George Orwell Essays (Examples)

OWELL
George Orwell 1984

Eerie parallels with today's online economy of words and knowledge

George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 functions as a satire of many of the excesses of 20th century communism, such as everyday citizens' communal, monotonous lives, its nonsensical wars to keep the people complacent, and the creation of 'Big Lies' that are accepted, simply because the government so totally dominates the media. A symptom of this totalitarian thinking is manifested in the way in which language is used throughout the novel, through the use of slogans like "war is peace," "freedom is slavery" and "ignorance is strength." Even the ministry which plans the war is known as the Ministry of Peace; the ministry which engineers the propaganda disseminated throughout the society is the Ministry of Truth. So long as you call something the 'right' name it doesn't matter what the ministry actually does.

Orwell suggests that by…

But that's where we are now. 'e have to look at this operation very carefully and maybe it shouldn't be allowed to go ahead at all'" (Nat Hentoff, p.A19).
Today we find our system of government to claim that they are the only people who know the difference between right and wrong and thus while the entire world should disarm themselves of nuclear warheads, we should keep them. Our government went into Iraq for war even when the United Nations was against it. This was because they claimed to know what was right and rejected the decision of the United Nations. These are very similar to what is described in 1984 and such factors makes one think about what the future will be like. hile it may seem that we are headed in the right direction, because people feel that they are given the freedom of speech and thought and…

George Orwell wrote "Homage to Catalonia" about his time spent as a soldier for POUM, the Worker's Party of Marxist Unity, during the Spanish Civil War. His vision of war was certainly different going in than it ended up being after he had spent several months on the front line. Perhaps the most disheartening aspect of the war (besides the cold) for him was the political conflicts that were undermining the overall efforts of those who were against Franco. Suppose Orwell wrote about his experiences without bringing in the very confusing different political agendas - would the message of "Homage to Catalonia" still be the same? Hardly - even Orwell himself said that it would "be impossible to write about the Spanish war from a purely military angle. It was above all things a political war." (46) Yet in spite of Orwell's disgust at the conflict among those who were…

George Orwell's last novel, 1984, was released in 1949. The world was still reeling from the effects of orld ar II and the Soviet Union was emerging as the next great threat to world security. That same year, the estern world watched as the Soviet Union exploded the first atomic bomb, sparking forty years of the Cold ar. Supporters of capitalism and democracy quickly hailed the book as a warning about the dangers of totalitarian and Communist regimes.
Orwell himself was born in India in 1903, the son of a British official. His real name was Eric Blair. At the age of 2, he returned to England with his mother and older sister. The Blair family then put together money to send Orwell to an expensive private school for his early education.

A bright student, Orwell gained scholarships to the exclusive ellington and Eton Colleges. Partly because of his middle-class…

In Animal Farm, Orwell more directly satirizes real world events, as the overthrow of a farmer by his animals and the progression of the new order established there to a totalitarian dictatorship closely mirrors that of Russia's sudden transition to Communism and Stalin's iron-fisted rule. hereas 1984 drops the reader immediately into the world of a government gone wrong, Animal Farm shows the emergence of such a government. Things begin happily once the farmer has been chased off, the animals all pitch in to accomplish the necessary work and "every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves" (Chapter III, par. 3). But eventually one of the pigs -- the species that had started the revolution -- wrests power from the other by having him driven off, and things on the farm enter a steady decline…

Orwell
Discussion on George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair, who is better remembered by his pen name, George Orwell, was one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century. He is one of the few modern day individuals who has fostered the creation of a new word -- "Orwellian." This word itself could be the subject of an entire book with many modern day examples. This has led many people to believe that much of Orwell's work was prophetic in nature; giving insights as to what individuals might expect in one possible future for humanity.

Just to illustrate the importance of the term Orwellian that has perpetrated the modern vernacular, a few examples will be provided. One example of a rather Orwellian term that actually predates Orwell himself is the concept of civil war. If the contradiction doesn't appear immediately, just reflect on any war that you were aware of…

In 1984, this idea is demonstrated with Thought Police. It is certainly bad enough to never feel alone in one's own community but it even worse to never feel alone in one's own head. This idea is maddening, as Orwell illustrates through inston. He says, "At home and in bed in the darkness you were safe from the telescreen so long as you kept silent" (96-7). Here we see that inston can only find time to think his own thoughts when the Party believes he is asleep. There is nothing more controlling than making people think they have no time to themselves and anything they think outside the permission of the Party is evil and wrong. This keeps people obeying the law because it is safe and comfortable there. If people do not make any trouble, they will not get any trouble. Malcolm Pittock agrees adding the Party does not…

Thomas Paine in his essay The ights of Man suggests that the morality of an issue is based on the equality of an issue. For the existence of all men should be seen as equal. The Monarchy and imperial ways detracts from the equality of mankind and creates a suggestive loophole which gives the rights of man to a select few and thus creates an imbalance. The imbalance can be religious, legal, racial or social. Paine believed that only with equality would there be any sort of justice and morality for in every other case there would be a perception of morals but in fact it would be simple injustice. His view of Monarchy can be read through the words, "What is called monarchy always appears to me a silly contemptible thing. I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle…

In other words, Orwell's fictional government wanted the citizens to know what the government felt would be good for them to know, not what people really truly needed to know (i.e., the truth).
As to the Bush Administration's censoring science to spare the public from hearing the real facts, the Christian Science Monitor reported that the hite House "has broadly attempted to control which climate scientists could speak with reporters, as well as editing scientists' congressional testimony on climate change..." (Clayton, 2007). The Bush Administration was "particularly active in stifling [scientists'] discussion of the link between increased hurricane intensity and global warming," the article reports.

