Analysis Of 1984 Essay Research Paper Analysis

Analysis Of 1984 Essay, Research Paper Analysis of 1984 In 1949, an Englishman named Eric Blair published the novel 1984. Under the pseudonym, George Orwell, this author became one of the most respected and notable political writers for his time. 1984 was Orwell?s prophetic vision of the world to come. This creation of ?Negative Utopia? was thoroughly convincing through Orwell?s use of setting and characterization. The theme conveyed by Orwell is that no matter how strong an individual a communist society would destroy any hope that that soul had of surviving, and that no matter the reasons told to the society, that power that the Party seeks is for no gain except for power. The story begins in April of 1984, in a grim, industrialized city called London. London was ?chief

city of Airstrip One, itself the third most populous of the provinces of Oceania.” The dwellings that the people live in, called Victory Mansions, are depicted as ??rotting nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with balks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron?.? The setting creates a mood of devastation and hopelessness, fabricated by the Inner Party to suppress its followers. These people live in a society that is ruled by totalitarianism, and the aim is to give the greatest good to the smaller number. As indicated by ?Cliffs Notes,? on pages 34 and 35, the main character, ?Winston, like others, is expected to do his job efficiently and receive no reward but the opportunity to live austerely for the greater good and

self-perpetuation of the Inner Party.? Told in third person limited, the reader is only allowed in-depth knowledge of the protagonist, Winston. Winston Smith, a thirty-nine year old man with a varicose ulcer, is a member of the Outer Party. He has ?a smallish, frail figure, the meagerness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the Party. His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by course soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended.? Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, which is concerned with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. He is employed in the Records Department, where his tasks consist of writing and rewriting scripts to fit the present and past which

unceasingly fluctuate and add to the dominion the Party had over its members, and the history they believe in. Although Winston is a diligent member of the Party, his inner desires, of humanity, individuality, and sexuality are directly insubordinate of the policies of the Party. His physical expressions are deceptive, an attempt to cover-up his true attitude towards his situation from the Thought Police. During the course of the novel, Winston?s views change. ?Cliffs Notes? states that he was annoyed by the limits placed on his individuality and then was made to conform to the world the Party created. ?Cliffs Notes? also suggests that Winston was not just a character in the story, but an idea. Winston is an anachronism. ?His mind and personality are not at first defined by the

Party slogans, by the Party?s ideas of what he should be. From his own point of view he is an individual; from the Party?s point of view he is a flaw in the reality it is creating.? One of the other two major characters is Julia. ?She was a bold-looking girl of about twenty-seven, with thick dark hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic movements.? She also works in the Ministry of Truth for the Fiction Department. Her tasks include helping write pornographic literature that is sold to proles (?Cliffs Notes? refers to them as an ?excluded class? of people) which is ironic because she wears a red sash around her waist to signify her allegiance to the Junior Anti-Sex League. She is a hedonistic individual whose appetite leads her from one liaison to the next, but her aptness to