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Fear In 1984 George Orwell

Decent Essays

Good Morning/ Afternoon class, today I will be discussing the cultural fear that totalitarian governments bring and how that influenced George Orwell's writing of 1984 as well as how that contextual understanding has influenced my interpretation of the novel.
The society in 1984, although fictional, mirrors the political weather of the societies that existed all around George Orwell. Orwell's Oceania is a terrifying society reminiscent of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union where he witnessed the danger of absolute political authority in an age of advanced technology. A society where there would be complete repression of the human spirit, absolute governmental control of daily life, constant hunger, and the systematic "vaporization" of individuals who do not, or will not, comply with the government's values. Orwell, tried to illustrate that peril harshly in his novel, In an effort to convince readers to avoid any path that might lead towards such social degradation. …show more content…

Moreover, both regimes consistently demonized their enemies, just as the Party and Big Brother do in 1984, through the Two minutes Hate, Hate week and daily mass propaganda. Other aspects include the Thought Police as a reinvention of Gestapo which were the secret police of Nazi Germany that orchestrated large scale purges and terror. The spies and Youth league was a reinvention of the Hitler Youth, which indoctrinated young people to the Party and encouraged them to report disloyalty observed in their elders and among family members. This is similar to the case when Parsons is convicted for thoughtcrime after his daughter reported him for saying “Down with Big Brother” in his

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