“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell Essay

Nineteen Eighty-Four is George Orwells unswervingly grim vision of a dystopian future. The reservoir always intended it as more(prenominal) warning than prophecy, so that even though its title date has passed, its lessons nigh the dangers of conformity, mental coercion, and verbal deception maintain their validity and relevance. The novel depicts a world divided into three totalitarian superpowers that are constantly at war with unmatchable another Oceania, dominated by the former United States Eurasia, dominated by Western Europe and Eastasia, dominated by China and Japan.Since the novel belongs to the genre of the dystopia, a negative Utopia, much of its subject area is necessarily involved in describing Oceanian societynot only in the features of its everyday life, much of which reflects British life in 1948 (a year whose inverted numbers racket may have suggested the novels title), but also in detailed explanations of the historical origins of Ingsoc and Oceania, as well as its official language, Newspeak. DiscussionA key ingredient in this chilling documentation of eroding human freedom is its depiction of a corrupted language, Newspeak, Orwells brilliant rendering of that dissolute language of politicians and sophists which hides rather then reveals truth. (Orwell, 19) Orwell, rather clumsily in the view of some critics, gives much of this information in the form of a book-within-a-book, the supposed handbook of the revolutionaries, and an appendix to the novel itself about Newspeak.The purpose of Newspeak was to drastically reduce the number of words in the position language in order to eliminate ideas that were deemed stern and, most importantly, seditious to the totalitarian dictator, Big Brother and the Party. Thought crime, the mere act of thinking about ideas like Freedom or Revolution, was punishable by torture and brainwashing. Newspeak was the sinister answer. A character in 1984 describes it succinctly Do not you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of musical theme?In the end, we shall make thought crime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it. The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now. Is our real world today, at the beginning of the unfermented millennium, so very different on a fundamental level from what Orwell predicted? There have been countless refutations of the 1984 dystopia Totalitarianism is on the wane, Communism is dead, there is more prosperity, more community, more freedom than ever before.(Orwell, 37) Arguably, on a geo-political level, the global information economy has promoted the causes of peace and freedom, preventing potentially worsened atrocities and repression in hotspots such as China and the Balkans. The bottom line is you have no freedom, no power, you feel no need or desire for freedom or power, and, whats worse you do not even know that you do not have it. Anal ysisCritics of every aspect along the political spectrum, no matter what their views about the validity of Orwells social analysis in Nineteen Eighty-Four, agree on one thing Considered politically and historically, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most important books of the twentieth century. The bleakness of its vision of a totalitarian society became a profound warning, and Orwells accuracy was attested by dissidents in Eastern Europe and Russia both before and after the dissolution of the Soviet empire Orwell, said a Russian philosopher, understood the soul, or soullessness of Soviet life.not only did the words Newspeak and doublethink enter the English language but Russians refer to the Novoyaz of Communist Party language. (Orwell, 67) Some critics have pointed out that another layer of core exists within the novel. They connect Orwells dissection of Oceanian society to his portrayal of his depressing and unhappy preparatory school days, which he discussed in his essay Such , Such Were the Joys (1952).Young English boys were removed from the warmth and security of their families, mini-societies governed by love and respect, and hurled into a world dominated by fear, repression, and an all-pervading sense of guilt. There, Orwell was imprisoned not only in a hostile world but in a world of good and evil where the rules were such that it was actually not possible for me to keep them. In such a society, rebellion or even dissent becomes almost impossible, and even personal relationships are viewed with hostility and suspicion by the ruling class, that is, the masters and proprietors of the school.(Orwell, 81) cobblers last As a true anti-utopian novel, one in which the horrors of totalitarianism are amply illustrated, Nineteen Eighty-Four serves as a poignant reminder of the dearness of free thought and an open society and whatever the author has predicted in this novel has one way or the other turned out to be true.Works Cited Orwell, George (1949). Ni neteen Eighty-Four. New York Harcourt, Brace & Co. pg 15-129.