Posted by justyn on December 13, 2002 at 22:50:50:
In Reply to: orwell's views on government based on 1984 posted by cheryl on December 13, 2002 at 13:41:43:
i'm going to try to keep this brief, becasue i don't know how much space is alloted with this thing. the tricky thing about orwell, i think, is that his views on government changed in different parts of his life. for example you'll notice a hint of either tiredom or frustration targeted toward british imperialism in "Burmese days". if you were to just take 1984 by itself and examine it, i would suggest you did more research on some of his past life and writing. i recommend familiarizing yourself with "homage to catalonia", "road to wigan pier", and perhaps a few of his essays, such as "my england your england" and "politics of the english language" if you wanted to tie in newspeak as a method for controlling minds. both essays, if i'm not mistaken, are on this website. another think about orwell and 1984 is that 1984 was his last book; published just months before his death. it is, more or less, a composite of his main ideas througout his life. albeit they changed a bit here and there, one consistant element of his writing was an apparent disdain towards "man's dominion over man". from what i heard, 1984 was a projection of what the would could end up being like if certain trends from his day and time had continued. avid nationalism, political dishonesty,the lower classes becoming less and less politically aware, etc. on a philisophical level, one might argue that these trends have been around since the beginning of time. but i think what brings all this into focus was that between 1903 to 1950 (blair's life) the world had become more and more aware of itself. it was becoming easier to get news from different parts of the world. international politics, especially after world war one, had become more important because it wasn't as simple as france or england invading countries anymore. those trends came full circle in the year 1984. take the dream symbol in the book for example. remember in the earlier part of the book smith had a dream about o'brian telling him that they would meet "in the place where there is no darkness"? when he wound up in the ministry of love, one of the things mentioned is that the whole place is lit by a single light bulb from room to room, thus making it difficult to tell whether it was night or day due to the lack of windows. the place simply never got dark! one would imagine that smith looked to o'brian for hope, a guide to a place where he would be free. unfortunately that was not the case, and miniluv is indeed where o'brian and smith met for the last time, relating the final revelation before smith finally accepted two and two as five and big brother. i guess you'll notice the overall dark atmosphere of the book. there is however no doubt in my mind that orwell wanted to make the world better and more aware of itself by pointing out some of its major faults. man, i'm getting tired. if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me and i'll do my best by answering them.