Background to 1984

English 10 Honors

Have you been ungood today?

George Orwell 1903-1950 Born in Motihari, Bengal, part

of the British colony of India Returned in 1904 to England When older, he volunteered to

fight for the republicans in the Spanish Civil War against General Franco’s Nationalists.

After being shot in the neck in 1937, he left Spain in June to avoid arrest by the communists

A strong opponent of using language to deceive and manipulate, he published Animal Farm in 1945—an allegory decrying the excesses of Stalin’s brutality

Published 1984 shortly before his death

Setting and Characters

Airstrip One, the capital of Oceania, an empire that appears to consist of North and South America, the British Isles, and part of Africa

Some 40 years after WWII City appears to be crumbling and filthy Protagonist is Winston Smith, an unhappy

employee of the Ministry of Truth, where he makes sure that the archives of the media never show that Big Brother has made a mistake of any kind.

Themes

The dominant theme in 1984 is government control. The government in 1984 controls its subjects’ lives:

physical, mental, and emotional. The result is a Party too tired to mount a real resistance

Other themes: Alienation/Isolation of people by the government Evils of Totalitarianism Use of language to manipulate and control Dehumanization The powerlessness of the individual when confronted

with the power of the State Taken together, all these themes combine to show

the perils of living in a totalitarian state. This control is what drains the characters of their

humanity, in Orwell’s thinking.

Elements of Dystopian Literature • Dystopia: a supposed uptopia, but one that has

gone wrong – Plot: follows one of two directions: terrible things

happen to the characters but the characters either• Escape their fate• Succumb to the establishment

– Structure: divided into three acts:• Act I: Exposition. Establishes parameters of society. Usually

an event occurs at the end of Act I that introduces conflict.• Act II: Rising action. Follows main character as he attempts

to either escape or change society. Climax usually occurs at the end of Act II or at the very beginning of Act III.

• Act III: Falling Action. Theme is derived from the resolution of the plot.

Elements of Dystopian Literature • Common Characters

– Representative of the Powerful (those in charge) – Representative of the Typical (happy with life/ignorant) – Representative of the Apathetic (aware of flaws but accepts the

flaws) – At least one disenfranchised (desires escape or change)_

• Narrative Point of View: – Almost always from the inside – either a member of the society

itself or someone who enters and is adopted by the society.

• Scapegoat – Who or what society aims hatred of blame at.

Political Structures of the Time• Totalitarianism: form or government in which one person

or political party exercises absolute control over all spheres of humanity and prohibits opposing political parties.

• 3 Forms – Communism: seeks to create a classless, moneyless, and

stateless social order structured upon common ownership or production, as well as social, political, and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of common ownership.

– Fascism: seeks rejuvenation of nationality based on commitment to one community where individuals are united together as one people, one identity.

– Nazism : a modified version of fascism that incorporates anti-Semitism (hatred toward or discrimination of a particular race/people) and seeks to establish national pride through political violence, militarism, and war.

Political Structures of the Time

• Socialism: economic system characterized by social ownership and control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy. – A socialist economic systen would consist of an

organization of production that works to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs so that goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit. ( What you put in, is directly related to what you put out.)

Literary Devices

• Anaphora: repetition of a word or group of words within a short section of writing (form or syntax)

– “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”

• Ecclesiastes 3:2

Literary Devices

• Asyndeton: stylistic scheme in which conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses to increase the rhythm of a passage or make a single idea more memorable – “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we

shall fight on the seas and oceans…”• Winston Churchill’s address “We shall Fight on the beaches”

– “Veni, vidi, vici” • Julius Caesar

Literary Devices

• Aphorism: a concise statement that is made in a matter-of-fact tone to state a principle or an opinion that is generally understood to be a universal truth. Wise Sayings – “Either shape up or ship out.”

Literary Devices

• Euphemism: using a comparatively milder or less abrasive form of a negative description instead of its original, unsympathetic form . Can be manipulated to lend a touch of exaggeration or irony in satirical writing. – Using “to put out to pasture” when one implies retiring a

person because they are too old to be effective.

Literary Devices• Metonymy: refers to the practice of not using the

formal word for an object/subject and instead referring to it by using another word that is intricately linked to the formal name. (substituting the main word with a word that is closely linked/ related to it)– When you refer to the Queen or English government as

“the crown” crown = royalty – “The pen is mightier than the sword” =

Writing/communication is more powerful than warfare.

Helpful resources:Newspeak definitionsKeynote sheet1984 PP- ALL on my webpage

Have you been ungood today?

Offender Crime Place Strikes Punishment