“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell Essay

Nineteen lxxxiv is George Orwells unswervingly grim vision of a dystopian future. The author always intend it as more warning than prophecy, so that so far though its patronage date has passed, its lessons nigh the dangers of conformity, mental coercion, and verbal deception retain their validity and relevance. The clean depicts a earthly concern divided into three totalitarian superpowers that be constantly at war with one an opposite Oceania, predominate 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 merely in the features of its everyday life, much of which reflects British life in 1948 (a division whose inverted numbers may bewilder suggested the novels title), provided also in detailed explanations of the historical origins of Ingsoc and Oceania, as well as its official language, impertinentlyspeak. DiscussionA key ingredient in this depress documentation of eroding human immunity is its depiction of a profane language, Newspeak, Orwells brilliant rendering of that degraded language of politicians and sophists which hides rather hence reveals truth. (Orwell, 19) Orwell, rather clumsily in the view of some critics, gives much of this culture 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 dangerous and, well-nigh importantly, seditious to the totalitarian dictator, Big Brother and the Party. Thought crime, the mere spell 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 se e that the undivided aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of vox populi?In the end, we shall make thought crime literally impossible because in that respect go forth 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 new millennium, so very different on a fundamental level from what Orwell predicted? There have been countless refutations of the 1984 dystopia dictatorship 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 intermission and freedom, preventing potentially worse atrocities and repression in hotspots such(prenominal) as China and the Balkans. The rotter line is you have no freedom, no power, you feel no lead or desire for freedom or power, and, whats worse you d o not even know that you do not have it. analysisCritics of every aspect along the political spectrum, no matter what their views about the validity of Orwells social analysis in Nineteen 84, 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 by and by the dissolution of the Soviet empire Orwell, said a Russian philosopher, mute 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 d ays, which he discussed in his essay Such, Such Were the Joys (1952).Young English boys were removed from the heating system 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 unpeaceful world but in a world of good and vicious 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 get the hang and proprietors of the school.(Orwell, 81) Conclusion As a true anti-utopian novel, one in which the horrors of despotism are amply illustrated, Nineteen Eighty-Four serves as a affecting reminder of the preciousness of free thought and an open society and some(prenominal) the author has predicted in this novel has one way or the other turned out to be true.Works Cited Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York Harcourt, Brace & Co. pg 15-129.