In the novel, the Ministry of Truth tweaked photographs in order to present a false image to the public. And inston at one point invented a person named Comrade Ogilvy who displayed great heroism and gave his life for his country. That was a lie…

Orwell's government had as its primary goal the control of the people in order to gain more power. This, rather than good rulership for the happiness of the people, was their ultimate goal. In the same way, ideologies such as Nazism and Communism became extreme to the point where they defeated their purpose of an ideal society. Those who suffered under these totalitarian regimes did not consider themselves to live in an ideal society. Winston Smith was also disillusioned with the type of ideology offered by the Brotherhood and the Party.

One of the prominent elements in totalitarian societies is the resistance. This emerges from those who will not be repressed, even by the extreme tactics of the government. In the novel, this sector is referred to as "the Brotherhood." Winston longs to join them in their effort to overthrow the government. The problem is however that their secrecy extends…

ORELL
George Orwell

Orwell's Idealism

In my interpretation of George Orwell's writings the overall ideology that informs his work emphasizes the power of language. In his time there was a lot of political upheaval and he was very concerned with writers and their abuse of the power their language contained and how that power affected readers. Though he doesn't express this concern outright its evident in his criticism's of the perversions of language that writers in the fields of politics, sociology and mass media were guilty of. In "Politics and the English Language" for example, Orwell writes that, "The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not," as if conscientious and deliberate use of language would somehow correct the political corruption of his time (p. 2). He clearly accuses…

The Party preferred that people use the services of the prostitutes rather than have a satisfying sexual life with a partner. Procreation was the only purpose for sex.
inston thinks that the proles alone have the ability to change life. They make up such a great deal of the population of Oceania and have been able to hold on to their emotions and some semblance of life without Big Brother watching every moment. He is discouraged about the chances of that happening as he writes of the proles, "until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious" (Orwell, 74). Although they have the strength in numbers and have the options of loving each other, having children and not being watched every single moment, they have not attempted to stage an uprising against the party. The few at the top control all…

George Orwell book Nineteen Eighty-Four by pointing out salient themes in the book and using updated political examples to show that Orwell was not necessarily writing science fiction but in fact he was commenting on contemporary times in his life. Orwell was reacting in part to the fascism / fanaticism of Nazi Germany, the repressive policies of the Soviet Union, and the loss of privacy and freedom due to the repression he saw and despised. This book, while seemingly extreme in its depiction of a fascist state, is chilling in its detail and not that far from reality when totalitarian states are taken into consideration. This is brilliant fiction that is based on factual events in the author's life. Many of the scenes, while blatantly anti-democratic, are not that far from the loss of privacy and the censorship that exist in America and elsewhere in recent times.
ONE: 2 central…

So, the reader of this essay was set up by Orwell perfectly: blast away at the stinking rotting, drunken social scene in Paris, frequented in large part by Americans pretending to have talent, and mention that Miller thought this was cool to write about. Then bring in the terrible, frightening and bloody realities happening elsewhere in Europe, and you have shown what a rascal Miller was.
But wait, Orwell admits that novelists don't always have to write about "contemporary history" and yet he adds, and this is classic Orwell in his political suit of clothes, that a novelist that "simply disregards the major public events of the moment is generally either a footler or a plain idiot." ow! Miller is a plain idiot for writing that trashy novel that was a best seller? You have to love Orwell's candor and plainspoken narrative. There can be no doubt where he stands.…

Accuracy of George Orwell's Predictions
George Orwell chose a specific date, 1984, for the title of his novel predicting the evolution of society by that date. However we are now 18 years past that date and his predictions have not come true. How could Orwell have been so wrong? Or was he only wrong about the exact timing and still correct about his general predictions? To understand Orwell's view of the future, it is necessary to put Orwell's work in the context of contemporary events just after the conclusion of World War II. His lifetime only spanned the first half of the twentieth century, a period of tremendous conflict, particularly in the "civilized world" of Orwell's experience. Much of the conflict occurred in Europe and impacted the United Kingdom dramatically. The power vacuum resulting at the end of World War II allowed the growth of totalitarian regimes in the oviet…

George Orwell's most powerful and important works were Animal Farm and 1984, which described the corruption of the socialist ideal in the 20th Century at the hands of Lenin and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. Instead of liberating the masses from the oppression of capitalism, they created a new kind of totalitarian tyranny that was more brutal than the old order it replaced, one that enslaved the common people to a new set of masters. Orwell had witnessed this firsthand during the Spanish Civil ar, when he fought on the Republican side against Francisco Franco and the Nationalists. Barcelona in 1936 was the "first time I had ever seen the working class in the saddle," and he approved of it (Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, 4). He regarded this "immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for," and the war as part of a common struggle against fascism by…

Clergyman's Daughter
George Orwell wrote much of his work with the ills of society in mind. Among these is his disdain for the general bourgeois mentality that he observed in the England of his time. Thus two major issues that he addresses in A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) are religious hypocrisy and the education system. Both of these result in society churning out more of the bourgeois, dull and prejudiced people that they themselves have become.

