Nineteen Eighty Four By George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty Four byGeorge Orwell

The author: Born Eric Blair 1903, died George Orwell 1949. Classical education at Eton - won scholarship Worked as a Colonial Officer in Burma – resigned1927– he hated authority– he hated injustice‘I knew I had a facility with words and a power of facingunpleasant facts.’ The Hanging.

Nineteen Eighty Four is a satire (the use of humor,irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticizepeople's stupidity or vices, particularly in the contextof contemporary politics and other topical issues) ontrends in international politics at the end of WW2.Orwell’s intention is to draw attention to theoppression and cruelty as he saw in Nazi Germany,Soviet Russia, and even the behaviour of someWestern countries.

George Orwell- considered himself a truth writer- was a social reformer- was involved in the Spanish civil war and found it far morecomplicated than he first imagined.- said, “History is written by the winners.”

Slogans of “The Party”

Context of Nineteen Eighty-Four. based on Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Most details are from Nazi Germany. Once a goal is reached in a totalitarian society it isreplaced immediately by another.

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a politicalsystem that strives to regulate nearly every aspectof public and private life. Totalitarian regimes ormovements maintain themselves in politicalpower by means of an official all-embracingideology and propaganda disseminated throughthe state-controlled mass media, a single partythat controls the state, control over the economy,regulation and restriction of free discussion andcriticism, the use of mass surveillance, andwidespread use of state terrorism.

As its name suggests, Totalitarianism is apolitical system that strives to regulatenearly every aspect of public and privatelife.Orwell’s Totalitarian society (Ingsoc)was aimless – “we are interested solelyin power.if you want a picture of thefuture.imagine a boot stamping on ahuman face – for ever.” (O’Brien 280)

Joseph Stalin(born Iosef Besarionis dzeJughashvili )18 December 1878 – 5March 1953)

Stalin was the General Secretaryof the Communist Party of the.Soviet Union's CentralCommittee from 1922 until hisdeath in 1953. In the yearsfollowing Lenin's death in 1924,he rose to become the leader ofthe Soviet Union.

Stalin launched a command economy, replacingthe New Economic Policy of the 1920s withFive-Year Plans and launching a period of rapidindustrialization and economic collectivization.The upheaval in the agricultural sectordisrupted food production, resulting inwidespread famine, such as the Soviet famineof 1932-1933, known in Ukraine as theHolodomor.

During the late 1930s, Stalin launched theGreat Purge (also known as the "GreatTerror"), a campaign to purge theCommunist Party of people accused ofcorruption or treachery; he extended it tothe military and other sectors of Sovietsociety. Targets were often executed,imprisoned in Gulag labour camps orexiled. In the years following, millions ofethnic minorities were also deported.

Big Brother is Watching YOUThe face of a man.with a heavy black moustacheand ruggedly handsome features (1984, 3)

Background to Nineteen Eighty-Four The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is based upontwo totalitarian dictatorships, Soviet Russia andNazi Germany. The world of Ingsoc (English socialism) bearsstrong resemblances to the Soviet Union, butmuch of the details are based on Nazi Germany.

Nazi GermanyEVER since I have been scrutinizingpolitical events, I have taken atremendous interest in propagandistactivity. I saw that the SocialistMarxist organizations mastered andapplied this instrument withastounding skill. And I soonrealized that the correct use ofpropaganda is a true art which hasremained practically unknown tothe bourgeois parties.Mein Kampf by Adolf HitlerVolume One - A Reckoning

We do not intend to use the radio only for ourpartisan purposes. We want room forentertainment, popular arts, games, jokes andmusic. But everything should have a relationshipto our day. Everything should include the themeof our great reconstructive work, or at least notstand in its way. Above all it is necessary toclearly centralize all radio activities, to placespiritual tasks ahead of technical ones, tointroduce the leadership principle, to provide aclear worldview, and to present this worldview inflexible ways.- Goebbels

Like Stalin, Adolph Hitler denied hissubjects access to the truth. His ThirdReich “can be read as a war againstmemory – an Orwellian falsification ofreality.” (Primo Levi) Oceania conductsan unceasing war on memory-evidencethat conflicts with the latest official line issystematically destroyed & a false trail islaid in its place.

Surveillance and controlThe people of this society are constantlybeing watched by telescreens (monitorsthat have an ability to project images andtake in images)They are also watching each other. Anysmall facial gesture or sigh can give youaway.It doesn’t matter if you are innocent

Big Brother is WatchingYOU!

Children of the revolutionIn the Soviet Union, young people wereencouraged to join the political group. Theywere called Young Pioneers (aged between7-13).If you were a Young Pioneer member you gotinto university automatically, so there wasgreat pressure to join.

Hitler Youth "My teaching is hard. Weakness has to beknocked out of them. In my Ordensburgen ayouth will grow up before which the world willshrink back. A violently active dominating,intrepid, brutal youth - that is what I amafter". Youth must be all those things. It mustbe indifferent to pain. There must be noweakness or tenderness in it. I want to seeonce more in its eyes the gleam of pride andindependence of the beast of prey. "I willhave no intellectual training. Knowledge isruin to my young men.

What does this remind you of?“How easy it was, thought Winston, if you did not look aboutyou, to believe that the physical type set up by the Partyas an ideal, - tall muscular youths and deep bosomedmaidens, blond haired, vital, sunburnt, carefree –existedand even predominated”Nineteen Eighty-Four (63).

Some themes The lack of privacyThe dangers of totalitarianismThe destruction of history.The essential nature of memory.An appreciation of the past.The ultimate unreliability of the human mind/memoryTechnology and ModernizationThe use of languageRebellionBreaking the Norm

Oceania –One of the 3 Superstates. (PoliticalSystem: Ingsoc) Winston Smith'shome. Comprised of North and SouthAmerica, Britain, Australia, andsouthern portions of Africa. Newspeakis the official language of Oceania, butstandard English is still spoken bymany.

NewspeakNewspeak, the "official language" ofOceania, is extraordinary in that itsvocabulary decreases every year; thestate of Oceania sees no purpose inmaintaining a complex language, and soNewspeak is a language dedicated to the"destruction of words." As the characterSyme puts it:

"Of course the great wastage is in the verbs andadjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can begot rid of as well. If you have a word like 'good', whatneed is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do justas well. Or again, if you want a stronger version of'good', what sense is there in having a whole string ofvague useless words like 'excellent' and 'splendid' and allthe rest of them? 'Plusgood' covers the meaning, or'doubleplusgood' if you want something stronger still.In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness willbe covered by only six words; in reality, only one word."(Part One, Chapter Five)

Newspeak Refer to this page for the definitions to many of theterms found in 1984: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List of Newspeak words

Nineteen Eighty Four is a satire (the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues) on trends in international politics at the end of WW2. Orwell’s intention is to draw attention to the