Orwell and 1984

1903: real name: Eric Arthur Blair born in India
1911: boarding school in England, but he doesn't feel at ease because the other students were snobbish and from wealthier families
1922: joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (officer)
1927: resigned (disappointment by imperialistic oppressive methods) and returned to Europe, where he lived on the streets in Paris and London experiencing life as a homeless
1932: began a teaching career
1936: married Eileen O’Shaughnessy.
1936: fought on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War
severely wounded, returned to England
1941: joined the BBC and is rejected for military service due to his poor health
wrote essays exalting British institutions if compared to totalitarism (Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin)
1945: "Animal Farm" - satire of Russian Revolution
1945: 1945 his wife died
1949: publication of 1984
1950: re-married but three months later died. (suffered from tubercolisis)
awareness of social injustice
1. emotional identification with the working class.
  1. role of the artist ➝ to inform, to reveal facts and draw conclusions from them ➝ social function.
SOCIAL THEMES
1. realistic language
  1. misery caused by poverty
    1. depravation of society
The essay
1. Orwell warns against “the vagueness and the sheer incompetence of modern English prose”. A writer should use a clear and direct language, so as to become an actual instrument of information and communication
1984
1. to suggest that society could easily be transformed in reality in the near future
2. science-fiction
  1. satirical meaning
3. DYSTOPIAN NOVEL
  1. = speaks of negative utopia
    1. the world represented is completely negative, the worst imaginable
4. The War inspired Orwell and also the 2 atomic bombs
5. oppressive world
  1. no privacy
  2. no space for love or happiness or different idead
  3. London, in the future
  4. terror and constant control
    1. telescreens
    2. microphones
    3. videocameras
  5. Punishment against the rebels
    1. duty to eliminate those who deverge from the Party
  6. BRAINWASHING
6. BIG BROTHER
  1. distant, yet omnipresent oppressor
  2. symbol of the total control of the individual's life by mass media
  3. "Is watching you!" - posters everywhere
7. prophetic picture of a world where individuality is annihilated
8. provides the account of the way a totalitarian state attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens through language.
9. the world is divided into 3 great powers
  1. Eurasia
  2. Eastasia
  3. Oceania
    1. England is part of
  4. continually at war with each other
10. PARTY VS PROLES
  1. Ministry of Truth
    1. manipulates people's mind
      1. modifies and rewrites books and documents adapting them to the political needs of the moment
        historical memory and consciousness CANCELLED
        REDUCTION OF VOCABULARY
        IMPOSSIBILITY TO THINK AND REACT AGAINST THE PARTY
      2. rewrites history and past
  2. Thoght police
    1. torture
11. Importance of memory and trust.
12. protagonist: Winston Smith
  1. not casual: reference to Churchill
    1. works for the Ministery of Truth but is not devotes. Has a love-story but is betrayed and punished by a "friend" of him. Hated the party and tried to rebel but is defeated and learns to love Big Brother.
13. IT'S A WARNING against the danger of total adhesion to a political system and its leader
  1. warning through a negative example in order to avoid it
LANGUAGE
1. clear
2. uncomplicated
3. influenced by his work as journalist
4. opposite words and paradox are employed in the slogans
PESSIMISM
1. = struggle against all superpowers can never be successful
NEWSPEAK
1. the official language
2. eliminates undesirable words
3. aim: to reduce human conscioussnes and soppress free thinking
DOUBLETHINKING
1. manipulation of the mind by making people accept contradictions and every idea
2. makes people believe that the Party is the only institution that knows right from wrong.
3. possibility to believe in two ideas at the same time, even if they're contradictory

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Orwell and 1984

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