Literature entry - Week 9 & 10
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For the last month I have been trying to read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I can finally say that I have finished reading it - Woo hoo! What struck me the most was the emphasis on power and its role in the novel. As well as, how the powerful influence and try to alter the processes in our world. Power is everywhere; in school, workplaces and most importantly, society in general. Power play isn’t simply about control- it relates to influence, dominance, expression, fear, force, censorship, respect- both earned and coerced-, money, electricity manipulation of the truth and propaganda. Our society is one based heavily on power, e.g. the Prime Minister has the power to send us to war against anyone he chooses. The media has the power to decide a lot of what we see and hear, as seen in Orwell's, Nineteen Eighty Four.
Nineteen Eighty Four, a novel by George Orwell, follows the life of Winston Smith in what was for Orwell a futuristic dystopia imitating Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, where citizens are controlled by an all-seeing power known as ‘Big Brother’. The residents of Oceania are controlled by Big Brother through a variety of mediums, including television screens, which monitor people’s actions; the Thought Police, who weed out and prosecute those with independent thought; and fellow citizens, who have been brainwashed into complete and absolute loyalty to the party; “You’re a traitor... You’re a thought-criminal! You’re a Eurasian spy!” (Orwell, 2000: 25)
This loyalty transcends emotion and family. Each citizen seems to be happy with the life they lead, but Winston feels differently and when he meets Julia, with whom he plots rebellion, he realises he is not alone in his thoughts.
Orwell portrays the abuse of power in Nineteen Eighty Four in a number of ways, including the restriction of language. The citizens of Oceania are forced to speak a new language, ‘Newspeak’, which, in a bid to negate the capabilities of citizens to have independent thoughts removes all descriptive words, demonstrated in the substitution of “double-plus good” for very good and “double-plus ungood” for very bad. Citizens only use emotive language during the Two Minutes Hate, where they yell and curse at Goldstein, their foreign enemy. In this, the citizens associate descriptive words with Goldstein and thus not with the Party, allowing the Party ultimate control- control of emotions.
Hand in hand with this suppression of emotion is the destruction of pleasure and feelings; even making love is seen as being for the purpose of making new Party members. Family ties are severed, reflected in Mr. Parsons’ pride in his daughter for denouncing him to the Thought Police, demonstrating the extent of Party control.
‘Who denounced you?’ said Winston
‘It was my little daughter,’ said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. ‘She listened at the keyhole… I don’t bear her any grudge for it. In fact I’m proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway.’ (Orwell, 2000: 245)
Orwell parodies the youth leagues of the totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia and the ‘loyalty to no-one but a leader’ mentality that was promoted by these movements, reflecting the extent to which power can be abused.
To ensure that the masses do not rebel, the Party controls History. In doing so, they are able to remove precedent and thus keep the population happy, e.g. their chocolate ration seems to be going up, so they are content. This control of History also serves to eliminate evidence of anyone who has been vaporised (removed) by the Party. Workers such as Winston spend their days in the Ministry of Truth altering documents that mention these people, “times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling” (page 46)
By changing the past, the Party can ultimately control and decide what happens in the future.
I really enjoyed that read. This was my reflection on power and how it appears in Orwell's, Nineteen Eighty Four.
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