Watermarks George Orwell's Attack on Totalitarianism and How It Threatens Countries Today by Kristina Schuman

George Orwell states, in Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation, that he wanted "to push the world in a certain direction, to alter people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after" (Meyers 287). This was the ideology behind why he wrote the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although 1984 may appear to be a dark, bleak prophecy of an all-totalitarianism world of the future, it is actually not. Rather, George Orwell's 1984 was meant to be a word of warning for the present. According to Richard Voorhees in The Paradox of George Orwell, from the middle thirties to his death, Orwell was a propagandist harping on the significance of totalitarianism because he knew that thousands upon thousands of people in democratic countries were barely aware of it, and many thought there was a lot to be said for it in one form or another (87). This novel is one of Orwell's fiercest forms of propaganda, in that it forces readers to imagine themselves as victims of totalitarianism.

One of the many ways Oceania, the setting in which 1984 takes place, possesses qualities of totalitarianism is the way in which it rules its citizens: by violence and fear. O'Brien, one of the central characters in the novel, proclaims that the Inner Party, the governing body of the country, "seeks power entirely for its own sake... the object of power is power." The Party cares nothing for the good of its people, and its power is "not a means," rather, "it is an end" (217). This is why the Party deems it necessary to control the people through means of violence.

When Winston Smith, the main character of the novel, is arrested, a good example of this violence is demonstrated. The Thought Police apprehend him, send him to detention, and interrogate him by means of a brutal torture:

The confession was a formality, though the torture was real. How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings continued, he could not remember. Always there were five or six men in black uniforms at him simultaneously. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, sometimes it was steel boots. (198)

Such violence, of course, is not exclusive to the prisons of Oceania. It is a part of everyday life. Police with truncheons and machine guns patrol the streets. Barbed wire stretches across intersections characteristic to that of a battlefield. According to Peter Davison in Literary Lives: George Orwell, the citizens are encouraged to experience vicarious violence by watching newsreels of enemy civilians being machine-gunned on the telescreens (80). They are aso encouraged to attend public hangings of war prisoners, and "children always clamored to be taken to see" (80). The Two Minutes Hate each day and the annual Hate Week were also methods for the people to maintain some form of loathing.

Orwell was inspired to write about horrible events because he was stirred by them actually happening around him. Davison writes about how Orwell incorporates the scene of Winston watching a newsreel showing the sinking and maiming of a refugee ship from his own life (281). In fact, the specific event Orwell is making an allusion to happened on September 27, 1940, when a ship by the name of The City of Benares, carrying ninety children and their nine escorts to Canada, was torpedoed by the Germans and sunk 600 miles out in the Atlantic. Only seven of the children survived. This is one way Orwell incorporates contemporary events to create an atmosphere of documentary reality, from which the real power of the novel springs.

In 1984, Oceania and its citizens are ruled by fear. The country is constantly devastated by atomic bombs and warfare. The world is divided into three main superpowers: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Oceania is the part of the world made up of North America and the old British Empire (Reed and Spring). Although war constantly rages on, the three powers in which the world is divided are now unconquerable. George Orwell states, "[A]lready quite visibly and more or less with the acquiescence of all of us, the world is splitting up into two or three super-states," and, just as he predicts, these vast states are permanently at war with one another ("As I Please"). In the dictatorship of Oceania, the citizens live in fear each day, unsure exactly where the enemy bombers that fly overhead will decide to drop their missiles. Julia, another central character in the novel, even has the impression that it is Oceania itself, not the enemy, dropping bombs on the country. This is how the Inner Party takes any means to strike fear in the hearts of every citizen.

Orwell was never really concerned about advancement of technology, but rather the progression of violence in the world. What chiefly struck him was not that men would be able to invent new machinery to "break up the bodies of men [as in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World], but that some men should not hesitate to use it on others" (Davison 87). For example, O'Brien makes Winston betray Julia with a form of torture that dates all the way back to Imperial China. The horror is not in the means, but in the willingness to use any means, ancient or modern, to meet the ends of power. That is the scariest part.

