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1984 Imperialism Essay

Decent Essays

At the height of the British empire, lesser communities across the world faced social and economic burdens. Under imperial hegemony, the individual rights of the proletariat were denounced whereas the communal state power was reinforced by Britain’s focus on its military. For instance, as described in “Shooting an Elephant,” the people of Lower Burma, a newly acquired colony of Britain, faced substantial oppression from the Europeans. Likewise, the British in Burma, who were assigned to maintain order, encountered significant dissent from the Burmese. Therefore, George Orwell felt inclined to write the novel 1984, which indirectly argues against Britain’s form of government at the time by illustrating a possible devastating effect of imperialism. …show more content…

For instance, although the people of Oceania are ignorant to the wrongfulness of the government, the government is able to limit the thoughts, feelings, and entire lives of its citizens. Orwell describes that “there were fear, hatred, and pain, but no dignity of emotion, no deep or complex sorrows” (1984, 28). Through limiting emotions and individual expression, Orwell is able to illustrate how the people of Oceania are existing but not living, for the people of Oceania have been stripped of the true joys associated with life, like love, desire, and loss. Furthermore, the government is able to control the language of Oceania, by “destroying words, scores of them, hundreds of them, every day” (1984, 45). Language is powerful. It is the source of all expression and individual thought. Also, in the novel, Orwell mentions that “The black-moustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner… BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU…” (1984, 6). Big Brother could be a reference to a person or a title for the government as a whole. Furthermore, the ‘black-moustachio’d face’ could be an allusion to leaders during World War II that were notorious for denouncing the rights of individuals while improving the power of the state. Leaders like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin had distinguishing mustaches. By incorporating the small detail of comparing Big Brother

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