critical essays 1984

Occasionally literary and philosophical metaphors and images enter the domain of popular discourse and consciousness. Images in Uncle Tom's Cabin of humane and oppressed blacks contrasted to inhumane slave owners and overseers shaped many people's negative images of slavery. And in nineteenth century Russia, Chernyshevsky's novel What is to be Done? shaped a generation of young Russian's views of oppressive features of their society, including V.I. Lenin who took the question posed by Chernyshevsky's novel as the title of one of his early revolutionary treatises. In the twentieth century, George Orwell's vision of totalitarian society in his novel 1984 has had a major impact on how many people see, understand, and talk about contemporary social trends. 1 Subsequently, Herbert Marcuse's analyses and images of a one-dimensional man in a one-dimensional society shaped many young radicals' ways of seeing and experiencing life in advanced capitalist society during the 1960s and 1970s --though to a more limited extent and within more restricted circles than Orwell's writings which are among the most widely read and discussed works of the century. There are, in fact, both some striking differences and similarities between the visions of totalitarianism in contemporary industrial societies in the works of George Orwell and Herbert Marcuse. A contrast between Orwell and Marcuse seems useful at this point in time since they both offer insights that illuminate various features of the contemporary social and political world. In the light of the growth of repressive governments of the communist, fascist, and democratic capitalist systems in the contemporary epoch, it seems appropriate to re-read Orwell's novels and essays and Marcuse's writings since both contain concepts and analyses that provide sharp critiques of the mechanisms and power in institutions which practice.
''IN a free society,'' wrote the French philosopher Montesquieu, ''it is not always important that individuals reason well, it is sufficient that they reason; from their individual thought, freedom is born.'' Exactly two centuries later, in his futuristic novel ''1984,'' the English political novelist George Orwell gave a tragic illustration of what the world would be without the freedom to think. Orwell had the intention to call his book ''The Last Man in Europe,'' as a tribute to the essential quality that distinguished man from the world around him, namely his ability to think for himself. Winston, the main character of the novel, lives in a country where individual thought is banned, where only the leader, Big Brother, is allowed to reason and to decide. Prodded by his natural need for reflection and critical analysis, Winston finds it hard not to make use of his inborn talents. He starts questioning the wisdom of Big Brother and moves hopefully toward his own liberation. But in his struggle for emancipation he stands alone. The large mass of common people do not find in themselves the need to think independently, to question or to investigate what they have been taught. His fellow intellectuals have sold their inalienable right to think freely for security and a semblance of physical well-being. Winston is the last man in Europe, the only human being who wants to use his independent mind. He can not believe that he is alone, that he is the last man in London to resist Big Brother's conquest of the minds. He trusts the wrong men and is doomed to fail. When he finally is ''converted'' to believe in and to love Big Brother, another slave is born, another cog is placed in the machinery of the State, the last man in Europe is dead. ''1984'' is a political statement. It contains no prophetic declaration, only a simple warning to mankind. Orwell did not believe that 35.
'Your Favorite Book Sucks' is an ongoing column, written by different people, that takes a classic or popular book and argues why it isn't really all that great. Confrontational, to be sure, but it's all in good fun, so please play nice. While some classics seem to be symbolically great rather than actually great, there is one work that falls so far short of its legend that it makes me blood froth. That book is George Orwell's famous 1984. I'm going to go through and highlight some of the more major flaws and terrible moves in 1984, and then I'll tell you the real reason I didn't like it. (And **spoilers**. Obviously.) Totalitarian Evil I'm going to try to avoid making this too much of a biography of Orwell or a history lesson, but a few facts are worth talking about. First, Orwell had some bad experiences with communism. He once believed in communism and even volunteered to serve in the Spanish Civil War alongside the reds. Things didn't turn out so well for him. In addition to war injuries that would never fully heal, Orwell's faith in communism shattered when he saw the bureaucracy, greed, and heartlessness within it. 1984 is a caricature of.totalitarian evil, and not a particularly subtle one Having lost faith in Marxist communism, Orwell became one of its harshest critics during the time of Josef Stalin. Many of these criticisms were certainly warranted, but many were founded in Orwell's imagination. Lucky for Orwell and for the success of 1984, Orwell's imagination was a reflection of the imagination of his time. The simplistic ideas of how the communist USSR functioned and remained in power were widespread but not particularly accurate. Little study was made of the psychology of citizens or how the USSR's culture compared to the Russian culture that preceded it. The result of these false comparisons, emotionally charged arguments, and the heat of Cold War.
Search Results Free Essays Unrated Essays Better Essays Stronger Essays Powerful Essays Term Papers Research Papers Search by keyword:   Sort By:   Your search returned over 400 essays for 1984 1  2  3  4  5    Next >> These results are sorted by most relevant first (ranked search). You may also sort these by color rating or essay length. Title Length Color Rating   Characters, Theories and Principles of George Orwell's Novel 1984 - Through out the course of history there have been several events that have been a pivotal point which has molded the behaviors and thoughts of this century. A lot of notable activist and authors wrote stories and speeches about how they believed that this day and time would be like. A lot of these views were very accurate surprisingly. In the novel 1984 author George Orwell gives his vision on how he believed that the countries would be like if they kept going the way they were.This report will give you a brief rundown of the characters, theories and principles of this novel along with some of my personal insight of the novel.   [tags: 1984] 1119 words(3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Government Power in 1984, by George Orwell - The book 1984, by George Orwell is based on the theory of “Big Brother” and how he is always watching you. In the book, the Oceania government controls their citizens by saying and ordering them into not doing certain things. Which then forced their citizens to deceive their government by going in to hiding. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, Japanese-Americans were ordered to do certain things as well. Both of these two events prove that the government can force their citizens to do anything under their power.   [tags: 1984 Essays] :: 6 Works Cited 1058 words(3 pages) FREE Essays [view] The Threat of Love in Totalitarian Regimes as Depicted in Orwell's 1984 - Love is the foundation and the weakness of a.
George Orwell developed the theme of 1984 under a shroud of dystopian totalitarianism, when the novel is really a metaphorical satire of modern class structure.  The main character, Winston Smith, is a self-projection of the author as an isolated individual facing the menacing Big Brother’s totalitarian regime (Hopkinson par. 9).  When the book is taken at face-value, readers and critics conclude that the theme of 1984 is a warning against communist totalitarianism and the looming threat of dystopian totalitarianism in the future.  However, Orwell’s intended theme symbolically points out the inequitable class divisions in modern society, and only uses the setting of a futuristic dystopia to exaggerate his belief that the modern upper-class have complete control over the lower classes. As early as the first two sentences, George Orwell gives a dank and isolating description of a dystopian world using simple but lurid syntax and diction “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.  Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.”(Orwell 1).  The “vile wind” may foreshadow the difficulties Winston will have to escape in the future, only to accept conformity in the end by letting the metaphorical “swirl of gritty dust” (conformity) overcome him in the end “ as the novel closes, Winston is alone, except for the internalized Big Brother.  In Between he travels a boomerang’s course, from the solitude which leads to self-awareness to that which marks the loss of his identity.”(Lonoff 35). The individualist spirit that overcomes Winston is one thing that the totalitarian state of Oceania fears most and in order to suppress that spirit, it must be wiped out. The.