1984 vs Nazi Germany
Robert Heibel
Lee High
The first thing that comes to mind when you read the book 1984, written by George Orwell in 1949, is going to be a dictatorship. But that is just simply not the case. The government in the book 1984 was a lot like Nazi Germany. It’s a totalitarian-style government. You may, or may not know what that is, and I don’t blame you. It’s not something people come across on a frequent basis.
A totalitarian government is a government controlled by a group, or a couple groups of leaders. In the book 1984 the groups happen to be the Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty. But in Nazi Germany the group happens to be Adolf Hitler. The supreme leader
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They both used propaganda to persuade the population of fiction facts. The poster of Big Brother with the words “Big Brother is watching you.” is a popular one in the book, mentioned countless times by Winston, the main character, you can see this in the book more than twice. Also both in Nazi Germany, and the book 1984 is the speeches the leaders made. Hitler made huge anti-semitic speeches to his followers and soldiers. In the book Big Brother makes the two minute hate. Both Hitler, and Big Brother are prejudice against something. Hitler is prejudice against the “imperfect humans” including, but not limited to Jews. Big Brother on the other hand isn’t prejudice against a type of human being, but against intelligence. Both the leaders were very controlling of the population, and even gone so far as to be treated as Gods. But there are some differences, of course. Hitler was unfortunately a real person, and he really did the things i’m talking about in this essay. Good thing Big Brother is not a real person that did these things. I’m sure the world would be in shambles if Big Brother really did the things in the book. I’ve heard people make the comparison to the old WW2 era “Uncle Sam”. He has a certain presence to him, but he doesn’t really exist. People felt the same in 1984, no one has ever seen him, but they ‘know’ he still watches. Maybe he doesn’t even exist …show more content…
We can make the assumption that this branch is the propaganda branch. The same thing was in Nazi Germany. They had a head of propaganda, his name was Joseph Goebbels. He controlled what his troops were doing on the front lines of the propaganda war. Winston, in the book was in the branch that made all the propaganda. His job was to erase certain parts of books, and write in new words. Also in 1984 there was a group of people called the Youth League. They were trained to spy on citizens (if you want to call them that) and to tell the party what they were seeing. In Germany there was a group of kids called the Hitler Youth, notice the similarities in names. The Hitler Youth didn’t exactly spy on people to tell the leaders, but they were trained to be soldiers when they grew
In a totalitarian country, any ordinary citizen’s powers are limited, if at all possible. Although any individual is treated like a part of the society, he has no chances to play a vital role in it. A person is to follow officially dispersed propaganda and obey the rules, which intend to control everything. The totalitarian system uses any means including manipulation, intimidation and even the worst forms of repression just to achieve the main goal - staying in power. George Orwell’s 1984 and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are very similar novels which describe two different societies being mainly focused on individuals opposing the existing systems. In Orwell’s novel, the
Big Brother is the name of the Party Leader in 1984. This quote is seen throughout the novel and it literally means that you are being viewed. Everybody is being watched all the time. The Party monitors every aspect and everything that the citizens do and they make sure that everyone knows that they are being watched. This quote influences how the characters act, speak and live their lives. Big Brother is similar to the National Security Agency (NSA) because they monitor our phone calls and our online activity. While they do not watch our every move, they are able to monitor much of the activity of many Americans without disclosing they are doing so. Social media is monitored. In 1984 and in everyday life, we sacrifice our privacy for protection.
1984 by George Orwell is a novel set in a dystopian near-future London, the chief city of Airstrip One, Oceania. The people in Oceania are under the control of the Party. Big Brother, or BB, is the face of the Party and the leader of this great power that rules over Oceania. He is a dominant figure who acts as a trustworthy entity for the people he governs, but ironically is their worst enemy in many ways. His posters, captioned “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”, can be seen everywhere in the streets of London. These posters give the reader a physical description of what one can imagine Big Brother to look like. He is a man of about forty-five with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features that make him look scary but leader-like. Most people in this society are unaware of how they are brainwashed and controlled by the Party. Big Brother controls Oceania with various carefully designed techniques, some of which are: keeping the Outer Party in control with the 24-hour surveillance, Reality Control and by controlling the proles -- by keeping them ignorant and luring them through privileges.
Both the party in 1984 and the Nazi party share common goals and philosophies, but they differ in the actions they took and the extremes they went to to control society and enforce their own power. In 1984 the party takes firm control of their people and act in mystery while making it known with the image of “Big Brother” that they are always watching and in control. The Nazis,led by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany with an iron fist, influencing their people to follow every move they made and believe every word they spoke. Is the party in 1984 so different from the Nazi party… or do they just want it to seem that way?
