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Imagine a world that is filled with constant wars, no balance in powers and absolutely no rights as a human being. A world in which people are dehumanized and living fearful lives are exactly the dystopian characteristics George Orwell illustrates in 1984. In Orwell’s novel, Oceania is filled with emotions of fear provoked by Thoughtcrimes, being watched by the telescreens or expressing the wrong opinion to a Thought police. Through out Orwell’s novel there are clear parallelisms of history in the book and one can perfectly see the symptoms of a dystopian society in the world today and that of the dystopia compared to what is written in 1984. Orwell’s novel has brought about lots of controversy to what is a dystopia and after reading the novel it is more often than not to realize that this world is far from a perfect society in which we wish to create.
If one would step into a place filled with lush vegetation where vibrant colors of green swarmed the environment and the people within the community had perfect order and happiness in every situation, one could declare this a Utopian society. Everyone has his or her own perspective on what a perfect world is. Some may say it is full of peace and harmony, where everyone is equal and there is no competition at all. Others may be more specific and say that happiness, wealth, and love are at the same level for all people. In any case these are known to be Utopias. Some characteristic of a Utopia are, “Rationality, internationalism, community, architecturally controlled space, and classless cooperation/ social harmony”(Baker 29). Clearly the list specifies on people working together and getting along. Thomas More was one of the first known authors to come up with the idea of a Utopian society. In his novel, conveniently entitled, Utopia, the behavior of the society works with community such that a prince is fairly chosen and all members take an oath before they proceed to the election, that they will choose a prince whom they think is most fit for the office. It is a structured environment in which the people have pride in their choosing because they are a part of something. Thomas More expresses the rationale of the society best when debates come along, “One rule observed in their Council, is never to debate a thing on the same day in which it is first proposed; for that is always referred to the next meeting, that so men may not rashly, and in the heat of discourse, engage themselves too soon, which might bias them so much, that instead of consulting the good of the public, they might rather study to support their first opinions, and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame, hazard their country rather than endanger their own reputation, or venture the being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first proposed” (Hubbard). The one point that sticks out is the fact that when a debate takes place, the people of this society wait a couple days to gather their thoughts. This is the epitome of rationality that makes a utopian society. This idea also concludes that wars are probably not often. In fact, in Utopia, they accustom themselves to military discipline everyday only incase it is necessary. They do not rashly engage in war, unless it is either to defend themselves, or their friends, from any unjust aggressors. Again, you can see the rationality here, because they know other countries may not be in the “Utopian state” as they are and they know to be prepared for things they cannot control. A Utopia society is where the people have perfected the structure of society and have created happiness through out the environment. On the contrary there are some communities that are less fortunate.
Now, imagine a place that is control by the Government completely; a place where even one’s thoughts are monitored and everyone in the society thinks the community they live in is just fine because they have been brainwashed. That kind of imagery is better defined as a dystopia- a place where people are dehumanized and live often-fearful lives. This is the world described by George Orwell in 1984. Oceania is a super state that is basically under martial law. The imagery in this novel is horrific as Orwell describes the world Winston Smith lives in. A reader gets the first assumption of the condition of Oceania When Smith begins to describe the world he lives in. At first it is just a glooming day and a reader could tell that he doesn’t seem too pleased to be where he is. He describes some of the buildings around him and most would agree that Miniluv was the worst to be illustrated. Winston describes it as, “ There were no windows in it at all…It was an impossible place to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons” (Orwell 8). It is as if a reader’s heart stops when they read that excerpt. Clearly the imagery of Miniluv is to show that Oceania is powered by something other than a democracy. It is a place that strikes fear amongst the people and it obviously a place where people don’t go to unless they have provoked some crime activity. That is the irony of Miniluv because it is a Government facility described like it is a war zone but the name seems to have a lighter meaning. Later in the book, one may conclude that Miniluv is appropriately named ‘Miniluv’ because it is the place where people are tortured and forced to suffer in learning to love the party. One can tell that Oceania is based on a dictatorship and those with in that power has absolute control. The fact that Winston and many others don’t know what is in Miniluv (except those who work in the facility or those brought there for Thoughtcrimes or other things that upset Oceania) is vital in understanding the connection between a dystopia and Oceania. Miniluv has mystery to it and if one could think about it for just a second, secrets contain a lot of power. No one in Orwell’s novel knows what goes on in there until they themselves are convicting into it. The readers know the ending to the novel; Winston did not live long enough to snap out of his brainwashing to tell his story. Big brother knows that is possible and that is why people are vaporized; the secret must be kept in order to control the people of Oceania.