Religious Hypocrisy

Dorothy is the main character of the novel by Orwell. When the novel begins, she is completely sincere in her piety. She honestly tries to be as good a Christian as she can be and chides herself constantly for "sins" that she feels are not becoming of a clergyman's daughter or indeed of a Christian. She also attempts to eradicate her father's hypocrisy in failing to pay his bills to the tradesmen in…

The scene of the elephant collapsing after being shot is so poignant it can move any reader to tears. The look of extreme shock and betrayal on the face of the animal expressed through his dying body caused intense anguish to the narrator as he decided to leave without finishing his job completely. "I felt that I had got to put an end to that dreadful noise. It seemed dreadful to see the great beast Lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, and not even to be able to finish him...In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away." (506)
In this scene we are reminded of the man who is about to be executed and calls on God in desperation to save him from his killers. The elephant took some time to die as if he was trying to defeat the forces…

Orwellian orld
The Accuracy of George Orwell's Predictions and hat They Hold for Our Future

hen, in 1949, George Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four, the world had just witnessed one of the most trying and tumultuous periods in all of human history. In the space of only thirty-five years, there had been two world wars, a communist revolution, a host of fascist dictators, and a frenzy of slaughter such as had never been seen before in all the bloodstained annals of mankind. The old order was dead - the changes irrevocable.

Gone was the world empire into a corner of which George Orwell had been born. Gone were all the old empires, and all the ancient dynasties, and with them the social patterns and accretions of centuries. Contending philosophies replaced the sure doctrines of former days, strange new technologies transformed the physical patterns of human existence, and the entire globe was…

It is a work that seems to be eerily familiar to what is happening in many areas of society today, and that is one aspect of the novel that makes it exceedingly frightening to read.
eferences

Abdolian, Lisa Finnegan, and Harold Takooshian. "The U.S.A. PATIOT Act: Civil Liberties, the Media, and Public Opinion." Fordham Urban Law Journal 30.4 (2003): 1429+.

A secondary source that gives useful information on the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Includes commentary on the pros and cons of the act, and how the media portrayed it. Also includes opponents to the act, and some of the most controversial policies included in the act.

Deery, June. "George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four." Utopian Studies 16.1 (2005): 122+.

A secondary source that talks about Orwell's novel, why he wrote it, and when it was reissued in 2003. Also discusses Orwell's motives for writing the novel, and what influenced him. It is a…

"
Orwell presents a rather romantic picture of the life of a writer. A writer is someone who is driven internally, psychically, spiritually. The desire to write might initially be due to an admiration of a famous author, or a personal affection for the Harry Potter books. Or, the desire to write might be due to a want of recognition, fame, or even fortune. Writing can be used as a weapon as with bitter letters to politicians or ex-girlfriends.

Some writing is purely journalistic in tone, whereas other writing is all fluff. With his characteristic humor, Orwell takes a dig at journalists when he states, "Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money." The essay "Why I Write" is an effective piece of prose because the author is credible, and bolsters his argument with humility as well as…

The book even goes beyond this assertion because in Oceania Big Brother even controlled the thoughts of the people. This made it impossible for people to rebel because rebellion cannot be carried out without ideas and the cooperation of many people.
The novel also focuses the reader to consider the power of their thoughts. In the book a government believed that though was so powerful that it created a system in which free though was discourages and even punishable unto death. Big Brother understands that thoughts lead to action and rebellious actions could threaten the authority of the government. In addition, punishing people for thinking the wrong way was designed to deter others from having thoughts that were not sanctioned by the government. This was a fear tactic used to maintain control.

Interestingly enough Orwell had great difficulty publishing many of his novels because of the thoughts that he expresses.…

Hughes and Orwell
hen looking for similarities between authors, it is not immediately brought to mind to look at Langston Hughes and George Orwell. The former was a major writer during the Harlem Renaissance. Most of his work focused on explorations of the black experience in the United States and how African-Americans were mistreated by the white majority. Orwell was an English writer and most of his writing dealt with social commentary on the dangers of fascism and totalitarian governments. However, in two works by these very different men, a parallel can be viewed. Langston Hughes' "Salvation" and George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" both deal with a first-person narrator who is forced by those around him into becoming an outsider, someone outside of the group opinion, and is forced to lie about his true self and his own beliefs in order to fulfill the desires of those who surround him.…

