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Mr. Liconti's ENG4U1's class discussion blog. An ongoing critical discussion on Shakespeare, Miller, Conrad, Findley, Orwell, Campbell and Frye. Poetry, Mythology, Drama, Fiction, and Non-Fiction are all fair game.
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George Orwell in his book 1984 portrays a very frightening society, where every thing from the food supply to the thoughts people think is controlled by the state. The world of 1984 gives us a vivid picture of our future world if society does not change its course. Society in today’s time and age is on a course where human life will soon become autonomous, with technology on the rise and corporations trying to merge humanity with technology, our life has become completely dependent on the objects we create. Winston Smith is one of the citizens in Oceania a totalitarian state. The state maintains control over everything its citizens do and try to do. No one has privacy in Oceania and its citizens are brainwashed regularly into believing that Oceania improves their quality of life.
After reading 1984 a realization dawned into me that our world has a certain bind on us, this bind is very strong since we would be disable without it. We need science and technology to live our daily lives, even if we do not want this to be true it is hard to overcome this fact. For example, me doing this assignment shows that I am dependent on the internet and the computer, although it is true that I am doing this for my own benefit of marks and passing this course. This holds true for all of society since without the computer or the internet or global society would collapse and take a step backwards in progress.
1984 is one of the most important novels written in the 21st century. Many allusions followed 1984 such as The Giver, V for Vendetta and Minority Report. 1984 itself is an allusion. It is an allusion of previous totalitarian regime. It is also a foresight to what our society can become if we let the events that occur in 1984 happen in our society. There are three main elements that support the importance of 1984, censorship, mediocrity and solipsism.
Liberal ideas are censored by the Party in Oceania. In fact, everything that goes against the ideas of the Party is censored. As a result, people in Oceania conceive the truth in accordance to what the party says is the truth. Therefore, even the truth in Oceania is uncertain. The answer to every metaphysical questions in Oceania is whatever the Party believes is right. This results to the corruption of the mind. Minds of Oceanian citizens are trapped in a cage built by the Party. Human mind is the most powerful tool in order to fight against corruption and to start a revolution. But if the mind is already corrupt, then there will never be a spark to revolt against a corrupt government. In our society, censorship is often times taken for granted. What people should worry about right now is the truth that is being handed over to us by the media. There are different questions that we should ask (and unfortunately we do not question it) when it comes to receiving information; Who picks our news? Why is it presented to us this way? Who is the target audience? Why are some information not included in the news? Small forms of censorship can eventually lead to an all-out censorship. And the result of this can be comparable to the society that Winston smith lives in.
Through 1984, George Orwell is trying to send us a message. He is trying to tell readers not to settle for a mediocre life. The reason being is that if we settle for a mediocre life, it is easier for evil people to take advantage of us. Similar to attaining knowledge, we should not be contempt on knowing one thing, everyone have the urge to learn everything. Winston Smith did not want to settle for a mediocre life. He wanted to able to feel, and taste and smell different things. He did not want to settle for the victory gins, the usual coffee, the rationed chocolates, the hard bread. He wanted to feel human. Settling for mediocracy does not make people lesser humans but it makes them more hollow inside. If people only settled for the information handed to them by the news then people will not be able to transvalue. They will always be unaware of the other side of the story.
Solipsism is one of the most important issues tackled in 1984. To say that everyone else exists only in one’s mind is a form of solipsism. Everything in Oceania exists only if the Party says it should exist. This is a scary thought considering the news that information handed to us by the news says that only certain things exists if they want it to exist. For instance, the capture of Saddam Hussein was broadcasted a few months prior to the American Election. Of course, it could have been a coincidence but if we follow the 8 principles of media (thought in grade 11 media class), the first principle of media is that everything in media is constructed. Saddam Hussein COULD have been capture earlier than broadcasted but the fact that American media decided to broadcast it a few months before the election follows a solipsistic pattern, which is, it will exist only if it is in my head and if I want to.
1984 is no doubt one of the most frightening books in the 21st century. But it also gives us a small glimmer of hope. If ever, God forbid, this totalitarian rule happens to our society, all we have to do is question things. The moment we question things and allow us to open a crack in a system that is capable of oppressing one’s mind, then we should be able to fight against oppressive government. After reading this novel, we should now arm ourselves with knowledge and questions in order to fight against those who try to oppress the lives with live. In addition we should not take the liberties that we have for granted because there are numerous people around that world that live inside the novel 1984.
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