Aside from Miniluv’s example of control, Orwell illustrated many other things to emphasize the state Oceania is in. If one could imagine being watched at every step taken. Orwell introduces the reader to visual control through the telescreen. Winston demonstrates how much the telescreens affect ones actions when he has to adjust his face in front of a telescreen, “ He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen” (Orwell 8). The purpose of the telescreen is to let the people know they are being watched and whatever they do determines their destiny. Harold Bloom quotes, “ (In) Oceania, the telescreen rules everything and everyone; it becomes the principle of total visual control” (145). What Bloom is saying here is that Oceania has found the perfect way to manipulate control and that is by letting an average citizen know they are on surveillance every step of the way. The cameras alter one’s actions because when one is in the sight of some kind of authority, one tends to do the right thing or what is expected of them.
Controlling all aspects of mankind seemed to be the nerve that hit Orwell to influence his writing for 1984. Totalitarians was creeping up on his generation faster than it ever should have and people didn’t even fell their freedom slip out of their hands. Orwell wrote, “ The totalitarian state tries, at any rate, to control the thoughts and emotions of it subjects at least as completely as it controls their actions” (Angus and Orwell 135). This influenced Orwell because when one looks deep enough into all their rights, a totalitarian government takes away everything that you live for and everything that you enjoy. Orwell was observant enough to know that reading and creating literature would soon be gone. Literature is a thing that many people could take for granted but Orwell saw this as a threat and it sparked a new idea to add on to his dystopian novel. In order to form a dystopian state, Oceania made sure that they covered all the angles to control its people. Control restricts and put constraints on many different aspects in one’s life. Language has always been something that keeps a society together. It is how one may express one’s self and it is a way to compromise an understanding between one another. A highly significant topic discussed in Orwell’s’ dystopia is the use of Newspeak. It is on page 84 where Syme explains the purpose of Newspeak: It is to narrow the range of thought. The people in Oceania have accepted this rule succumbed to such mechanisms as doublethink. Mitzi M. Brunsdale, author of the Students companion to George Orwell, saw the concept of Newspeak, an example of language abuse. Brunsdale quoted, “ …totalitarianism seized the power it craved by distorting language” (157). Clearly one knows that in Orwell’s novel Newspeak limits the vocabulary. This is an example of language abuse because Oceania is essentially dumbing-down the language. Indeed it did limit thought because there were less words in the English vocabulary to express one’s self, thus any strong words such as hate, were replaced by ungood. The language became vague so if one were to say, ‘I hate the party,’ with this phrase clearly a reader knows that there is some animosity between that person and the party. Yet, since language control is in Oceania, Newspeak would limit it to, ‘the party is ungood’ or some other sentence in that ballpark. There is a distinct difference between the two phrases. The word hate has more elaboration and depth to it and one can see to what extent that they do not like the party, while the other phrase can easily be ignored. This way the abuse of Oceania’s language keeps everyone on the same page.
For many scholars, Orwell mastered the idea of a dystopia. His perception of a controlling super state frightened many of the dystopian idea. Although Orwell created a reliable source on Dystopia literature, many other have created other characteristics to look into when considering a Dystopia. One can see how many of these other Dystopias have similar traits as with 1984. Most elementary children have probably heard of the short story called The Lottery. It is has a powerful surprise ending where, as tradition, the townspeople annually draw a name from a black box and if their name is drawn they win the privilege of being stoned to death. This is an example of the unsettling fact that people become attached to traditions, no matter how grotesque or disillusioned it may be the responsibility to carry it out is what matters the most. No one exactly agreed with the annual tradition, but they did it anyway. 1984 has some connection with The Lottery when one looks at the two-minute hate, where people shouted and threw things mainly on the principle of Goldstein. Oceania also had public hanging for criminals. This was like a tradition to them because almost everyone that could attend did. The parson kids were particularly interested in attending such gatherings, where on page 8 Winston explains that it is a spectacle and the kids clamored to go. This part also relates with the Lottery because in this short story it quotes, “The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready” (qtd in Skwire 30). Here, one can see the connection between the two. In both cases the children prepared and wanted to be active in this dystopian-like activity. Dystopian literature is interesting to read because one has the outside view of the society. For example, while reading 1984, it is so easy to point out fault after fault to Oceania because a reader is not involved in the society. Although if one was to be submersed into Oceania as a functioning citizen, one may not think that their society has any wrongs because they are either too brainwashed to realize it or they have grown up in that environment and have simply accepted it because they don’t know better.