However, when his assistance is needed by the townspeople, the two very different populations show similar responses to the bloody scene of shooting an elephant, "It was a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd; besides they wanted the meat," (Orwell, 649).
Orwell furthers this blend of modern and primitive as seen through the use of his language. The narrator describes the scene of the village as using the native terms, yet juxtaposes this with eloquent English adjectives, "It was a very poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palmleaf, winding all over a steep hillside," (Orwell, 650). It is the description of a scene as witness from an outsider, (Rodden, 390). The narrator's response to the eastern village is combined with his own distain based on being familiar with more "civilized" representations of society. This is also apparent through the…

"The rumor claiming that the commercial almost never aired is true," said Clow (www.ciadvertising.com).The Apple board "demanded that it not be aired," Clow goes on, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs insisted that it be played, and so it was. Clow says that this commercial wasn't just a parody of Nineteen Eighty-Four; "one could almost interpret this commercial as a bleak commentary on society," he writes. It shocked the "PC world into paying a little more attention to their competitors in their field," Clow asserts.
In conclusion, TV Guide called the Apple commercial "the greatest commercial of all time," according to CNN. And while Orwell's book isn't the greatest by any means, it has created an endless number of allusions and references, including the phrase "Big Brother," who, unfortunately, is with us today far more than most of us probably realize.

orks Cited

Clow, Lee. "Lee Clow: His Masterpiece." Chiat/Day Advertising.…

George Orwell. Reflections on Gandhi and Freedman Speech are taken through a point-by-point comparison and the author gives the reader a chance to see likenesses and similarities in both ideas and writing styles. There were two sources used to complete this paper.
DIFFERENT MESSAGES YET THE SAME

Throughout the years, historians and authors alike have used their skills to persuade the audience of certain truths as they see them. If we look back in history, we will find that different people often produced similar schools of thought at different times for different reasons. One of the most classic examples of this occurrence would be the Freedman Speech, by Frederick Douglass and the Reflections on Gandhi, by George Orwell. Each of these works reflect similar styles of writing, as well as similar points of admiration as well as critical thought toward the hero in question. hile Douglass and Orwell discuss heroes…

Everyone is under suspicion, according to the eye of the camera. Everyone is treated as if they are a likely criminal. This has a negative psychological affect on the general population who are not criminals.
For those who are not criminals, they feel as if their privacy is being invaded for no reason. They are reduced to being under suspicion and scrutinized even though they are upstanding citizens. They feel as if they are being treated as a criminal and that their freedoms are being slowly eaten away one by one. More and more the general population expresses concerns about the trend toward and Orwellian world. The telescreens in Orwell's world broadcast propaganda and continually exaggerated positive production numbers and lied about the failing state of the economy. The telescreens made the economy sound like a growth economy, when it was slowly slipping away, sound familiar?

In Orwell's novel, inston…

He still has his pride, even if his pride does not trickle down to his work. He is anything but ambivalent about the reaction he will get from the people, and so, he must shoot the elephant to save face, rather than to "serve and protect." This illustrates his ambivalence to everything but his own reputation in front of the people. However, he discovers he has lost more than just is reputation.
Finally, the narrator comes to understand that he has essentially given up his freedom in his support of the tyrannical British government. Orwell states, "I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys" (Orwell). Thus, the narrator becomes even more ambivalent about his duties because he realizes just what he has lost in protecting his reputation, supporting the empire (at least in front of the people), and…

Whatever happened you vanished, and neither you nor your actions were ever heard of again" (Orwell, 1949, p.168).
Capitalism

Principles of mass production are very clear in the novels. Huxley for instance, applied the idea of mass production in human reproduction, since the people has abandoned the natural method of reproduction. Mass production as the conventional feature of capitalism and Huxley's novel reinforces such. He talked about the requirement of the World State about constant consumption, which is considered as foundation of its stability. Huxley apparently criticizes the commercial dependence of the world towards goods. Conditioning centers teaches people to consume. Orwell similarly provides criticism to capitalism as well: "The centuries of capitalism were held to have produced nothing of any value." The Proles are the symbols of the capitalist system as they constitute the working class who work in assembly lines.

Destruction of the concept of family

oth novels…

Power and the Use of Language, Orwell's 1984 And Beyond
George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel 1984 has become almost iconoclastic in its meaning for contemporary society. Almost like the term Machiavellianism, 1984 evokes images in popular culture, along with the author's name as an adjective, and phrases that were used in the book. Even the term "Orwellian" denotes a certain type of society; phrases like "Big Brother," "Newspeak," "Thought-Police," etc. are now part of the vocabulary when describing totalitarian regimes. The novel's premise has become part of a modern archetype, imitated on television, popular music, movies, and even one of the most popular advertisements ever made, the 1984 launch of Apple's Macintosh.

