What happens if we lose everything that defines us as us?
1984 truly delves into this scary concept as the Party removes everyone’s personal details so they are not able to establish their own identity. For example, even Winston does not know his own age, who his real parents are nor can he trust his own childhood memories as there are no photographs or evidences to help him differentiate between reality and imagination.
Aside from Winston, the rest of Oceania are also denied documents that could give them a sense of individuality and help them differentiate themselves from others . This causes their memories to grow fuzzy, thus making the people of Oceania vulnerable and dependent on the stories that the Party tells them.
In turn, by controlling the present, the Party can re-engineer the past. Simultaneously, by controlling the past, the Party can rationalise its shortcomings and project a perfect government that is far from the truth.
With no recollection of the past, the people of Oceania can no longer stay in touch with their real identities and instead, become identical as they wear the same uniform, drink the same brand of alcohol and more. Yet, Winston builds his own sense of identity through recording his thoughts, experiences and emotions in his diary. This act along with his relationship with Julia symbolises Winston’s declaration of his own independence and identity as a rebel who disagrees with the Party’s system.
Despite this, Winston’s own sense of individuality and identity dissolves after his torturous experience at the Ministry of Love, which transforms him into another member of the Outer Party who blends into the crowd. By asserting a dark vision of humanity’s individualism, Orwell urges audiences in the present to truly value their freedom to express and preserve their identity.
Here are some quotes that are related to this idea which you may find helpful:
Quote | Link to the Consequences of Totalitarianism |
---|---|
“Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” | This slogan from the Party reveals that by rewriting history, the Party can justify their actions and systems in the present. Alternatively, by controlling the present, they can choose to manipulate history however they like. |
“What appealed to [Winston] about [the coral paperweight] was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different to the present one” | This quote from Winston represents his act of rebellion which helps him to assert his own independence in determining what he likes or does not like that are outside of the Party’s influence. |
“And when memory failed and written records were falsified… the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had go to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist.” | This quote represents Winston’s realisation that the Party purposefully erodes people’s memories of the past to disable their sense of identity and gain full control of their sense of self. |
Of course, 1984 also includes other themes that you may be thinking about writing analysis for, such as:
Check out our recommended related text for 1984 .
Analysing your text is always the first step to writing an amazing essay! Lots of students make the mistake of jumping right into writing without really understanding what the text is about.
This leads to arguments that only skim the surface of the complex ideas, techniques and elements of the text. So, let’s build a comprehensive thesis through an in-depth analysis of the 1984.
Here are three easy steps that you can use to analyse 1984 and really impress your English teachers!
1984 is a world of its own with its totalitarian systems, use of foreign words and more. So, we totally understand if you’re feeling lost and don’t know where to begin.
Our piece of advice is to look for examples that come with a technique. Techniques offer you a chance to delve into the text’s underlying meaning, which would help you deepen your analysis and enrich your essay writing.
Find our extensive list of quotes from 1984 by George Orwell!
Here are two quotes that relate to consequences of totalitarian power, which we have picked to help you visualise which examples can provide a deeper meaning:
“Big Brother is Watching You.” “WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”
Getting a good grade in English is more than listing out every technique that you can find in the text. Instead, it’s about finding techniques that allow you to dive deeper into the themes you’re focussing on, while also supporting your argument.
Try to look for techniques that allow you to explain its effects and link to your argument such as symbols, metaphors, connotations, similes and historical allegories . In Orwell’s case, he uses a lot of language techniques such as neologism, where he makes up his own words such as “Doublethink” or “Newspeak”.
For the two quotes above, its three techniques include historical allusion, rhetoric and oxymoron.
If possible, you can look out for a quote that encompasses a few techniques to really pack a punch in your analysis.
Once you’re done collecting your examples and techniques, the next part is writing. You must remember to explain what the effect of the technique is and how it supports your argument. Otherwise, it’s not going to be a cohesive essay if you’re just listing out techniques.
