1984- George Orwell

Hello, this blog is in response to the assigned task by Dr, Dilip Barad Sir. This blog answers to the assigned question and deals with the major concern in Dystopian Social Science Fiction by George Orwell Nineteen Eighty Four.

NINETEEN EIGHTY- FOUR

In brief about the author and the text.

George Orwell is a pen name of Arthur Eric Bair. he was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterized by lucid prose, biting social criticism, total opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism. Orwell produced literary criticism and poetry, fiction and polemical journalism.

Documentary on Orwell

He is famous for his works Animal Farm, 1984, The Road To Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.

1984 is a Dystopian Social Science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by George Orwell, published on 8 June 1949. Thematically it concerns the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behavior within society. The novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the way in which they are manipulated. The adjective Orwellian is popularized after this novel and along with many other words like double think, thought police, thought crime, newspeak and big brother have entered the English language. It is a futuristic novel which deals with real life ideas like surveillance, Totalitarianism and violation of freedom of expression.

What is dystopian fiction? Is '1984' a dystopian fiction?

Etymology, dys- bad (old greek) and Topia- Place (old Greek).

Dystopian Literature is a world in which everything is imperfect, and everything goes wrong. It shows nightmarish images about what might happen to the world in the near future. Usually the main theme of dystopian works are rebellion, oppression, revolutions, wars, overpopulation and disasters.

Dystopian literature concerns the issues of humanity and society and warns the people about their weakness. This literary technique is used to discuss reality and depict issues that might happen in the future. Thus its role is to educate and give awareness to the audience.

The protagonist in the dystopian literature often feels trapped and struggles to escape, they question the existence of social and political systems. They have an instinct of something being terribly wrong in the society they live in and through their perspective, they show the audience the negative aspects of the dystopian world.

Earliest dystopian work is Gulliver's travel, it's a blueprint for dystopian literature. Imagining a world where certain trends in contemporary society are taken to extremes, exposing their underlying flaws.

Dystopia are cautionary tales, not about particular government or technology but the very idea that humanity can be molded into ideal shape.

From the above discussion of Dystopian Literature we see that ‘1984’ completely satisfies all the characteristics of Dystopian fiction. So Yes, ‘1984’ is Dystopian literature; Dystopian social science fiction which also falls in the genre of science fiction and political fiction. ‘1984’ is a futuristic novel in which totalitarian society is oppressive and has created vast inequities. It demonstrates the negative outcome of man’s lust for power and control.

Society in ‘1984’ is always in fear of wars, government surveillance and political oppression of free speech. Totalitarian rule destroys the individuality and identity of one. It was written after war when fascism was rising in the Soviet Union and Germany, it draws a pessimistic picture of society's ability to avoid such disasters.

How Dystopian fiction works; it shows the past of the present society which helps us understand the difference created in the new society and reason for its decline. In this Novel too Winston finds his space and tries to remember the past . but he isn't able to, which can be read as the party's corruption on his emotional life. Party's oppression of the memory of people.

Dystopian novels portray fictional societies that are marked by traits, such as oppression or mass poverty, that cause feelings of fear for the reader. Orwell's 1984 is the perfect example of a dystopian novel, as these traits are present.

What according to you is the central theme of this novel?

‘1984’, Orwell's Futuristic Dystopian social science fiction novel brings to us the mentally, emotionally and physically oppressed world. With various themes:

• Totalitarianism
• Psychological manipulation
• Language as mind control/ use and abuse of language
• Technology
• Control of information and history
• Physical control
• Class system/ wealth of ruling class
• Resistance and revolution
• Political loyalty
• Independence and identity

In all these various themes the major theme which stunned me and we will discuss are Language and the newly introduced term Totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism:

The literal meaning of the word is a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state, a form of government that attempts to assert total control over the lives of its citizens

Orwell, seems to be disturbed by the cruelties and oppression of communist's countries and seems that he is aware about how technology is helping the government to oppress and control people through monitoring.

Totalitarianism is the primary theme of the novels. 1984 a political novel, tries to warn the people from the extreme level of control and power possible under a truly totalitarian regime. In the novel we see that no one has ever seen Big Brother but still everyone has to keep following him. The name of the unknown Big Brother party not only controls social or seual life of people but controls their memory, thoughts, feelings and also over personal space (writing dairy). With the idea of looking for the welfare of the nation the complete surveillance over the people by party, not physically but mentally also. Even if they think against the party they were arrested under ‘thoughtcrime’. As a novel progresses we see that how the resistant character Winston, who is just trying to have ‘ownlife’ and some rational thinking is tortured and brainwashed by the party. The Party uses a number of techniques to control its citizens, each of which is an important theme of its own in the novel.

Language:

It is through language that we communicate with the world, define our identity, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society and it structures and limits the ideas that individuals are capable of formulating and expressing. Orwell in the novel imagines if the language is centralized by the agency. In the Novel we see that the party is bringing new words into existence through ‘newspeak. The aim of newspeak is: Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”

The Party is constantly refining and perfecting Newspeak, with the idea of a completely new language which will consist of nonnegative language through which the party can be criticized., no one will be capable of conceptualizing anything that might question the Party’s absolute power. O’Brien and Winston Smith are engaged in the Ministry of Truth to use and abuse language to rewrite history and distort facts for the public consumption. The oppressive. Controlling part is trying to make it impossible to even conceive of disobedient or rebellious thoughts, because there would be no words with which to think them. If one does so, with an example of Winston Orwell show, they are tortured, brain washed and are made to love Big Brother.