Nineteen Eighty-Four focuses on a new type of society -- repressive, totalitarian, staunch, all-powerful, all knowing, oligarchical, and pervasive. The novel's main character, Winston Smith, is a simple civil servant assigned to the daily task of perpetuating the…

In this case, the language, perpetrated by a few, is becoming pervasive in society, and so, it is taking over many aspects of society. However, for the most part, society seems to be resisting much of this doublespeak type of language. It is not prominent in the media, (perhaps in the government), and is seems that language, in general, is about the same as it always has been, full of slang and "fad" words, but in everyday use, doublespeak is not as common as some might thought it might be. This might make society stronger than a prevailing use of the language, but it may also mean that people like Lutz, in their zeal to remove doublespeak from the language, have actually made a difference and created more public awareness about something that needs to be changed. In this case, perhaps one person is not able to stand up against…

Brave New orld
The two books 1984 and Brave New orld reflect futuristic views that are quite different and dichotomous. Indeed, 1984 reflects a world of dystopia and punitive government while the work Brave New orld reflects one of more utopian conditions but is no less controlled and crafted by a master plan. The noted social critic Neil Postman postulates that Huxley's version of the world in Brave New orld more closely matches that of our current actual world. However, while there is some grain of truth to that, there are some facets of Brave New orld that are not in place now and the chances of that changing in the foreseeable future is practically nil in the view of the author of this report.

Analysis

First up on this report will be a compare and contrast of the two works in general terms. First off, an obvious difference between…

Big Brother
Combat. A French Resistance Newspaper from 1944

COMBAT: THE RESISTANCE NESPAPER

Big Brother: The Physical Embodiment and Symbol of the Party in Oceania

Big Brother's Predecessors: Hitler, Stalin and an Old British Recruiting Poster Featuring Lord Kitchener

BIG BROTHER IS HITLER AND STALIN, INCLUDING THE MOUSTACHE

By O'Brien X

Unlike the real dictators Hitler and Stalin, Big Brother does not really exist and has never existed, except as the symbol of English Socialism (Ingsoc) and the Party that controls all aspects of life in Oceania through totalitarian, police state methods. After all, a dictator with a physical body will eventually become ill, decline with age and die, Big Brother will live forever as the image of a Party that intends to remain in power forever. Its members will die off, even at the privileged Inner Party levels, but that matters no more than cutting off dead fingernails. As…

Note that inflated English has been more characteristic of the centuries preceding Orwell and of Orwell's own time than on the latter part of the 20th century. There has been a shift in linguistics. As linguists and historians of language have noted, the Western model of language follows the monological approach. The monological approach has roots reaching back to Aristotle who saw communication as one of rhetoric, namely persuasion, where communication was a strategy for influencing people and helping them see reason, or the truth. In this way, the 'other' became viewed as object, communication was one way (monological) and the objective was how to best seduce the other to one's way of thinking. According to some linguists, such as Alfred Taylor, this reduction culminated in reducing conversation, depersonalizing words, and converting them into ideas rather than seeing the complexity of the speaker behind the words. It also led to…

Kyin is aware of the boundaries that exist but he is determined to overcome them. His ambition to become a member of the European Club corrupts him. His immediate boundary is Flory's friendship with Dr. Veraswami. Veraswami comes across as one of the decent people in the novel in that he does not allow himself to become involved with the depravity that Kyin does. Veraswami expresses a selflessness in that he allows Flory to confide in him but in this act, he is crossing a boundary because he is peeking at a side of the European life he would have never known otherwise. He delights in the Europeans loyalty to one another but he is also able to see the best and worst of this culture. It is also worth noting that while he is surrounded by these boundaries, he never loses sight of his own identity.
Boundaries are flexible…

The elephant's death is also a symbol for the slow death of Burma. Before the arrival of the empire, Burma was free but now it struggles for its last dying breaths under British rule. The meaning of this is clear because the narrator doesn't even try to hide his feelings about the monarchy at all. The British crown is abusing and killing everyone it oppresses and it wounds their officers by making them take part in activities that make all of them go totally against their inner will.
The elephant is the most powerful symbol of all and he finally dies but with alot of agony nor is it guilty of anything but being what it is. Those under British rule are also behaving like they really are and being what they were born to be but the power of the empire is forcing them to bend and behave in…

Martin Luther King & George Orwell
Martin Luther King and George Orwell's representations of an ethical society

Civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King and novelist George Orwell had been known for their political discourses regarding the extent of the government's responsibility to civil society. In the essay "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence" by King and "Shooting an Elephant" by Orwell, each author's discourse contemplated the kind of ethical society that humanity should have. Their discussion centered on their experiences as members of a society where civil strife and inequality were the norm, devoid of each author's standards in an ethical (i.e., 'ideal') society. In King's "My Pilgrimage," he shared with readers the path he took and underwent in order to achieve his "intellectual odyssey to nonviolence." Citing famous works on the Enlightenment and Capitalism, such as Bentham, Mill, Rousseau, Marx, and Nietzsche, he realized that for him, an ethical society…

orolenko tells his tale of a mob massacre of Jews in 1903 with a view of relaying the horror and injustice of the events in question. He writes from the perspective of a journalist recounting the events after having arrived in town some two months following the massacre. However, he relays the events as they occurred in a first-hand manner, telling the details as though he had been there amongst the crowd. He had gathered his information from interviews with survivors conducted soon after the events and this first-hand approach feels real and credible. He gives a convincing portrait of the madness of crowds and the bloodlust of anti-Semitism. His overarching purpose is to convince the reader of the injustice of the events, and he gathers credibility for his story by telling the story of a man who led the riots, only to repent later and commit suicide. In doing…

Spanish Civil War
The famous Spanish Civil War fought from the year 1936 to 1939. This war was fought between two groups; the Republicans and the Nationalists. The Republicans were the supporters of the established Spanish republic; meanwhile the latter were a group of rebels who were led by General Francisco Franco. Franco emerged victorious in this war and ruled Spain for the next 36 years as a dictator.

