungood’; thus, the idea itself becomes inconceivable without words to express ideas.

Big Brother uses continued surveillance through cameras and listening devices to constantly observe all of its citizens. There is a police unit dedicated to reporting both rebellious thoughts and general misbehavior to authorities. The omnipresent eyes of the Party control citizens’ lives so that no one can escape. Big Brother has created thought police to stop people from thinking of acts considered rebellious. The secret police also run a fake underground resistance to discover rebellious Party members. Winston and Julia are discovered by O’Brien, who is a spy for the Party working undercover. Rebels are re-educated using brutal torture, and the Party threatens citizens with visits to the dreaded Room 101 if they disobeyed orders. By controlling the minds through physical torture, Big Brother can convince citizens to absolute obedience.  O’Brien reconditioned Winston through torture, strapping a cage of rats to his head. Winston begs O’Brien to torture Julia, thus breaking their spirit of rebellion.

The Party controls information and history to consolidate power by controlling what people read. Winston is employed at the Ministry of Truth, an editorial column, editing language, and disposing of literature. The Party controls all information sources and rewrites articles and history to promote the government’s version (Books, 2017). The subjects are forbidden to keep their physical records of the past; thus, their memory becomes unreliable. Winston rebels against the propaganda being fed by the government as some of the policies he reads contradict his memory. The government claims that they are at war against Eurasia, but Winston remembers being at war with Eastasia.  By controlling history, the Party manipulates the present and future; citizens become willing participants in the propaganda media. Big Brother’s face is displayed on posters and coins, cultivating a feeling of love and allegiance among the citizens. The Party uses the people’s frustration and emotion into organizing hate rallies to stimulate patriotism and execute prisoners of war and the Party’s political enemies.

Sex, Love, and Loyalty

The Party’s goal is to destroy the family unit and love to consolidate power for the ruling class.  Winston recalls his mother’s memories and how deeply she loved her children before the revolution and the Party’s rise to power. The Party has undermined such interfamily loyalty demanding all love and allegiance be directed towards Big Brother. This breaks the bond between children and their parents; thus, the Party uses them as spies against their families (Syeda, Akhtar, and Alam, 2020). Ultimately, children report their parents to the police placing their loyalty to the Party instead of their family, such as the case with Mr. Parsons’s child reporting him to the Thought Police. Neighbors and coworkers also inform one another. Winston also learns that Mr. Charrington, the man who sold him his tools of resistance and independence, was a thought police member who informed the Party on their activities. Winston met Julia at work and was reluctant to approach her due to her affiliation with Party agendas; thus was afraid of being sold out to the Party.

Big Brother has brainwashed subjects into believing that sex is despicable and unpleasurable. The Party forces individuals to suppress their sexual desires; thus, sex is depicted as a duty to the Party for procreation, whose end is creating new Party members (Horan, 2018). Children are taught to show loyalty to the Party by remaining chaste. Julia is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League, which advocates for complete celibacy. The group pushes the agenda that children should not be conceived through sexual intercourse but artificial insemination. Julia’s relationship with Winston is illegal as it incorporates the thought crime of desire. The Party regulates sexual relationships since it realizes sexual frustrations can be harnessed into war fever and Party worship.

Sex and family create private loyalties apart from the government. Private loyalties are precursors to rebellions. By taking away pleasures and emotions, then there is nothing to fight for. The Party restricts sexual behavior since sexual desires compete with loyalty to the state and replace it with Big Brother worship and allegiance. Winston and Julia are sent to the Ministry of Love for a violent reeducation where they both betray each other. Winston’s decision to betray Julia under torture shows he revered O’Brien and worshipped the Party showing an inescapable status quo. The party demand all citizens have unwavering love and loyalty to Big Brother only.

Conclusion

The dystopia described in the novel incorporating themes of class struggle, totalitarianism, sex, love, and loyalty is reflected in contemporary society. Crony capitalism has divided society into three parts; the rich, the middle class, and the low class. The rich are a few people who control vast amounts of wealth and employ the middle class. The low-class majority struggles to make ends meet and live in dilapidated buildings. The novel’s telescreens have been replaced by social media platforms, which collect data to gain political mileage, thus distorting democracy. In the contemporary world, the omnipresent Big Brother is the National Security Agency, which is always listening in and eavesdropping on people’s homes. The baseless facts propagated by leaders today are identical to Newspeak, which spurns lies disguised as truths. Loyalty is based on party affiliations such as Republican and Democratic; thus, citizens base their actions on the party guidelines.

References

Awan, A. G., & Raza, S. A. (2016). The Effects of Totalitarianism & Marxism towards dystopian society in George Orwell’s selected Fictions. Global Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 2(4), 21-37.

Baharuddin, A. F. (2020). The Political Hegemony in Orwell’s 1984.

Books, W. (2017). Summary and Analysis of 1984: Based on the Book by George Orwell. Open Road Media. https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/summary-and-analysis-of-1984/9781504044981

Horan, T. (2018). Desire and Empathy in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Desire and Empathy in Twentieth-Century Dystopian Fiction (pp. 147-168). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Kurnianto, E. P. (2018). Winston’s Alienation and Class struggle in George Orwell’s 1984 (Doctoral dissertation, Diponegoro University).

Syeda, F., Akhtar, R., & Alam, K. (2020). Panopticon: An Automation of Power Mechanism A Foucauldian Analysis of the Coercive Surveillance in 1984 by George Orwell. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, 57(2), 133.

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