"If these two or three super-states do establish themselves,... they will be in a position to prevent all contact between their nationals. Already... large areas of the earth have been cut off from one another, although technically at peace" ("As I Please"). In this passage, Orwell speaks of isolation as the seed from which another characteristic of totalitarianism sprouts. This aspect, thought-control, most easily works through isolation. Oceania is one of the super-states with the ability to prevent all outside contact from the rest of the world. This is why there are no rebellions; "[The citizens] never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison they never even become aware that they are oppressed" (1984 171).

The people do not just suffer isolation from other countries, either. There is isolation between the people in Oceania. There is no word in Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, for "lover" or "friend." Instead, the word "comrade" is the only term used for addressing another person, no matter what the relationship. Many do not trust, care, or love one another. During one of Winston's interrogations, O'Brien boasts of a world where "no one dares trust a wife or child any longer, [where there is] no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party, no love, except the love of Big Brother" (220). There is no science, literature, or art, no pleasure save the sadistic thrill of victory. Why, one might ask, would a government go to all this trouble? The answer is simple. Meyers explains that, without comforts, knowledge, and wealth, people are easier to govern because of their poor and miserable state (287).

There are ways in which the Inner Party can enforce the isolationism between its citizens. These two primary means are control over the past and control over the language. Both goals can be accomplished quite easily through education (Smith and Verma). Whatever the Party "holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party" (1984 205). This is one of many phrases stressed to the general public of Oceania in hopes that they would actually believe it, and they do believe it for the simple fact no one else tells them differently. It is accepted out of ignorance. Anyone who does not accept this truth is accused of "thought-crime" and is taken away by the Thought Police. Whatever the party announces is accepted as the truth, no matter how many times "the truth" is changed (Smith and Verna). An example of thought-crime is revealed to the reader when Winston's job is discussed. His job is located in the Ministry of Truth's Record's Department, and he is one of many whose duty is to edit all newspaper stories, speeches, and statistics that contradict what the Party may presently say. When he makes all the necessary revisions, the documents are reprinted, the old copy destroyed, and a new copy is filed in its stead.

According to Orwell, all this has already been going on since the 1940s:

Modern scientific interventions have tended to prevent rather than increase international communication... . As it is, the aero plane is primarily a thing for dropping bombs and the radio primarily a thing for whipping up nationalism. Even before the war [WWII] there was enormously less contact between the peoples of the earth than there had been thirty years earlier, and education was perverted, history re-written and freedom of thought suppressed to an extent undreamed of in earlier ages. ("As I Please")

Goldstein, another central character in 1984, writes a book that goes into more detail, touching upon the theory of "reality control," which basically states that, if the Party sees fit to rearrange one's memory or tamper with written records, it is necessary to forget one has done so.

The control over language, the second primary means of control, is represented by Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Winston's "comrade," Syme, is employed on the eleventh dictionary of Newspeak. He explains that the purpose of his job is to telescope as many words and phrases and eliminates as many words in the dictionary as possible. Orwell comments that already words and phrases are "one of the characteristic features of political language, and it [has] been noticed that tendency to use abbreviations of this kind [is] most marked in totalitarian countries" (Voorhees 83). Eventually, the Party narrows the range of thought to such an extreme that the very thinking of unorthodox thoughts is impossible. Voorhees makes clear that, granted the citizen of the totalitarian state has no rebellious instincts at the start, the discipline of totalitarian linguistics can prevent rebellious thoughts (83).

In any ordinary week of the year, the citizens of Oceania spend most of their free time participating in state projects or drives of one kind or another, which are nominally voluntary. This lack of a private life is the last, but certainly not the least, characteristic of a totalitarian society. Even during the few hours that a man or woman is allowed at home, he or she does not escape from the state. Police patrols in helicopters skim between buildings and peer into windows. In every room there is a telescreen, which transmits, as well as records, images. One has to assume that his or her every sound and movement is being heavily watched, not just some of the time but all of the time (Reed and Spring). Still, Julia tells Winston, before they are arrested, that there is a limit to the Party's invasion of the individual's privacy. During their imprisonment, however, Winston and Julia learn that the Party can indeed invade the privacy of the inmost mind and heart (Meyers 215). When O'Brien is finished with him, Winston has no mind of his own. The Party has contrived means to drain the ideas out of it and fill it with their absurdities, such as the notion that two plus two equals five.