After a group of generals (led by Jose Sanjurjo) of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces declared opposition against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, the war ensued. At that time the President of Spain was Manuel Azana. This group of rebels had gained support from a couple of conservative groups that included the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right, Fascist Falange and Carlists (Payne, 1973).

Military units formed in urgos, Pamplona, Corodova, Morocco, Cadiz and Seville supported this group of…

inston is impressed by a man named O'Brien who is supposed to be very powerful member of the party, but he believes in his heart that O'Brien is actually a member of the Brotherhood which is a group dedicated to overthrowing the Party (Orwell, 1977).

inston looks to O'Brien in the same way that Bromend looks to McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. O'Brien is someone that inston comes to admire and follow.

He is still afraid to rebel himself at first. He has thought crimes about the way he is paid to change the history books so they will fit the Party's version of history but he is afraid to speak up about his own memories which tell a completely different story.

inston uses every evening to walk through the poor neighborhoods where the lowest members of society live. They live extremely poverty stricken lives but because…

Each had distinct characteristics that made them endearing to the animal members in the farm. In this social order, animal farm members became idealistic and hopeful, adopting the political slogan, "Four legs good, two legs bad." However, this social order was also considered as a transitory phase in the shift of animal farm from being capitalist to totalitarian, because at this stage, Napoleon and Snowball were shown to subsist to different ideals. While Napoleon believed that a strong, peaceful, and stable animal farm was based on a strong military and massive political propaganda, Snowball believed in the provision of education and basic social services for the animals: "Until now the animals had been about equally divided in their sympathies, but in a moment Snowball's eloquence had carried them away..." This event led to the full transition of animal farm into a new social order, that of totalitarianism. In effect, Major's…

Treatment of Democratic Principles and Individual Action
George Orwell's legacy in literature can be reflected in his great novels Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, two political satire novels that criticized the basic foundations of political systems prevalent during his time (mid-20th century), specifically, Stalinism/socialist-communist leadership that 'governed' the Soviet Union during this period of modernization. While he was known for the political nature of his novels, he has also written essay that provoked analytical thought through his deconstructive narrative of topics that seemed to be non-political. In these essays, Orwell was able to "politicize" these topics, critically exploring their nature and dynamics and contextualize his analysis in the overall political environment from which these topics emerged and prevailed. Examples of these seemingly 'apolitical' topics are sports and "good bad books," and insightfully, writing. For the discussion that follows, each topics that were given analytical treatment are represented through the following…

He hates what he has become and what he does. He confesses that he secretly roots for the Burmese and roots against "their oppressors (335). He admits he is "stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible" (335). He is like those in oppression in that he is not free to do what he actually wants to do. His reputation is on the line and he acts to defend it. A man in his position "mustn't be frightened in front of 'natives'" (339), he writes even though he knows that in order to impress those natives, he must act of line with his conscious. He does the "right thing" (340) according to the law he did also killed the elephant "solely to avoid looking like a fool" (340). Asker asserts that wrapped within the…

He is unaware that it is his free will that is longing to escape. hile he is wise not to ignore his inner yearnings, he is oblivious on how to obtain his freedom. All he knows is that he is lost and he must find a way to himself. This is a personality trait that every human being is born with and when it becomes endangered the human instinct is to resist.
Resistance is not always easy as Orwell demonstrates in his novel. inston and others in the novel are met at all sides to conform but it is not so easy, as inston illustrates. The yearning of human nature is compounded with images of Thought Police, another intrusive presence that makes life unbearable. inston tells us, "At home and in bed in the darkness you were safe from the telescreen so long as you kept silent" (96-7). Again, we…

Humanities are Important:
An analysis of the Da Vinci Code, Beethoven's 9th, and 1984.

