Thinking Activity on 1984

 

                                                1984

                                                      - By George Orwell 

                        

                                        【  George Orwell :- 1903 - 1950 】

          

                            Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice , an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism.

                              Orwell is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945) — they have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His 1938 book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, have been widely acclaimed.

           

      

                                                 Nineteen Eighty-four, also published as 1984, novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949 as a warning against totalitarianism. Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. 

 

                                         The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written. 

                 -: Thinking Activity on 1984 :-  

   Que_1  Explain in detail 'The Manipulation of the Human mind'.( Refrence of reading materials )

                     

                             

 

                                       Manipulation is the skillful handling, controlling or using of something or someone. The word Manipulation means handle or control a person or situation unscrupulously. In this novel government try to manipulation of the human mind. In 1984 novel we find party and the Big Brother manipulated the population through psychological means, physical means and the edition of past events and newspeak.

  

                              The Party seeks to control everything - past, present, and future. Its first effort toward attaining that goal is to control and manipulate every source of information, rewriting and modifying the content of all historical records and other documentary evidence for its own gain. The Party forbids its members to keep written records of their lives, and mandates that any photographs or documents be destroyed through "memory holes" placed throughout Oceania. Since memory is unreliable, over time, reality becomes fuzzy at best, and citizens are soon willing to believe whatever the Party informs them. Thus, the Party manipulates the past in order to control the present.

                           In the novel Big Brother and party manipulate human mind by three type of burden on them. They manipulate them by psychological means. Every house had a telescreen, an instrument which received and transmitted simultaneously. Children were taught from an early age to have affection with to no one other than the Big Brother. 

                        Apart from the telescreen, another method the government used to control society was a daily event called 'Two Minute Hate'. Big Brother was the face of revolution. His picture is everywhere. An interesting characteristics of this poster is that underneath it, you can read "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" and it is mentioned that his eyes seem to follow people wherever they go. If you are one of his followers, he will always take care of you, and, if you are one against him, there's nowhere to hide. 

                       The people has also manipulation for physical means. Party and Big Brother was give great importance to keep the population under control. Thoughtcrime was considered against the party. It was said that this crime meant death and you could never get away with it for long. People had to be on constant alert not to betray any internal struggle. Otherwise, they would earn a visit from Thought Police and be brought to the Ministry of Love.

                 

                   The edition of past events and newspeak is another manipulation. The Ministry of Truth concerned itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts. The party had also developed a new language called Newspeak. It was the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of English socialism. Its principal was to remove any words that were considered unnecessary, thus limiting the range of thought. 

                   

                      The idea was that by doing this, thoughtcrime would be impossible, because there would be no way to express it.The government try to manipulation of the human mind by various techniques. They try to control humans own thoughts and desires.

     Que_2   Explain in detail "The abolition of opposition".

  

                     In the novel we can see the abolition of opposition, means party and Big Brother acted officially ending or stoping opposition of people. Big Brother and party manipulated human mind by control their thoughts. They removed past books and history. The language Newspeak they developed. 

               When the people think against the party or Big Brother they do Thought crimes and thought police brought them to Ministry of Love. At that place the members of the party torture and beaten people bad way. Any one can not try to revolt against party or Big Brother. The party members also like to abolition of opposition. 

                In the novel Winston Smith and Julia both do Thought crimes and they reach at Ministry of Love. At this place the party members and O'Brien also torture them. At the end both Winston Smith and Julia accept the rules of the party and Big Brother.  The party do not like opposition of population against Big Brother for that they abolition of opposition by various manipulation. 

   

 

 Que_3  Explain in detail 'The Heretopic place' in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

                     In the novel we see all the place is observed by Big Brother and party. Everywhere we find telescreen that observes all activities of people. That place are known as Panopticon space. One place is described in novel where the protagonist feel safe that is known as Heretopic place. 

                 

            The protagonist finds some relief from the constant surveillance of Big Brother and the Thought Police, in a small rented room above the antique shop. 'The Hoterogeneous Space', which exclude the particularly of minority perception and 'The Hoterogeneous Space', which is presented as the outcome of the transgression on the homogeneous space. In the novel this new place of freedom was the room he rented above the antique shop. Which became the protagonist's zone of intimacy, and which from the protagonist perspective; clearly contrasted with scrutiny prevailing in Oceania.           