Before Orwell wrote 1984, Aldous Huxley took his reader’s to a futuristic dystopian world. It was a world filled with science, segregation and promiscuity. Huxley once wrote to George Orwell comparing their dystopian prophecies. Huxley “observed that Orwell’s vision of a future totalitarian state described, in fact, a stage in process of historical events that would eventually modulate into a nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New world” (Baker 59). Huxley saw human individual self-destruction the downfall of modern man as the dystopian figure in his book. Still it was easy for one to see that if one person can contain dystopian like characteristics, easily a whole government can and that is where the process of historical events create the nightmarish world in 1984. Orwell has not been the only one to write about a world gone badly. Authors have toyed with the idea of a Utopia with flaws for numerous years. The points made in each book generally have something in common with the next book. The novels all had to deal with either the social, economic, or political view the author witnessed while writing his or her novel. Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, describes a dystopia in the sci-fi future where science has taken a huge role in peoples lives and it will only advance. Huxley wrote to Christopher Collins saying, “ (Men like God) annoyed me to the point of planning a parody, but when I started writing I found the idea of a negative Utopia so interesting that I forgot about Wells” (qtd in Baker 25). Huxley’s novel has been classified as a dystopian novel because his novel is based on the social scientific dystopia. What makes it a dystopia is the embryo hatcheries, the promiscuity and the native reserves. The reserves are a symbolism of social dystopia because the message it sends is “in with the new, out with the old,” because the people who are there are there because they would not conform to the new world. Orwell’s novel has the same basis in 1984 by showing the societal role of the proles whom are segregated just like the savages in Huxley’s novel. The proles are able to roam around and go to pubs. Oceania views them not as a threat. Though they seem harmless Winston said that they make up more than half of the population of Oceania and if they were to get together they could over throw the Party. Another comparison made in Orwell’s novel and Huxley’s novel was how the authority controls reproduction. In 1984, Winston explains that sex wasn’t something desirable. Rarely did people lust because all their attention was focused on supporting the party. When Winston speaks of his wife, Katherine, she would stiffen as Winston would touch her and when they did have intercourse (which was about once a month), she called it “Our duty to the Party.” The narrator explains a little more on Big brother’s theory behind the control of sexuality declaring, “It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party’s control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leader worship” (Orwell 110). What this means is Big brother knows the emotions that go on when sex and love take place. One is happy, and the Party feels that one cannot waste that energy and happiness on love- that it should be put into loyalty to the party. This energy should be put into the Two Minutes Hate, the marching around etc. Therefore the Party expects its citizens to only reproduce when it is absolutely neccessary.
Huxley’s novel has a similar “controlled sexuality” in his novel where there are hatcheries for embryos and babies are created there. Although promiscuity is more common in Huxley’s novel one can see that the authority in charge is trying to control its people's reproduction rates by having these hatcheries. In the critical review of Huxley’s novel, Robert S. Baker, quotes, “ Eroticism is always a source of potential disruption for the utopian state, and consequently it must be controlled or challenged in some form by the powers of the state” (30). Again, Huxley’s novel proves that sexual desire is a downfall and that it is destructive to mental stability and social harmony. In this case Brave New World, tries to limit sexuality to create a utopian society. George Orwell wrote a short essay on Gandhi emphasizing on his lifestyle and Gandhi’s view on sexuality, he wrote, “ If sexual intercourse must happen, then it should be for the sole purpose of begetting children and presumably in long intervals” (Gross 504). Clearly this may have been an influence in Orwell’s writing for 1984 because with the many followers of Gandhi, many viewed his life as “utopia” for the individual. Orwell must have used Gandhi’s sexuality as a crux for 1984. The more startling comparison is when one looks at the characteristics of Orwell’s novel to the world people live in today. The novel has made many connections to the world in many ways, some of which are more frightening than others.
The world that is of today has had famines, poverty, dictatorship so on and so forth. Even with these all adding up it is hard for one to say that that the world is a dystopia. It is nothing like what is described in Orwell’s novel nor does it appear to be heading in the same direction as Huxley’s novel. Although the world is far from accomplishing the start of a dystopia, the walls could be closing in. Several historical events have been tied in with Orwell’s novel. How is it that Orwell came up with the idea of Big brother and created Oceania to be the dystopia came out to be? The answer is simple; Orwell experienced similar events that lead him to elaborate the “what if,” question further. Orwell saw “the moral bankruptcy of communism, the intellectual dislocations of propaganda, and the importance of left-winged and pacifist thought among the British intelligentsia” (Kalechofsky 4). Clearly Orwell saw the big factor played into communism was power and the power of propaganda that made communism look so attractive. Orwell must have felt so alone with the majority of the world looking as if it were to conform to communism. He wrote in a journal, “I was for a while a member of the Independent Labour Party, but left them at the beginning of the present war because I considered that they were talking nonsense and proposing a line of policy that could only make things easier for Hitler” (Angus and Orwell 23). Orwell experienced the people making it easier for Hitler to come into total power and he saw this horror of politics where he had the opportunity to write a book about it.