A novel by George Orwell (pseudonym), real name Eric Blair

Published in 1949

A reaction to the totalitarian state engulfing the global community

The Da Vinci Code

A (2006) film by on Howard

Based on the novel by Dan Brown

obert Langdon follows a series of clues that link Leonardo's masterpieces, the mystery of Jesus Christ, and a totalitarian regime in the guise of the Catholic Church

Beethoven's 9th Symphony

Completed in 1824 after the composer (Ludwig van Beethoven) had gone completely deaf, this -- his final symphony -- is often considered to be one of the greatest musical masterpieces of all time. The fourth movement is based on Schiller's "Ode to Joy" and invokes a chorus of universal brotherhood. If you listen long enough, you will hear the music swell into a magnificent burst of…

Fear of the Return of Totalitarian Architecture Due to Technological Advancements
This paper examines some of the different aspects of the coming worldwide technological totalitarianism and the expanding of it influence. The argument that this is both a conscious and accidental program of influential individuals and organizations carried out through the procedure of reification of philosophical beliefs which are misshapen into institutions, services, technologies policies and in the end, culture. Some experts that have explored this topic believe that by pay no attention to the costs of new technologies, what there may be some kind of loss in the bargain and that it can lean so something that is immeasurable and potentially disastrous. It is obvious that history was not or is not all the way inevitable, however, it is likewise a question of human values in connection to changes that are looked at as being natural. Although there have…

Allen is saying that all of the wonders of technology can never replace tow people connecting and trusting each other. I completely agree with these concepts and given Mr. Allen's wit and comedic sense, am thankful it was made. Finally any film made during a specific period of time can't help but reflect the values of society at the time. The open discussions about sexuality and sex make light of society's open and free attitudes about these areas of the human experience in 1973.
Why Sleeper is a Classic

Sleeper will always be a classic because it combines Mr. Allen's slapstick and vaudevillian comedic approaches while integrating his favorite music, which is jazz and ragtime. In addition the triumph of the human spirit and human emotions, as chaotic and mercurial as they can be, will always be superior to technology. The use of technology as a means to coerce and…

Why did the airing of HG Well's novel "War of the Worlds" on the radio cause so much panic? What would it take to cause that type of panic from a Hoax like "War of the Worlds" in this day and age? First and foremost, the 1.2 million U.S. radio listeners who panicked on Halloween night, 1938, were part of a new technology that had not yet developed to the point in which the majority could critically analyze what came over the airwaves. To those early listeners, espcecially those who tuned in after the caveat about entertainment, the realism and stage-play of Orson Welles' broadcast sounded so real, and so plausible, that they could not help but believe it -- after all, it sounded like a news broadcast (Radio: Anatomy of a Panic, 1940). People have become far more cynical, and with the advent of the fantastic special effects that…

Marketing Will Affect Someone's Life in the Future
How Marketing Will Affect a Person's Life in the Future

The growing reliance on social media as a means to communicate has created a new level of collaboration between customers and the brands they trust. This, along with several of the trends identified and analyzed in this paper, are accelerating in their impact on people globally. Over the next decades and generation, these changes will also serve to redefine the relationships between customers and brands they choose to trust. One of the most significant of all factors that is emerging today and will continue to accelerate is the critical nature of trust. This is a galvanizing thread that runs through all of the trends and observations mentioned throughout this analysis. The net or aggregate effect of all of these factors and trends will be a truer, more accurate and purified form of…

Justice or Equality
For years now, we have been taught to fight for equality: equality this and equality that. One of the major things we have been taught about equality is that women are equivalent to men and should be treated the same. This is based on the argument that equality involves treating every individual the same regardless of whether he/she is male or female. However, that is not the case. Women are not created equally to men, nor are we the same, but rather similar to each other. Women are set out to be different from men, and men are set up to be different from women. For instance, men think about things differently from the way women do, which demonstrates that men and women are not the same. Why is it that we ask for such a burden, when we can ask for fairness and just actions instead?…

In this regard, Meyers concludes that, "As for Flory, environment has been too much for him, for he is not really alcoholic or crapulous by nature, and he regrets it when a girl from England arrives to stay at Kyauktada; she is a poverty-stricken little snob on the look-out for a husband, but he has not seen a spinster for a decade, and he succumbs on the spot whereupon his discarded Burmese mistress makes a scene in front of her and every one else, and he ends by committing suicide" (Meyers 52). hile it may seem that Flory simply got what he deserved given his wishy-washy nature and lack of fortitude when it came to standing up for his friend, Dr. Veraswami when put to the test, but the suicide of the protagonist provides a useful literary vehicle whereby Orwell advances the plot and highlights just how shallow the friendship…

Northrop Frye recognized this fact but believed that the satire missed its mark:
It completely misses the point as satire on the ussian development of Marxism, and as expressing the disillusionment which many men of good-will feel about ussia. The reason for that disillusionment would be much better expressed as the corruption of expediency by principle (Frye 1987, p. 10).

What links 1984 and Animal Farm most directly is that both are anti-utopian in nature, for Orwell had developed a certainty that government in a utopian society would always be corrupted and would lose sight of its principles because of expediency.