               The room symbolized a space of freedom, a safe zone, and it created for Winston and Julia a space of illusion. The Heretopic place in the novel embodied the personal space that was missing in the Panopticon space. The feeling of protection, and welfare that Heretopic place contributed to nature his hopes and dreams.

               

             The Heretopic place in the novel had a noticeable impact on the protagonist both physically and psychologically which is made apparent through Orwell's description of the protagonist. The Heretopic place in the novel represents the personal space that was missing in the panopticon space. The feeling of protection, and welfare that the protagonist experienced in this Heretopic place.

Que_4  "HE LOVED BIGBROTHER"  Winston's movement towards a poststructuralist discourse 1984. Explain in detail with your understanding about this novel.

                                   

                  In this act ,Winston was taken to Room 101 where the Party managed to break him and betray his only love Julia. Long after he was released from prison camp, death was probably his only wish, and as the ending goes, only Big Brother was able to grant this wish, so there's the irony of Winston loving Big Brother.

             Through this act, Winston's self-preservation overcomes his desire for self-expression. He has conquered his individuality and submitted once again to Party group-think. 

              He loves Big Brother, because he no longer has an individual will; his will has become part of societal group-mind.Winstoncaught by Thought Police and at Ministry of Love. There he much tortured by O'Brien and party members. The Ministry of Love becomes a symbol for the postmodernist architecture. Winston's ultimate betrayal is not a physical, not even political action, but a mental betrayal. 

            Once this happens, once the party has been able to fully control his mind, the void that poststructuralists pursued, he is absorbed by the system's discourse.Heloved Big Brother. In other words, Winston no longer thinks of rebellion; he is no longer concerned with bringing down the Party. His experiences in the Ministry of Love, particularly in Room 101, have successfully moulded him into an obedient Party member.

            The last pages of the novel show a wasted, a man who has been stripped from his individual discourse and pushed into the multiplicities of meanings of the party's discourse. In his embrace of his embrace of this poststructuralist discourse, unable to hold to a stable meaning, he accepts the discontinuities in History, embrace doublethink and participates in the creation of a Newspeak dictionary.

                                  

Que_5  Make a comparison between George Orwell's two works "Animal Farm" and "1984". On the basis of similarities and dissimilarities.

                                   George Orwell wrote some of the most acclaimed dystopian literature of the 20th century. The two most well-known of these were 1984 and Animal Farm. While dealing with different ideas, there are definite comparisons to be made between the two.

                      Animal Farm and 1984 are two of the best novels of George Orwell. In both Animal Farm and 1984, the authority is not to be questioned; those who dare to are punished and considered as traitors. Both Animal Farm and 1984 have corruption of power and political as its background. These similarities divided into three group’s character development, plot and conflict.

                               In both books, Orwell presents two frightening dystopias. In 1984, the world is locked in a state of eternal war. There is tyranny from the government and mass exploitation and mistreatment of the people. Thought police roam the streets, indoctrination is rampant, and love is forbidden. As we find out with Winston, the protagonist, history is prone to change on a whim as the books and records are constantly being rewritten.

                                     In Animal Farm, we see the birth of a dystopia. Animals are subjugated to the whim of humans, so they revolt, but in doing so they are subtly betrayed by their leaders, the pigs, who end up just as bad as the humans ever were. Here we see a different type of rewriting; the rules of society are constantly being rewritten or rephrased to justify the leaders' actions.

                                               In 1984, the government controls the individual technology wise. It uses technology in order to watch everything the individual does, so the individual will not rebel and that society will maintain the way it is the way it supposed to be technology controlled Turnoff online. Right at the beginning of 1984, Orwell presents the reader with how much the government controls and supervise what the individual does.

                                           In Animal Farm the pigs, which control the farm, use another method to achieve the same result. When the animals were working on the windmill Naooleon, the leader, announced that there will be work on sunday, off course said that it will be strictly voluntary, but who ever does not volunteer will have his rations reduce by half.

                                Orwell wrote the last pages of Nineteen Eighty-four in a remote house on the Hebridean island of Jura, which he had bought from the proceeds of Animal Farm. He worked between bouts of hospitalization for tuberculosis, of which he died in a London hospital in January 1950.

              Thank you......