An example of listing out techniques looks like this:
“The rhetoric “Big Brother is Watching You” is also a historical allusion while “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength” is oxymoronic.”
Instead, you must elaborate on how each of these techniques link to your argument.
“Big Brother is Watching You” is a rhetoric imposed by the Party to instil psychological fear and submission of the people of Oceania, whereby Orwell uses to warn the dangers of totalitarianism. “Big Brother” is also a historical allusion to Hitler to remind the audience that 1984 is not entirely fictional but a possible future of our reality, urging us to take action against totalitarian regimes with the autonomy we have now.
Meanwhile, the slogan ““WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” represents the oxymoronic mentalities that have been indoctrinated into the people of Oceania, highlighting how totalitarian regimes would force its people to think whatever they want their people to think, no matter how illogical it is.
Together, your analysis should look something like:
The Party perpetuates the rhetoric, “Big Brother is Watching You” to instil psychological fear and coercion of the the people of Oceania, which forewarns a lack of individual freedom and private reflection within authoritarian regimes. As “Big Brother” is a historical allusion to Hitler, Orwell reminds the audience that 1984 and its extremist politics is a reality, urging us to defend our independence before it’s forbidden. Furthermore, the slogan “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” embodies the oxymoronic mentalities that the Party indoctrinates into its people, revealing the extreme extent of psychological control an authoritarian regime strives to ensure their power is never questioned, no matter how irrational it is.
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In the dystopian novel 1984, Orwell creates frightening visions of the future to warn readers about the dangerous elements of society they inhabit. Orwell depicts a society that uses language to control the thoughts of its citizens.
In 1984 , Orwell writes about the state creating Newspeak in order to make ‘plain representation in the verbal mode impossible’ according to the critic Harris, so that opposition to the social and political structure of 1984’s society is ‘literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.’ This is fitting as Orwell wrote ‘1984’ a year after the end of World War II ended to warn readers about the dangers of totalitarian governments censoring language; this was a period of history that saw the rise of the authoritarian states such as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as well as increased state control under the Labour government in the United Kingdom, Orwell’s home country.
The strong focus on politics throughout 1984 is also reflected by the names of the main institutions in the novel’s society. Readers are first introduced to ‘The Ministry of Truth’, described as an ‘enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air’. The immense size of this building is emphasised by the tricolon ‘soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air’, which in turn highlights the power of the Party. This technique can be seen again in the torture scene, in which Winston observes that O’Brien’s face ‘was strong and fleshy and brutal... before which he felt himself helpless’ and ‘O’Brien leaned over him, deliberately bringing the worn face nearer’.
Moreover, the Party uses slogans such as ‘War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength’. The goal of those paradoxes is to make people think in ‘doublethink’, an act meaning to hold two contradictory beliefs to be true without any cognitive dissonance, thereby allowing one to be unaware of actual contradictions. The power of doublethink to corrupt thought and control minds is highlighted in the end when O’ Brien forces Winston to say that two add two does not equal four and ‘in all honesty [he doesn’t] know [the answer].’ Orwell was inspired to create doublethink by the fascist states of his time such as the USSR, presuming that ‘When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer’. Orwell believed that totalitarian systems control language in order to prevent their citizens from expressing or thinking rebellious thoughts, writing ‘If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought’.
To emphasise the corruption of language and thoughts by authoritarian states, Orwell created Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. The aim of Newspeak is again to promote ‘doublethink’, itself a neologism. Newspeak, itself a neologism, partially
achieves this through neologisms, compound words. Neologisms such as ‘Mintrue’ are designed to suppress the populace’s critical thinking skills so they would not realise that the Party is deceiving them, for example the ‘Ministry of Truth’ replaces the truth with lies.