During Winston's torture processes, O'Brien relies on beatings, lack of sleep, and starvation to extract from him confessions of treason and other crimes. During the later processing, O'Brien resorts to powerful scientific instruments and techniques. Yet the Party, though it uses science to maintain and extend its power, "officially denies the fundamental scientific assumption of an objective world," governed by "order and in the investigation of which trained men or women can confirm one another" (Smith and Verma "Classic Notes"). Voorhees backs up this philosophy by saying that it accords with the observation Orwell makes in "Looking Back on the Spanish War." Orwell states that the Nazi theory "specifically denies that such a thing as 'the truth' exists." There is no such thing as "science." There is only "German Science," "Jewish Science," and so on (82).

If not a foretelling, then what is 1984? Orwell's novel is an alert for the general public not to allow a political organization, no matter how efficient, great, secure, and/or comfortable it may appear, establish any form of law and order that costs its free-minded citizens their liberties as individuals. People recognize this when they see themselves ruled by fear, as with the present threat of nuclear warfare, when they see their thoughts being controlled, similar to the way today's media manipulates people's beliefs, or when their privacy is invaded, such as the orbital satellites with the ability to zoom in on a person's face. Orwell states, "The moral to be drawn... is a simple one: Don't let [totalitarianism] happen, it depends on you!" (Davison 139). The year 1984 may have come and gone, but Orwell's warning remains ever present.

Davison, Peter. "The Last Five Years: Nineteen Eighty-Four." Literary Lives: George Orwell. Ed. Richard Dutton. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1996. 129-139.

This book had a lot about George Orwell's childhood through adulthood accounts. The author explains Orwell's theories on government institutions and dim prophecies of the future. He also talks about Orwell's struggles with censorship on the publications of his works. It was interesting to read that most of Orwell's predictions have been accurate, such as the distribution of drugs and the breakdown of the nuclear family.

Meyers, Jeffrey. "Wartime Propagandist, 1941-1943." Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. Ed. Julia Druskin. New York, NY: W. W. Norton Company, 2000. 213-218.

The author writes much about George Orwell's life and time period that led him to publish the "great anti-utopias" of modern literature. He offers keen insights on Orwell's intellectual development as well as his political dilemmas. The book goes very in depth regarding Orwell's political views, especially of his negativity towards totalitarianism.

Orwell, George. "As I Please: The Coming Age of Superpowers." Tribune 2 February 1945: 5. .

This was chosen for the creative source in my research. This site contains many of George Orwell's editorials and newspaper articles that were published in various magazines and newspapers. It was especially helpful in that it will further support the facts of the paper with Orwell's own words.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 171-220.

Conspiracy theories aside, this creative masterpiece tells of the struggle to remain human when faced with insurmountable odds. Orwell's unique vision, formed in the desperation of post-war Europe in 1947, describes a future in which a totalitarianism government controls all. While depressing, this novel also raises some interesting questions.

Reed, Kit, and Michael Spring. "1984 by George Orwell." From Barron's Booknotes. Summer 1997. Katy, Texas: Barron's Educational Series, Inc. 21 November 2002. .

These notes helped establish the outline and skeleton of the paper. Also, this site stated many of the important aspects of 1984 that otherwise might have been left out.

Smith, Nick, and Olivia Verma. "1984 Classic Notes." From Classic Notes by GradeSaver. April 1999. Harvard, Illinois: Burstmedia. 21 November 2002. .

Unlike Barron's Booknotes, this site offered much more detail about what actually happened in the novel. It touched base upon the more complex similarities between George Orwell's environment in the forties and Winston's environment in the year 1984.

Voorhees, Richard J. "Perspective on Power." The Paradox of George Orwell. Ed. G. Kelly. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1986. 78-88.

The author writes about how George Orwell, an intellectual, continually damned intellectuals, and how he created leading political essays regarding the success of Socialism. This book explores a lot of imagery and theories in 1984 that were hidden to the naked eye. This book was most helpful in my research.