The party is also changing history with the change of language because ‘one who controls the past controls the future’. Also today the NEP has decided to change the history syllabus in schools, trying to control the past. With an argument that students are taught about Mughals and not Hindu kings or rulers. Here authority with the use of positive language, is trying to spread hatred towards Mughals/ Muslims. This is how authority is trying to divide nations in the name of dharma. (personal interpretation)

When two languages mix it enriches the language but here the party is reducing the language because one cannot think without language and they aim to control people. They are eliminating negative words e.g. the opposite of good is not bad but ungood. Today similar things we find on social media where the words like Friend and Unfriend are used, Enemy is not used. Social media majorly spreads hatred but by not using negative words they try to show that they are positive and spread love.

In the novel we clearly see the control of language through its motto ‘ war is peace, slavery is freedom’. With the help of language they try to play with their minds.

What do you understand by the term 'Orwellian'?

The word Orwellian has come after the dystopian writing of George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty- Four’. Generally, when one is opposing British or Mughals they are considered to be nationalist and if one is questioning their own selected ruler/ authority they are considered anti- nationalist and that is where the idea of Orwellian Theory comes from.

The term is named after Writer George Orwell whose real name is Arthur Eric Blair. We generally find that this term is used for authoritarian government but this does not fully convey Orwell’s message. It risks what Orwell has tried to warn against; he's opposing a form of tyranny and is and is leading to fight against anti- democratic forces of both left and right wing.

In the Novel 1984, the Government of Oceania controls the speech of people in some ways. Moves and words are watched and there is threat for one who is stepping out the line. The words sed there like War is peace, freedom is slavery are not to convey the message but to undermine it. Oceania’s government is creating a new dictionary ‘Newspeak’ by eliminating the words from the English language and giving a new dialect of limited simple concrete doubts.. It lacks the words which would encourage critical thinking or questioning. Even the privacy of thought is not provided, even if anyone presents his own perception in dreams,keeps a diary or love affair he is found guilty of thoughtcrime and is punished till his brain is washed.

So, Orwell urged us to protect our language because it is our only ability to think and communicate clearly and it is what stands between us and totalitarian society. Words have the power to shape thought.

Thus, Orwellian is not everything that is authoritarian, mass surveillance and intrusive government. It is all about manipulative and deceptive use of language.

Write in brief about 'Newspeak' - and refer to Orwell & Pinter's essays.

Definition of newspeak

propagandistic language marked by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings, "designed to diminish the range of thought," in the novel 1984 by George Orwell.

The Oceania government in 1984 was trying to control the language to control the mind. They started making a new dictionary by eliminating the words from the English language with the main idea of reducing the language, complex or negative words. So the people who ever get a chance resist; they leave no language which can help to communicate or express their feelings against Big Brother or criticize or question against. As said in Orwell's essay POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ‘if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.’ If there is no language there is no negative thought. In the essay Orwell criticizes standard English, with its perceived dying metaphors, pretentious diction, and high-flown rhetoric, which he would later satirize in the meaningless words of doublespeak, the product of unclear reasoning.

The basic idea of Newspeak was to reduce the unnecessary words. In Newspeak, English root words function as both nouns and verbs, which reduce the vocabulary available for the speaker to communicate meaning. For example, think is both a noun and a verb, thus, the word thought is not functionally required to communicate the concepts of thought in Newspeak and therefore is not in the Newspeak vocabulary. The opposite of good is bad but bad is unnecessary and it is written as ‘ungood’ and the degrees of good are ‘plus good’ , ‘double plus good’. CLICK HERE for grammar of newspeak. Through his creation and explanation of Newspeak, Orwell warns the reader that a government that creates the language and mandates how it is used can control the minds of its citizens.

Also Social media plays a vital role in the use of such language. It uses the language add friend and unfriend they don't use the word enemy. Through this they try to show how they spread love and not hatred, while we the algorithms of social media play a major role in spreading hatred.

In contemporary time no one makes the newspeak the the use of words by authorities in speeches, newspaper is done in such a way that it settles in the minds of people and unconsciously they tend to do so. And slogans work powerfully in this process.

Today, the game of words is played a lot around Kashmir files. It indicates that every Indian should watch Kashmir files being an Indian. And the conversations are done in a way to show a movie from only one point of view, that is hatred towards Muslims or terrorists. Movie is a art and it must open for all types of interpretations, no one can force to interpret in a specific way. The Authorities seems to be trying to control over the minds of public through Kashmir Files.

Playing with words, back in 2012 came the idea of ‘chowkidar’-  ‘mein chowkidar’ which gives a hidden meaning that you are ‘chor’ - enemies and I will take care that you can't steal anything. Public is chor and authority is chowkidar.

Thank you for visiting . I hope you liked reading this blog and it helped you for better understanding . any queries or doubt comment below.

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