Orwell must have also noticed the lack of privacy taking place in a dystopian world. Orwell wrote in 1984, “ Privacy…was a very valuable thing. Everyone wanted a place where they could be alone occasionally. And when they had such a place, it was only common courtesy in anyone else who knew of it to keep his knowledge to himself” (Orwell 114). As one already knows Oceania has no privacy and Winston only thought Charrington’s room above his shop was a place to have privacy but even that room had a telescreen. It seems that once a world become a dystopia, privacy is one the first things to go because it is one of the easiest ways to control someone. As of currently, cameras are being place for safety purposes where if one wanted to call their grandmother, for instance, and no one answered then one can go on the internet look up there special number and see if she is in fact home or if some kind of problem has occurred. This effect is taking place right now in Britain where 79 cities already have the use of biometric cameras for this purpose. This sets many people’s stomach uneasy because these cameras could easily become telescreens. Political power seemed to be Orwell’s first view of a dystopia. Soon, because the controlling dictator has pounded so many visions in a society’s heads that their morality may become askewed. In Orwell’s novel a reader witnesses how the kids become excited to view a public hanging and even Syme talks about the hangings quoting, “I like to see them kicking. And above all, at the end, the tongue sticking right out, and a blue- a quite bright blue. That’s the detail that appeals to me” (Orwell 44). One can see that some of Oceania’s morality to watch another human being be put to death has definitely shows a lack of morality. If one looks at past historical events, there have been many examples that pertain to the lack of morality shown in Orwell’s novel. For instance the Roman Empire and the events at the coliseum brought in hundreds of thousands of guest all to witness the death of a criminal or gladiators fighting. The Roman Empire had different weapons accompanying the one’s to be in these events and many historians claim that this was the worlds most grotesque era. Most children are familiar with the Salem witch trials from either history class or in the event of reading The Crucible. Many people also gathered to see a “ witch” be out to death. It is unsettling to think that people got excited about someone dying under unfair circumstances. Orwell saw things like this go on while he was living as Stalin and Hitler killed millions of people for unjust reasons. The main idea to the lack of morality under these circumstances in Orwell’s writing is clear; to have such grotesque public affairs lead to the downfall of both the Romans and Salem and it showed the reader to what length a dystopian society could dehumanize people.
One trend that is common among a Dystopia are the people having fear. In 1984, there was constant fear of wars or being caught by the Thought police on any kind of basis. What a reader may have to just conclude is that the Government, Big brother, is also filled with fear, hoping that their dictatorship works and that the people do not rebel. As one already knows it is quite clear that Orwell got ideas for his novel from the political stance he stood. Stalin was a huge influence in his novel and a lot of the things that Big brother did in 1984, Stalin did a long the same lines. Stalin feared many things while he was in power. The Student Companion to George Orwell wrote, “ Since Stalin feared a possible revolt by the Russian masses, stability at home was his greatest priority, and he maintained it by waging a secret war against his own people” (Brunsdale 138). So what Stalin did was spread fear into everyone’s heads that if they do not obey then they are more suseptible to foreign attacks. Stalin introduced the Five-year plan to stimulate industrialization and he quoted, “We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries, we must cover this distance in 10 years… Either we do this or they will crush us."(Harris). He spead fear into his people by making them think that they are so far behind in technology and economy that foreign attacks are more probable to happen. Although this may be somewhat true, it was more or less a lie to his people in order to get them to coorperate. Even if one is to look at the world today, America is so caught up on “the war on terrror”that a person feels they have no other choice than to support the war. It’s very possible that Bush is using a scare tactic on America to control his efforts and when the second term for his election came many people may have thought that Bush could protect us better. In Orwell’s novel Oceania dropped bombs on civilians making them think that the other two superstates were bombing them. It is easy to manipulate people and control them when one strikes them with fear. That was the point Orwell made as he wrote 1984.
There are many connections that can be made to a dystopia is one looks at the physique of a state. The all powerful Oceania was a superstate, very large and thus had lots of control. In The politics of LiteraryReputation, the author stated, “ As associations multiplied and quickened between the world of Orwell’s novel and the world of the 1950’s – the budding American computer state the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, the McCarthey Witchhunts, Khrushcchev’s revelations of Stalin’s crimes, the Soviet invasion of hungary, the erection of the Berlin Wall- clock watchers began to wonder whether their anxious present could realyly become Orwells terrifying future” (Rodden27). Clearly this was a concern for many critics at that time for the world. Many events were looking grave and adding up to a totalitarian world much like that of what Orwell’s novel represented. Many critics were beginning to believe that the Soviet Union was acting as if they were to be a superstate, much like that of Oceania. One could only see that there have been many factors that have stopped those dystopian-like actions, but one day something might slip through our fingers and the world may find themselves living in the real Oceania. Indeed Orwell’s novel did show parallelisms of history in the book and a person can now clearly see the symptoms of a dystopian society in the that world today and that of the dystopia compared to what is written in 1984. One could only hope that this is either farther away than most think or that it is just a blatant lie. Orwell only gave us an idea, but the options to create a dystopia are limitless.