Another characteristic of Newspeak is that it ‘is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year’. Newspeak achieves this by removing all synonyms, antonyms, comparative and superlative adjectives and creating singular ways to form adverbs and certain adjectives. In doing this, the Party hopes to prevent the populace from thinking any thoughts which challenge the Party’s power and thus stop any rebellion from materialising. However, the critic Roy Harris believes that Orwell was wrong in presuming that language could be controlled by a singular authority since ‘calling a spade a spade is not something language can do: only language users’. Therefore, Newspeak would ultimately fail as language users who cannot make words mean what they want to will make another ‘with or without government intervention’. Nevertheless, given the relentless surveillance of the populace in 1984 via telescreens and clandestine microphones, Oceanians would be coerced into adopting Newspeak, thus giving Newspeak a bigger impact on Oceanians than the people living in Britain, Harris’s frame of reference.
To conclude, 1984 offers a future in which language is diminished and abused by the people in power as a way to preserve the status quo. Edward Sapir, the founder of ethnolinguistics, which considers the relationship of culture to language, stated that “Human beings ... are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.” For this reason, readers must take the degradation of language seriously as it could lead to the oppression, destruction and death of the members of society.
The Startling Lack of Female Representation in "1984"
Women in Atwood’s ‘Oryx and Crake’
Neologism in ‘Oryx and Crake’
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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Books — 1984
Hook examples for "1984" essays, the dystopian warning hook.
Open your essay by discussing George Orwell's "1984" as a prophetic warning against totalitarianism and government surveillance. Explore how the novel's themes are eerily relevant in today's world.
Delve into the concept of Newspeak in "1984" and its parallels to modern language manipulation. Discuss how the novel's portrayal of controlled language reflects real-world instances of propaganda and censorship.
Begin with a focus on surveillance and privacy concerns. Analyze the omnipresent surveillance in the novel and draw connections to contemporary debates over surveillance technologies, data privacy, and civil liberties.
Explore the psychological manipulation in "1984" through the concept of doublethink. Discuss how individuals in the novel are coerced into accepting contradictory beliefs, and examine instances of cognitive dissonance in society today.
Introduce your readers to the protagonist, Winston Smith, and his journey of rebellion against the Party. Analyze his character development and the universal theme of resistance against oppressive regimes.
Discuss the role of technology in "1984" and its implications for control. Explore how advancements in surveillance technology, social media, and artificial intelligence resonate with the novel's themes of control and manipulation.
Examine the Ministry of Truth in the novel, responsible for rewriting history. Compare this to the manipulation of information and historical revisionism in contemporary politics and media.
Draw parallels between the Party's manipulation of information in "1984" and the spread of misinformation and fake news in today's media landscape. Discuss the consequences of a distorted reality.
Explore the concept of thoughtcrime and its impact on individual freedom in the novel. Discuss how society today grapples with issues related to freedom of thought, expression, and censorship.
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8 June 1949, George Orwell
Novel; Dystopia, Political Fiction, Social Science Fiction Novel
Winston Smith, Julia, O'Brien, Aaronson, Jones, and Rutherford, Ampleforth, Charrington, Tom Parsons, Syme, Mrs. Parsons, Katharine Smith
Since Orwell has been a democratic socialist, he has modelled his book and motives after the Stalinist Russia
Power, Repressive Behaviors, Totalitarianism, Mass Surveillance, Human Behaviors
The novel has brought up the "Orwellian" term, which stands for "Big Brother" "Thoughtcrime" and many other terms that we know well. It has been the reflection of totalitarianism
1984 represents a dystopian writing that has followed the life of Winston Smith who belongs to the "Party",which stands for the total control, which is also known as the Big Brother. It controls every aspect of people's lives. Is it ever possible to go against the system or will it take even more control. It constantly follows the fear and oppression with the surveillance being the main part of 1984. There is Party’s official O’Brien who is following the resistance movement, which represents an alternative, which is the symbol of hope.
