- Telescreens and portraits of Big Brother are everywhere; therefore, it is impossible to not being heard and seen. Party can check on citizens whenever and wherever, since each individual is coded: ““Smith!” screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. “6079 Smith W! Yes, you! Bend lower please! You can do better than that”” (1,3,39) . No one is able to betray the Party. “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU ”
- There is no freedom of speech in community of Oceania. An example to this fact is Winston. He is incapable of expressing his personal ideas about the Party. Moreover, Winston is unable to quit his job when he does not like it, and he is not allowed to keep any personal documents.
George Orwell is clearly worried about our lack of privacy. Orwell predicts that our future will be governed by one ruler and that one ruler will watch every move we make. He worries about the future where we do not have freedoms. For example is freedom of speech which is impossible in some communism country.
Physical, psychological intimidation and manipulation
Through the main characters in the novel, George Orwell satirizes the physical, psychological intimidation, and manipulation of nazi regime and the Russian revolution. In the society of Oceania love, sex, joy, happiness, personal documents, thoughts, etc, are completely forbidden.
- The Morning exercise is a good example for physical manipulation.
- Winston lives in the world in which legitimate optimism is impossible because he is always being controlled by the thought police.
- Moreover, anyone who betrays the Party will be vaporized and their files will be rewritten, that is Winston’s job to rewrite historical documents. They never existed and will never exist.
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In nineteen eighty-four, there should be no religion but the idea of “Sacred Leader”. Since, Winston writes down "God is power"( he is tortured again. On the other hand, Big Brother represents god; everyone worships him. In the beginning of the novel, the “two minutes hate” is introduced to the reader, which is somehow a public worship of Big Brother.
- George Orwell also explores the use of language to control people’s mind and thoughts. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thoughts? In the end it will make thoughtcrime impossible, because there will be no words in which to express” (1,5,55)
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"2+2=5" is a symbol of manipulation of science. The Party has the power to control everything even science. The truth is wrong when the Party says it wrong
- Sexual life is totally forbidden under the Party's control. Winston's wife considers sex as a duty for a Party. She does not get any pleasure out of it.
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Julia, a young apathetic and rebellious girl, grows up under the Party regime. The society that she lives in is based on suspicion, spying, fear, hatred and intimidation. Julia obeys the Party but she does not believe in it, but she is way different from her lover Winston. Julia is somewhat selfish. She is interested in rebelling only for the pressures to be gained. Whereas Winston is fatalistic concerned about large-scale social issues, Julia is pragmatic and content live in the moment that makes the best for her life.
- "Junior Spy" is a symbol of educational manipulation in which very young children are brainwashed to embrace the Party's ideas. There are a lot of similarities between the Hitler Youth and Oceania’s youth. The kids are taught to ferret out disloyal members and denounce anyone who criticizes the Party or Big Brother even their own parents. In the beginning of the novel, when Winston meets the Parsons Kids; they are dressed in the uniform of the Spies with a tough looking. Suddenly they leap around him shouting “traitor”. Later on, Mr. Parsons, Winston’s comrade, gets caught because his little daughter listens at the keyhole and hears he sleeptalks "Down with Big Brother". The two Parsons Kids beg their parents for take them to see the hanging. Activities for boys include “War game” which intends to toughen them up. In a few years they will hold real weapons not riffle toys.
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In the beginning of the novel, O'Brien appears as a rebellious man who Winston suspects of him secretly opposing the Party. In fact, he is a powerful member of inner Party, and he tricks Winston into believing that he is a member of a revolution group called Brotherhood.
- Later, O’Brien appears in Winston’s jail cell as a party member to abuse and brainwash disloyal Winston. He admits that he pretended to be connected to the Brotherhood merely to trap Winston. In the end, O’Brien successfully changes Winston’s feeling toward Big Brother from hate to love.
Orwell is again scared of physical and mind manipulation. He is worried that people will be control physically by propaganda, for example Junior Spy in the novel or the Physical Jerk. Moreover, Orwell predicts about how people are brainwashed by the Party, and his predictions come true. Nowadays, in some communism countries, for example Vietnam, every Party member are not “allowed” have religion, and then they will love the party most.
ISOLATION:
Through the character Winston and Goldstein, Orwell satires the isolation in human nature and totalitarianism society.
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Isolation appears often in the novel. Winston lives alone at his house with no companionship except the surveillance cameras and the telescreens. He has a world of his own only in his head. He can’t have a social life because the party forbids any means of social communication. He writes in his diary because that is his only way of expressing his feelings and thoughts even though it’s considered thoughtcrime. Every person in the novel is isolated from the community; they can not have any open conversation with themselves.
- Goldstein represents Trotsky in real life. He stands against the party thus he is expelled from the party and sent out of the country. After Goldstein becomes a scapegoat of the Party, and he is brought up in “Two Minutes Hate”.
George Orwell brings up the idea of isolation in the novel. He is afraid that the next generation will have the isolated life if the totalitarianism regime remains.
Bibliography
< >, 11 January 2009
< >, 11 January 2009
Spender, Stephen. “Evil In Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Harold Bloom, editor. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. USA: Chelsea House Publisher, 1996
