Major Themes
Totalitarianism
Readers are introduced to Orwell’s most obvious theme on
page one of 1984. Largely a political work, Orwell’s
depiction of a completely totalitarian Western state is
terrifying: citizens lack any and all type of freedoms, are
monitored 24 hours a day, are vaporized for any independent
thought, loyalty to family no longer exists, pleasure is
eradicated from sex and all other walks of life. The entire
world lives in fear and suffers from immense poverty.
An outspoken Socialist, or “democratic Socialist” as he
himself put it, Orwell was an anti-Stalinist who used 1984
largely as an outlet to warn against the dangers of
totalitarianism. The author has famously said that what he
most wanted to do was “turn political writing into an art.”
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Psychological Manipulation and Mind Control
The totalitarian state of Oceania employs several strategies
for manipulating the psychology of its citizens, including
ubiquitous propaganda, control of all information and
documentation, anger rallies, and limiting independent
thought by criminalizing it and eliminating the words
necessary to express it through Newspeak.
Oceania is also in a constant state of fear. The country is
always at war with some dangerous enemy, bombings occur
within London regularly, citizens disappear in the middle of
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the night, and anyone, including your own children, can be a
member of the Thought Police and have you killed for
thoughtcrime. The Party perpetuates this sense of fear to
create a loyalty to Big Brother, who is depicted as the
country’s ultimate savior.
When an individual fails to remain loyal to the Party through
these methods, the Party moves on to direct, physical
brainwashing, which is depicted in Part 3, Chapter 2.
“At
this
moment
there
was
a
devastating
explosion…something had happened inside his head. As his
eyes regained their focus he remembered who he was; but
somewhere or other there was a large patch of emptiness, as
though a piece had been taken out of his brain.”
Finally, Orwell argues that if the state is able to control the
minds of the people, and also controls all documentation, it
therefore controls reality.
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The Effect of Language on Thought
As mentioned above, the Party limits freedom of expression
by eliminating the vocabulary needed to express it. In an
Appendix to the novel titled, “Principles of Newspeak,”
Orwell describes the mechanisms under which Newspeak
provides a “medium of expression for the world view and
mental habit proper to the devotees of Ingsoc” and makes “all
other modes of thought impossible.”
Earlier in the novel, Syme, a Newspeak specialist, explains
“‘How could you have a slogan like, ‘Freedom is Slavery’
when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole
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climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no
thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not
thinking—not
needing
to
think.
Orthodoxy
is
unconsciousness.’”
Copyright © 2012. Hyperink. All rights reserved.
The effect of language on thought is a theme Orwell also
explored in an essay called, “Politics and the English
Language,” in which he purports “the decline of a language
must ultimately have political and economic causes.”
47
Wen, Tiffanie. Quicklet on George Orwell's 1984, Hyperink, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=1622256.
Created from csuau on 2023-10-30 03:35:27.