1984 Literary Analysis
| Subject: | 📚 Literature |
| Type: | Analytical Essay |
| Pages: | 3 |
| Word count: | 837 |
| Topics: | George Orwell's 1984, 📗 Book |
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Table of Contents
Introduction
In the outstanding novel “1984”, war signifies peace, freedom is the same as slavery, and ignorance is the major force. The plot of the book is very unexpected, at the same time ambiguous and difficult. The events start with an ordinary man with an unremarkable life called Winston Smith, who exists in a totalitarian system. The regime considers everyone under its power to be absolutely and indisputably under its absolute control, an oppressive government whose system has degraded people to the extent that they can barely reflect on their own as their brains have been thoroughly corrupted. However, it didn’t take Winston long to realize that he could be more content if he were independent. The protagonist is extremely perceptive; he seeks to monitor other people surrounding him in order to better conform to his Big Brother’s political instructions, because he maintains the necessity and desires to gain liberty. A remarkable phenomenon is the daily two-minute hate routine, which was supposed to increase people’s hatred for their foreign enemies, as well as to draw attention to their ultimate leader — Big Brother. Through the ceremony, Winston meets two other people, O’Brien and Julia, who will promptly affect his personal life.
Literary depiction of the totalitarian system in George Orwell’s novel 1984
The novel revolves around Oceania, which is under the control of a totalitarian state, with unlimited oppressive power, and no one is able to oppose this system. The Party endlessly supervises and oversees every moment of people’s lives to such an extent that even if someone harbors a wrong thought, it is a crime. All the cities are in ruins; people are suffering from hunger and obtain no way to supply their families, while the Party itself considers it necessary for every home to have a TV to monitor every activity in the house.
Families essentially did not exist, marriages were concluded without love, as love is the worst and most indecent feeling for the Party. As for children, they were brought up to spy on their parents in the future and always be ready to tell about any infidelity. Some were aware that there was no truth anymore. The Party monopolizes all media sources, directs and revises the content of all newspapers and rewrites history for its own purposes and interests. There is no more personal opinion; the Newspeak restricts and constrains the opinions that people are capable of formulating. Some signs of the human race have been removed from Party members. However, a limited number of people believe that there is still hope. If there is hope, it consists in the proletariat — the laboring class who live in their own dusty and makeshift neighborhood. The Party considers them animals, but if you ponder about it, they live like average people, work for the sake of their families, marry for love, seek satisfaction in leisure and never forget the past. Winston longs for affection, friendship and freedom, but it is an unexpected revelation for him to expose them in the last person he would have thought — Julia.
Julia represents a docile and submissive person, she has never really questioned the Party and its actions, but inside her is a gentle woman’s heart that ultimately develops into a disobedient and fulfilled one. Winston turned into a more compassionate and reasonable person because of his relationship with Julia. After Julia’s presence Winston ventures to encounter another key character, O’Brien in his apartment, this meeting was relatively short and discussed a closed Brotherhood organization opposing the Party. O’Brien appeared to be precisely what Winston aspired to become, the protagonist accepts the rules of the Brotherhood without a second thought and believes in O’Brien completely and utterly. The future seemed cloudless: Winston has made love with Julia, whom he swore never to betray. His participation in the Brotherhood could well topple the total hated Party control.
Finally, however, O’Brien turns out to be a traitor. In the holy order of love, where all the penalties and brainwashing ironically happen, Winston faces imprisonment, now O’Brien is certainly no more a fellow, but his tormentor. The man oppresses Winston physically, morally and emotionally, these actions result in the mental breakdown. Following that, O’Brien confirms the idea that physical pain can overcome humanness. Through the use of torture, O’Brien caused Winston to agree to believe everything he stated, for example, that “two and two is five”.
Conclusion
The Brotherhood organization is not and will under no circumstances be the arbiter of righteousness if all it serves and connects with are evildoers. Big Brother, in fact, tried to take the place of God himself, developing his own rules and laws, to impose on each person what he possesses the right to manage in his life and what not. Going deeper and deeper into the novel, the reader concludes that the Party does not care at all about the life and well-being of people, the cities are abandoned, people are fragile and weak, their every action is continuously monitored and searched for at least some flaw.
Offered for reference purposes only.