Arthur M. Schlesinger’s quote, "A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul", resonates with Orwell’s 1984 in describing the atrocities of a totalitarian nation present in Orwell’s imagined utopia, Oceania. In his critically esteemed novel, 1984, George Orwell creates a perverse utopia in which totalitarianism thrives and the ruling power vanquishes the social rights of civilians. The dystopian novel follows Winston, the thirty-six-year old protagonist of the story, and his journey to survive under the Party’s rule in London. The nominal leader of Oceania, “Big Brother”, serves as a symbolic figurehead of dominance and control under the Party’s repressive regime. The Party controls Oceania,
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He argues that Orwell goes into detail about how this type of regime, specifically the Party in Oceania, uses fear as their main tool to instill control in society. In his opening paragraph, Rago states that the Party intends to “destroy nothing less than the human spirit”(Rago 165) to have citizens ultimately fully comply with what they dictate and to secure the popular submission. Through that, he argues, civilians of Oceania have lost all feeling; feeling to care, to retaliate, and even question Big Brother’s true intentions. He expresses that it is commonplace to infer that Orwell focuses on the human component of the effects of totalitarianism in addition to the adverse impacts totalitarian rule has on social and political facets of government because he believed that they were equally legitimate points. Through this, Orwell uses Winston, the protagonist of the novel, as an extension of himself to express his disapproval of totalitarian rule present in his society, particularly concerning Hitler’s Nazism and Stalin’s Communism during the 30s. He ultimately wrote 1984 for people living in the future, as a blueprint of the indicators of tyranny, which include manipulation through restriction of language, speech, and privacy, specifically massive surveillance, Newspeak, and Doublethink. Thus, Orwell warns, by controlling people in this manner, a government will strip its people of their
He argues that Orwell goes into detail about how this type of regime, specifically the Party in Oceania, uses fear as their main tool to instill control in society. In his opening paragraph, Rago states that the Party intends to “destroy nothing less than the human spirit”(Rago 165) to have citizens ultimately fully comply with what they dictate and to secure the popular submission. Through that, he argues, civilians of Oceania have lost all feeling; feeling to care, to retaliate, and even question Big Brother’s true intentions. He expresses that it is commonplace to infer that Orwell focuses on the human component of the effects of totalitarianism in addition to the adverse impacts totalitarian rule has on social and political facets of government because he believed that they were equally legitimate points. Through this, Orwell uses Winston, the protagonist of the novel, as an extension of himself to express his disapproval of totalitarian rule present in his society, particularly concerning Hitler’s Nazism and Stalin’s Communism during the 30s. He ultimately wrote 1984 for people living in the future, as a blueprint of the indicators of tyranny, which include manipulation through restriction of language, speech, and privacy, specifically massive surveillance, Newspeak, and Doublethink. Thus, Orwell warns, by controlling people in this manner, a government will strip its people of their