Animal Farm was written during World War II. There is evidence that he was planning a novel that would become 1984 even before he wrote Animal Farm, and there is a relationship between the two books that is not often noted:

The form each book took was very different,…

Western Civ
The question of leadership and government has always been a subject that concerned political theorists. ne of the first political theorists to brake up with the Medieval tradition regarding rulers and the ethics of government, Niccolo Machiavelli, presented his theories related to the rules a prince should follow in order to be able to govern a state and stay in power as long as possible. Machiavelli left the question of ethics completely for religious subjects and treated his topic form a rationale point-of-view destined to prescribe the best recipe for a political ruler to follow in order to succeed. Shakespeare's Richard III and George rwell's The Animal Farm present two different political regimes, the former focusing on dynastic battles in England in the fifteenth century and the latter on fictional animal characters that resemble real life characters form the early twentieth century revolutionary Russia. Despite the fact that…

This will lead automatically and inevitably to the near-worship of certain personalities and entities in the civic realm.
Glenn Beck is not actually an office holder, nor is he truly likely to become one (at least on a national level), and he also includes religious (specifically Christian, and even more specifically a brand of evangelical Christian) thought in many of his messages. Yet his following is also evidence of the Orwellian replacement of religious figures with civic figures, and the manner in which the state itself is becoming the focus of worship. Beck and others like him -- on both sides of the political spectrum -- attempt to make the government a matter of morality and directly codified values rather than a matter of ethicality and democratic equality. That is, these personalities insist that there are clear "rights" and "wrongs" in matters of policy that are part of moral absolutes,…

Live
I live in a world where every day the headlines are filled with doom and gloom. In my world, a government doesn't blink at the idea of lying the country into war. And in my world there are politicians who take rewriting history to the level of art; the Ministry of Truth only wished they could be as good at political cover-ups, sanitizing and spinning the truth. When I'm channel-surfing, I see the same news story covered as exactly opposite reports. Now common sense would tell you they can't both be right; so does it come down to who spent the most money to tell their version of the truth?

And since when is it okay that our government is for sale?

We have technology whose only purpose is to kill more people more efficiently. From drones that safely kill enemies at a distance, to nuclear warheads that can't…

E.M. Forster's the Life to Come, on the other hand, is a tale divided into four parts: Night, Evening, Day and Morning. Its main character is a young missionary by the name of Paul Pinmay who is sent to spread the word of Christ to the native people. All prior attempts to proselytise these people have failed. During his attempt he meets with the tribal chief, who approaches him to learn more about "this god whose name is Love." The two then sleep together and the tribe becomes Christian.

This leads to Pinmay being appointed by the Bishop to become the minister of the new district. The chief again asks Pinmay to sleep with him, and Pinmay orders the chief not to mention the night ever again. This causes the chief to question the new religion. Eventually this relationship dissolves and the story ends with the chief killing Pinmay.

Clearly,…

Some governments are terrified of their people: The military government that is running Burma (the junta calls the country Myanmar: Many of those who oppose the brutality of the regime refer to the nation by its former name of Burma) murders Buddhist monks who protest its policies.
The longer one thinks about this fact, the more clearly one summons up the image of the slaughter of young holy men, the clearer it will be that this is a government that will do anything that will increase its power, its control over the population, and the longevity of their regime. When one reads Orwell and thinks about Burma, one thinks that Orwell was a jolly optimist about human nature and the role of government.

And Orwell's vision of government is indeed grim one, and it gets grimmer over the course of the novel as Winston -- the protagonist who is nothing…

Winston Smith is the hero of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Winston's ultimate failing is not the failing of a human being, instead it is a symbol of the ultimate power of the society.
Persuasive technique - definition, personal observation)

In literary terms a hero can be vaguely defined as the main character. However, further to this the character needs to be superior, of good character or extraordinary in some way (aldick 98). Winston Smith is the main character in 1984 and he is extraordinary. What is most important in understanding this is realizing that we must not compare Winston with modern man in this society, but with modern man in the society of 1984. This is one of the key aspects to understanding, to first understand the society he is existing in. This society is one where the people are completely controlled, with the people having…

Free and Forced Actions Analyzing an Argument
In the article, Is Determinism inconsistent with free will? Walter Stace argues that every action or event is caused; however, whereas free actions are caused by the doer's internal psychological state, forced ones are caused by forces external to the user. This text evaluates the validity of the author's argument in the short story, 'Shooting an Elephant' based on Stace's definition of free and forced actions.

Free and Forced Actions

Stace's Definition of Free and Forced Actions

In the article, Is Determinism inconsistent with free will?', Walter Terrence Stace puts forth an argument for determinism, arguing that it is consistent/compatible with free will. He is of the view that free will exists and every event in the world is caused (Colorado University, n.d.). He illustrates the compatibility of these two views by giving his own definition of what exactly constitutes free will. Stace…

1984" is a caution that was given to humankind. It is a political oriented statement with no farsighted declaration. 35 years after his book was published; Orwell could not believe that Big Brother would rule the world. He, however, frequently warned of 1984 unless people acknowledged that their personal rights had been violated and defended them, especially their freedom of opinion (BOSSCHE, 1984).
Surveillance with Technology

Are we back to "Nineteen Eighty-Four"? The technological advancements of data collection, surveillance and storage certainly are beyond what Orwell had in mind. Due to the elimination of deceit, Oceania's observation state has to operate openly. The narrator says that use of mails to communicate was prohibited. All letters were openly read while they were being transported. It looks like an analogue type of Snowden's description: The N.S.A., particularly, has its eye on all communications and definitely embraces them. The use of phone calls,…