Thesis:
Through out Orwell’s novel, one can see that 1984 illustrates a dystopian world and those characteristics are also shared with the world’s history through today.
I. Utopias
A. Characteristics.
1. Brave New world List (p29).
B. More’s Utopia:
1. War is the last resort, only used to protect himself or herself or a friend.
2. Structure of society, equality and rationality.
II. Orwell’s Dystopia
A. Book In General
1. Miniluv: The scariest building of them all; the irony of it. (quote 8)
2. Telescreens: Being watched all the time-alters actions, also gives no privacy.
a) Harold Bloom: “ Oceania, the telescreen rules everything and everyone; it becomes the principles of total visual control” (145).
b) Being watched alters one’s actions and fewer crimes happen.
B. Critical responses.
1. On Newspeak: Student Companion: “(Orwell) insisted that totalitarianism seized the power it craved by distorting language, the only means by which individuals, acting together, can defeat it.”
a) Difference between words meanings.
b) It dumbed-down people’s vocabulary
2. Brave New World:
a) “Huxley observed Orwell’s vision” (Baker 59).
b) Suicide and self-destruction in his novels. He felt the individual human would lead to more elaborate dystopian characteristics. He called it “ the disease of modern man”
3. Orwell on totalitarian, “ totalitarianism has abolished…” (135)
a) Controlling thinking agitated Orwell because it went against his job and the pure right to be free.
b) If this went into play, literature would not exist.
II. Dystopias in Literature.
A. Characteristics/ comparison.
1. The Lottery: The acceptance of traditions, no matter how gruesome they are.
2. Brave New World: “annoyed me to the point…” (Baker 25)
a) Huxley’s dystopia is based on social scientific fantasy.
b) This explains the Hatcheries, the reserves (in with the new out with the old).
3. Brave New World: Sexuality.
a) 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).
b) Goal is to limit sexuality. Sex is a downfall for a Utopia.
4. Orwell’s essay. (Gross 504)
a) Gandhi’s sexuality. Must happen to produce kids and should happen in long intervals.
b) This must have been an influence in Orwell’s writing.
III. The Comparisons.
A. Political influence.
1. 1984: Everything being controlled by Big Brother/ Authority of Oceania. How this affected Orwell in writing his novel.
a) Orwell: By 1939, “The moral bankruptcy of communism, the intellectual dislocations of propaganda…” (Kalechofsky 4) He found power a big factor in communism and it is easily obtain to form a dystopia.
b) “ …I have seen since the inner workings of…” Collected essays (23). Shows how easily people were becoming brainwashed.
2. Privacy of 1984: How privacy is a bug factor in people’s happiness. Quote on p114.
3. History: Cameras are being placed everywhere for safety reasons…Use of Biometrics in Britain.
a) This can easily change to telescreens by installing them in homes to “watch” for burglars and so forth.
b) The world is expecting fast results so much that forensic science could be put out of a job if cameras are now installed.
B. Lack of Morality.
1. 1984: The desire to watch the public hangings.
2. History: Much related to the hangings and other deaths from the Salem witch trials and Roman Empire (Coliseum events).
a) Each case was a downfall to a society.
b) Each lead a dehumanized way of life.
C. Fear.
1. 1984: Oceania dropped bombs on the super state to scare the citizen, thus to further support the country.
2. History: Stalin used the production of the Five-year plan to scare the citizens that if they don’t support it then they are more prone to possible attacks.
3. It is also possible that bush is doing this now with us.
a) Fear of the war and terrorism that we have no choice to support his effort.
b) This may be why he won another term because people figured he could protect us better
4. Orwell: “To experience…”(Kalechofsky 23) Making things look attracted to get people to follow.
a) He saw communism clearly wanted to control the state. (Maybe place a & b with lack of morality.) Explain the attraction the Nazis said about the death camps.
5. People saw Orwell’s book come alive. “ As associations…” (Rodden 27).
a) Shows how people analyzed his novel into a real life dystopia.
Soviet Union was acting like Oceania, turning into a super state
Title Page
Outline
Proposal
Final Paper
Bibliography