For both Big Brother and the Nazi party their legacy depended on the youth of their communities. Children would be brought up being taught the way of their successors so that one day they could follow in their footsteps and keep the party alive. “From the 1920s onwards, the Nazi Party targeted German youth as a special audience for its propaganda messages. These messages emphasized that the Party was a movement of youth: dynamic, resilient, forward-looking, and hopeful”(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum2). Hitler was aware that the support of his youth would encourage others to get involved, ages young and all. It would ignite a fire that was
How does Big Brother control everybody? They control the history, the language, and intimidate people into silence. When the party in 1984 controls history and facts, it leads to double think. Doublethink is when you hold two contradicting thoughts in your head at once. The inner party people are
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external and internal conflicts that take place between the two main characters, Winston and Big Brother and how the two government ideas of Democracy and totalitarianism take place within the novel. Orwell wrote the novel around the idea of communism/totalitarianism and how society would be like if it were to take place. In Orwell’s mind democracy and communism created two main characters, Winston and Big Brother. Big Brother represents the idea of the totalitarian party. In comparison to Big Brother, Winston gives and represents the main thought of freedom, in the novel Winston has to worry about the control of the thought police because he knows that the government with kill anyone who
Considering that the book was published in 1948, in the start of the Cold War, the political connotation of this book was instantly interpreted as a criticism to the Soviet Union and their autocratic rule, mainly because of the parallels and allusions Orwell brought from this country. For instance the resemblance of Big Brother which is describe as “the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features”(Orwell 4) is an accurate description of the 1948 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, hinting a parallel Orwell established between both of them. Common practices like cult of personality and his rivalry with previous party members (in Stalin’s case Trotsky and in Big Brother’s case Goldstein) show that the character is not only physically similar, but that Big Brother is an allusion to the Soviet leader. Hence Orwell also alludes the alteration of history and photographs in Winston´s working place to the similar practices made in the USSR under Stalin, where photos were edited when people condemned by treason appeared on it. The constant wars the country is facing alludes to the multiple wars that took place during the first half of the twentieth century, as the author states that their society was constantly at war, which is an allusion to his present. By alluding to the present and to the USSR, Orwell convinces the western reader of the dangers of these dictatorial societies, by drawing a parallel between 1984 society and their cold war
They both have leaders who were so powerful they had total control of people who believed anything they said. Both figures were obsessed with power and did not use it for good at all. They both alienated a group of people, which ended in disaster. Adolf Hitler and his tatolitarian government very much so most influenced George Orwell as reflected. These details from the book along with key history points prove that Big Brother is very similar to Adolf Hitler. As a Totalitarian Dictator, Adolf had obsene amounts of power and control over Germany and because of the people's influenced trust in him in the beginning a forsaken crisis has taken place in
”Nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen. We may be reasonably sure that he will never die, and there is already considerable uncertainty as to when he was born.” The plot of 1984 is created around the myth of Big Brother. He watches you and everything you do, and those who think or act in a way that is not wanted by the leading
Orwell draws from features of these totalitarian regimes in order to create the setting in which the story takes place. In the novel, the narrator describes big brother on the poster as a “mustachiod figure”. This figure is a reference to the
Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, which is in charge of all information distributed to the population. Each time someone is found guilty of thought crime or the enemy in the war changes, all data will be modified to fit the current truth. Orwell shows how Winston’s character slowly develops and realises the severity of the situation and so becomes less passive. The major modifications in Winston’s character appear after he meets Julia. He becomes more critical of the Party in thoughts and more rebellious in actions, because he has found someone to share his opinions with.
Nobody can disagree with the fact that George Orwell’s vision, in his book 1984, didn’t come true. Though many people worried that the world might actually come to what Orwell thought, the year 1984 came and went and the world that Orwell created was something people did not have to worry about anymore. Many people have wondered what was happening in Orwell’s life and in his time that would inspire him to create this politically motivated book. A totalitarian world where one person rules and declares what is a crime and what is not, is something many people would have been scared of a lot. The totalitarianism in 1984 is very similar to the Nazism that was occurring in Germany with Hitler. This could have been the key thing that motivated
1984 and Brave New World, written by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, respectively, are both books that reflect the authors vision of how society would end up at the course it was going at the time of the writing of the book. Both books were written more than fifty years ago, but far enough apart that society was going in a totally different direction at the time. There are many ways to compare these two books and point out the similarities. On certain, deep levels they are very much the same, while at first glance, on the surface, they are very different. One point that in some parts is the same and some very different, is the governments in each of these books method’s of control.
Big Brother is the Tyrannical Leaders. Winston and Julia are the rebellious non-conformists. The number one themes in both is “Power Corrupts”. This theme is in Animal Farm, 1984 and in the real world too. Animal Farm: Pigs are equal-