“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell Essay Example for Free

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell EssayNineteen Eighty-Four is George Orwells unswervingly grim vision of a dystopian future. The author always intended it as more warning than prophecy, so that even though its title run into has passed, its lessons closely the dangers of conformity, mental coercion, and verbal deception retain their validity and relevance. The new(a) depicts a world divided into three totalitarian superpowers that are constantly at war with one a nonher 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 content 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 may kick in suggested the novels title), but also in detailed explanations of the historical origins of Ingsoc an d 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 degraded 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 knowledge 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 actors line in the English language in order to eliminate ideas that were deemed dangerous 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 altogether aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?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 realize it now. Is our real world today, at the beginning of the new millennium, so very different on a fundamental level from what Orwell predicted? There have been interminable 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 love-in-idleness and freedom, preventing potentially worse 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 tha t you do not have it. AnalysisCritics of every aspect on the political spectrum, no matter what their views about the validity of Orwells social analysis in Nineteen Eighty-Four, agree on one topic 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 meaning 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 remand 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 scruple by the ruling class, that is, the masters and proprietors of the school.(Orwell, 81) Conclusion 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 preciousness 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 Orw ell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York Harcourt, Brace Co. pg 15-129.