Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A little history...


George Orwell was born in India on the 25th of June, 1903, as the son of english parents Richard Walmesley Blair and Ida Mabel Lemozin. With the age of one his mother took him and his sister Marjorie with her to Oxfordshire in England. After an exemplary school carrer, in 1921 he joined the Indian Imperial Police and was hence sent to Burma. Out of protest against the approaches used by British colonial power, of which he was a part, he however quit his services after 6 years. With the intention to become an author he returned back to England in 1927, but already a year later moved to Paris where he first worked as an English teacher and then as a peon, doing everyday, low payed jobs. Sick and devastated he moved back to England in 1929 where he kept his head above water with small articles and literal tasks. In 1937 on the side of the "Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista" (the "Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), a communist party in Spain, he took part in the Spanish Civil war. After 1939 Orwell worked increasingly as a critic and later produced war propaganda for WWII.
For another 2 years he then worked in the Indian Section of the BBC, in which he became very experienced with British, German and Soviet propaganda.

Judging from what you have read so far, what parallels can you draw between George Orwell's life and the novel? What message might he be trying to convey through the book?

10 comments:

  1. Judging by what we now know about George Orwell's life, we can make the assumption that the main character, Winston, could be loosely based upon Orwell himself. We recently learned that, in real life, he joined the Imperial Police, serving at Katha and Moulmein. This life led him to a hatred towards imperialism, therefore causing him to leave his career. He then became a writer, using his writing as a form of catharsis to express his opinions. This serves as a parallel in relation to Winston's career. Serving the government, he clearly does not always agree on the statements and actions that he stands for. In his diary, Winston writes, "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" (20). He writes in an honest, clear way, that reflects how he really feels about the figure-head that he is supposed to be looking up to. While what seems like the two are similar in personality, they are also similar when it comes to political and career choices/views.


    Although I have only read a little bit of the book, I think that George Orwell might be trying to convey a strong message to everyone to be aware of their governmental use of authority, a sort of political advice. He writes about a dystopian world where secrecy in authority is the norm, and questioning leads to death. Does he think that leaders with absolute control become to corrupt to lead? Does he think that following a greater idea that causes you sacrifice your own opinions only ends up in self-pity? I think so. Winston does everything that the government tells him to do, submitting to it even though his feelings towards totalitarianism say otherwise. Orwell demonstrates the weakness that can be brought out in society, and wants to address it head on.

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    1. Reading the first four chapters of the book, it immediately triggered to me that George Orwell had a certain hatred towards imperialism. The first question that popped in my head was: "why have one character, who lives in a constantly suppressed society, who thinks differently from all other characters found in the book so far?". I think George Orwell is trying to convey his message through Winston. As sandy quoted above "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER"(20) we clearly see a sort o anti-imperialist regime or almost a revolutionary spirit.

      After reading your post "A little History", I made a connection between his experience in German, soviet, and British propaganda, and the propaganda found in the book. I think that his manipulation of words in slogans such as "WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"(29), we realize that great thought is behind it because this slogan means more than two words opposing themselves. In this slogan complex issues such as: suppression of government, unfairness of society, human exploitation (which George Orwell disliked in his life), who enhances even more the readers ideology of the book. George Orwell directs reveals his disgust regarding imperialism in the incipit of the book.

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  3. As Sandy stated, we can notice a great connection between George Orwell’s biography, as well as the themes and events of his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
    In real life, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police, while Winston works for the Ministry of Truth, both of which are connected to political and government affairs in their own societies. Orwell “quit his services after 6 years,” and Winston clearly states his opposition to the Party, but fears what might happen if the “Spies” or “Thought Police” discovers it. They therefore both have a “hatred”/opposition to imperialism. The biography states that Orwell became very experienced with several languages and concepts, including the Soviet propaganda, which we see he incorporated in his novel. The propaganda is seen through the Party and their control over the society.
    I don’t know if we could use the events that happened to Orwell to foreshadow what might happen to Winston, but it is true there are some similarities between the author and the protagonist.