Before George Orwell wrote his famous book, he worked for the BBC as the propagandist during World War II. The novel has been named 1980, then 1982 before finally settling on its name. Orwell fought tuberculosis while writing the novel. He died seven months after 1984 was published. Orwell almost died during the boating trip while he was writing the novel. Orwell himself has been under government surveillance. It was because of his socialist opinions. The slogan that the book uses "2 + 2 = 5" originally came from Communist Russia and stood for the five-year plan that had to be achieved during only four years. Orwell also used various Japanese propaganda when writing his novel, precisely his "Thought Police" idea.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” “Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” “Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.” “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” "But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred."
The most important aspect of 1984 is Thought Police, which controls every thought. It has been featured in numerous books, plays, music pieces, poetry, and anything that has been created when one had to deal with Social Science and Politics. Another factor that represents culmination is thinking about overthrowing the system or trying to organize a resistance movement. It has numerous reflections of the post WW2 world. Although the novella is graphic and quite intense, it portrays dictatorship and is driven by fear through the lens of its characters.
This essay topic is often used when writing about “The Big Brother” or totalitarian regimes, which makes 1984 a flexible topic that can be taken as the foundation. Even if you have to write about the use of fear by the political regimes, knowing the facts about this novel will help you to provide an example.
1. Enteen, G. M. (1984). George Orwell And the Theory of Totalitarianism: A 1984 Retrospective. The Journal of General Education, 36(3), 206-215. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27797000) 2. Hughes, I. (2021). 1984. Literary Cultures, 4(2). (https://journals.ntu.ac.uk/index.php/litc/article/view/340) 3. Patai, D. (1982). Gamesmanship and Androcentrism in Orwell's 1984. PMLA, 97(5), 856-870. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/gamesmanship-and-androcentrism-in-orwells-1984/F1B026BE9D97EE0114E248AA733B189D) 4. Paden, R. (1984). Surveillance and Torture: Foucault and Orwell on the Methods of Discipline. Social Theory and Practice, 10(3), 261-271. (https://www.pdcnet.org/soctheorpract/content/soctheorpract_1984_0010_0003_0261_0272) 5. Tyner, J. A. (2004). Self and space, resistance and discipline: a Foucauldian reading of George Orwell's 1984. Social & Cultural Geography, 5(1), 129-149. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1464936032000137966) 6. Kellner, D. (1990). From 1984 to one-dimensional man: Critical reflections on Orwell and Marcuse. Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 10, 223-52. (https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/from1984toonedimensional.pdf) 7. Samuelson, P. (1984). Good legal writing: of Orwell and window panes. U. Pitt. L. Rev., 46, 149. (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/upitt46&div=13&id=&page=) 8. Fadaee, E. (2011). Translation techniques of figures of speech: A case study of George Orwell's" 1984 and Animal Farm. Journal of English and Literature, 2(8), 174-181. (https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379427897_Fadaee.pdf) 9. Patai, D. (1984, January). Orwell's despair, Burdekin's hope: Gender and power in dystopia. In Women's Studies International Forum (Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 85-95). Pergamon. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0277539584900621) 10. Cole, M. B. (2022). The Desperate Radicalism of Orwell’s 1984: Power, Socialism, and Utopia in Dystopian Times. Political Research Quarterly, 10659129221083286. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10659129221083286)
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Language becomes a mind-control tool, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination. As John Wain says in his essay, " [Orwell's] vision of 1984 does not include extinction weapons . . . He is not interested in extinction weapons because, fundamentally, they do not frighten him as much as spiritual ones" (343).
Years 7-9: Better Essays; English Language. ... This is because 1984, is a political treatise that examines the concept of, and the importance of freedom. ... To this end, language control and mental manipulation are essential in The Party's maintenance of power. The official language of Oceania, 'Newspeak' was designed to reduce and ...
1984 language control. One of the most powerful forms of language in influencing the mind is music. "In the belligerent Oceania of Orwell's 1984, music is tightly controlled because of its power to communicate overtly and affect covertly the various physiological functions that influence human behavior.". The music that is unique to the ...
George Orwell's novel 1984 is a classic of dystopian literature where a future society is presented, in which rewriting history and control over language are used to manipulate the masses. The novel became a bestseller and is widely considered a cult work of 20th-century literature. It was written in 1949 but still resonates with readers today due to its relevance and talent to penetrate the ...
Newspeak, the "official" language of Oceania, functions as a devise of extreme Party control: If the Party is able to control thought, it can also control action.In the year 1984, Newspeak is not fully employed, and for good reason; we would not understand the novel otherwise. However, Orwell makes certain to choose a date, 2050, when Newspeak will be the only language anyone will understand.
language in which language is narrowed and reduced to the Party's circumscribed meaning. In 1984 the absence or deletion of a name "means" that the person, place, or thing never existed. But despite the Party's effort to control and eventually destroy language, 1984-reality is insanely linguistic, as history and people cease to ever have ...
George Orwell's 1984 portrays a dystopian society whose values and freedoms have been marred through the manipulation of language and thus thought processes. Language has become a tool of mind control for the oppressive government and consequently a tool of rebellion against the Party. Resultant themes arise such as manipulation, surrender ...
Essays and criticism on George Orwell's 1984 - Critical Essays. ... Language as a tool of power and control in Orwell's 1984 Examples of foreshadowing in 1984 Ask a question ...
In the year 1984, Britain has been renamed Airstrip One and is a province of Oceania, a vast totalitarian superstate ruled by 'the Party', whose politics are described as Ingsoc ('English Socialism'). ... his essays are a prime example of this. ... the control of the language people use to express themselves and even to think in ...
The Mac, represented by a female athlete, hurls a sledgehammer at a giant telescreen and explodes the shouting face of a man—oppressive technology—to the astonishment of a crowd of gray ...
Essays and criticism on George Orwell's 1984 - Essays and Criticism. ... Reality control, DOUBLETHINK in NEWSPEAK, means an "unending series of victories over our memory." ... and language ...
Because "language repeatedly makes us examine and reassess what we thought we knew and understood," to control language is to control minds (Rodden 63). One of Winston's first entries in his diary reads, "thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death" (Orwell 29). ... George Orwell's 1984 may be characterized as an essay ...
The Power of Language to Liberate and Control In 1984, language has the dual capacity to both restrain and facilitate individual expression. This is another key message that Orwell imparts, as he highlights how language can either promote or limit ideas which influence our beliefs, behaviour and identity.
In the dystopian novel 1984, Orwell creates frightening visions of the future to warn readers about the dangerous elements of society they inhabit. Orwell depicts a society that uses language to control the thoughts of its citizens. In 1984, Orwell writes about the state creating Newspeak in order to make 'plain representation in the verbal ...
1984 is a fiction written in 1948 by George Orwell. The writer creates a fictional country. reigned by a totalitarian government which tries hard to impose power and to remain in power for. good ...
Categories: 1984, Dystopia Language is a fundamental tool for communication and expression of thought. In George Orwell's dystopian novel, "1984," language is not merely a means of communication but a potent instrument of control. This essay explores the pivotal role of language in controlling thought and how Newspeak, a
Summary: In 1984, language is used as a tool of power and control through Newspeak, which limits freedom of thought and expression.By reducing the complexity of language, the Party restricts the ...
Hook Examples for "1984" Essays. ... The Power of Language Control: Newspeak in "1984" (PDF) 9 Dictatorship of The People: Orwell's 1984 as an Allegory for The Early Soviet Union . Essay grade: Good . 6 pages / 3030 words . A government of an ideal society is meant to represent the people. It is the people's choice to support, to select ...
Language is a major themes in both novels "1984" by George Orwell and "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwool. Language are heavily reshape in both novel in order to crave a goal to control individuals. "1984" creates authority over citizens through altering and reducing the English language to its most basic form.
Summary: Orwell's depiction of totalitarianism in 1984 is a grim portrayal of a society under complete government control. The novel explores themes of surveillance, propaganda, and the erasure of ...