    We cannot be certain of the accurate and precise message Orwell is trying to convey through the book because we have just read the first five chapters. However so far we might infer it or interpret it to be: the absurdity, weakness, and dangers (all the control it has such as emotional, physical, memory, history, language...) of an absolute power like the Party. This absurdity is evoked through the slogan we were introduced earlier on in the novel.

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    1. I agree with Rabea and what has truly made Orwell a satirist who is able to pinch or attack at the problems of communism/ imperialism is the fact that he is an "insider" who has been through all the conventions, to put it as such, of these political systems. He is acutely aware of the machinations and the mechanisms of the communist society how is utilizes propaganda. 1984 is more of a warning to the people living the current system which they are at during the time of Orwell's writing.

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  4. I think this is in relevance to my reaction to first reading the book. Like I mentioned in a previous comment, how different is our society to this dystopia? Is it that different? And I say that because I feel that Orwell tries to make a subtle connection from our modern day life to what we think is bad. Of course living in a land with no law is horrible, even more when there are polices who monitor thoughts, it's just plain creepy. But I feel that this whole dystopia is an allusion to our society now. It's not as bad as Orwell plays it out to be, but it's not the best either. Take for example, the thought police. We might not have that in our society, but how many times has the public been gullible or naive to propaganda? How many times have we fallen for the same trick?

    And after reading what Georg wrote about Orwell's background is interesting because it just convinces me more that he is trying to relate our modern day society to the dystopia that he created, which can't be something that he spontaneously created. Pure imagination is almost impossible to achieve, something had to provoke him to think about this type of dystopia. Maybe it is his years is service and after seeing unspeakable things.

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  5. But referring back to the book, I think there's a parallelism between our society and the dystopian world that Orwell illustrated. That would be the control over something, and the fact that there is always a higher power. Even in a world with NO LAW and with no rights, no rules, nothing, there is still power. It's amazing to see that power goes a long way. Everything that society established is gone is this world, except for power. It's so intriguing to know that after all that happened, which we don't know, the one thing that remained was POWER.

    And it makes me think about what Orwell is trying to do. Out of all the elements in the world, all the concepts, all the things in the universe, he choose POWER to remain the way that it is.

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  6. As we can see between the book and the passage Georg has provided us, it is clearly shown that there are quite a few comparisons between George Orwell's life and the life of Winston. It is shown that certain events in the book could correlate with events that have happened in what we know to be the reality of Orwell. In the book we find Winston (who seems to be the main character) living in a dystopian city which is constantly being shown propaganda 24/7 and is constantly being monitored, even their thoughts are monitored. In Winston's life we find that there must have been quite a lot of propaganda as he served in World War 2 to PRODUCE propaganda. This means that not only was he making the propaganda but he must have been exposed to it more than ever. Winstons job is also to alter the past in the favor of "The Party" in the Ministry of truth. He changes events which do not show great in favor of the party and yet he is still ignorantly following orders blindly.

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  7. I personally don't think that the Orwell's life and Smith's life have a lot in common. They don't really go through the same events, yet, we can see that Orwell's life influenced his novel, 1984. Also the fact that Orwell wrote propaganda is very significant since he personally knew the importance of words and literature. And maybe, he even experienced a society where newspeak would have been the new, common language. We don't know. However, we can not really compare the actual year 1984 with the book ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' since Orwell wrote it roughly about 20 years ahead.

    The propaganda is the most significant thing that plays an important role in both lives, Smith's and Orwell's. Orwell knew how to produce propaganda and how to manipulate people. He has also know the common weaknesses of people, the fact that they do believe in the writing that is presented to them, such as newspapers.

    I believe that Orwell is trying to show us in his novel, the significance of using the precise word for the right things, and the gullible mind of human beings.

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    1. It is hard to mention what has not been mentioned already but I believe the comment above make a pretty clear statement as to Orwell's intentions in the novel. I do not believe however, that the propaganda is the most segnificant aspect in the novel and that it shows how language can manipulate people. Of course, I do not argue that language is very powerful and can influence people in a very strong way. I believe that the whole novel is a piece of propaganda. The ideas in the novel are very radical and have been written in the years when the world was very communist and believed in such ideas as well. The novel itself presents events and ideas in a very strong and grasping way that the reader can not but accept some of them to understand what Orwell is trying to say.

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