1984

George Orwell is showing how society needs communication, pleasure, safety, individuality, and feedom in general, or else people are powerless. They have no way to express themselves which makes everyone a prisoner. No one can think anything bad, and there are no rules to state what is and isn't ok. Everyone is out to get one another, which actually is nothing like peace, but rather stressful. I'm so glad I don't live in a crappy socialistic community like Oceania!

Oceania...

George Orwell depicts the society of Oceania as one in which Big Brother forces it's people to believe whatever Big Brother wants them to believe. They censor everything to a rediculous extent. The words he uses to describe the landscape and the surroundings are rather bleak. He says that there is no color even though the sky is blue. It's like the people are brainwashed to not see color, only in the posters. And the posters are another thing. The society must feel under extreme scrutiny with all the "Big Brother is watching you" posters everywhere. They must feel like they can't do anything without being seen. Even thinking something "negative" is against what Big Brother wants, so it is punished. They live as Big Brother wants them to live. They do what Big Brother wants them to do. They say what Big Brother wants them to say. It's like they aren't real people anymore, just Big Brother's pets. If I want my dog to do something, she will do it. It's the same idea. The people feel like even though they aren't people, they are secure. Security is more important than free thinking. If they think freely, there security is gone. They are "vaporized." The fact that everyone is the same makes them feel uniform, like they are a part of something bigger than just themselves. They want to belong and the uniformity grants that.

It seems as though Orwell feels negatively about humanity. He probably saw the people around them as "pets." They followed what they were told, whether by their religion, government, family, etc. He probably thought that the people are not really their own people.

Orwell's Society

George Orwell depicts a very grim and even frightening view of society in 1984. Everybody is being watched, even their thoughts are being monitored. Even the thought of rebellion would get you "vaporized", which is a very frightening concept. In my view this whole concept of spying and monitoring people seems to be an extreme example of the abuse of human rights.

Pessimism Perhaps?

George Orwell wrote the book 1984 in the year 1949-which means he was predicting what would happen 35 years from his time. The overall tone of Oceania seems dull, isolated, and trapped. Orwell obviously had doubts about the intelligence of humans. For example when Winston was writing in his journal his thoughts were not concise, his grammar was incredibly demeaning, and his sentence structure was like that of an elementary student's. Orwell creates the character Winston because he represents the part of population that goes against the rulers (government today). Everything in this book so far seems to be not that far from what could happen in the near future; maybe not so exaggerated as the book depicts, but these events/ideas could surely exist.

Orwells views on humanity

It seems to me that he is writing based on things that are partially realistic. George Orwell is comparing the control to the war and what hitlers idea of control was. In a way Oceania is an ideal place because everything is set up for you. There are no worries. The Ministries reminded me of our government and some ways we run it. The one thing that was not so ideal is the fact that there are no laws so at anytime you could be committing a crime and you would not really know it. It seems like Orwell is looking at humanity in a negative way here in 1984. Although things may change as we read more.

How Orwell views humanity

In reading this book I'm finding different connection that relate to events in present day. Especially different characters or feelings that could easily relate to Hitlers time of complete control. This would make sense considering the book was written in 1984. However Orwell's different aspects of how life will be like in the "future" is dim. Having lost all privacy, and any sense of uniqueness. Just by thinking of the wrong thing you may be committing a crime that you didn't even know existed. He describes the way of life that is supposed to be "better", but in all actuality it hasn't gotten any better just worse. Also Orwell references different think that big brother does to what our government and the media do today. The government tries to convince us to think a certain way and to even think a certain way. Many of our actions are purely based on was society as a whole would do. Its scary to think about how right Orwell was with his prodictions of humanity.

Orwells View

The society in Oceanina described by Orwell in his 1984 novel was very depressing. Everyone was always feeling watched. Think of how it would be if you new everything you did and even thought could be seen by someone. You would never be completely comfortable. Things could get out of control like that. He's trying to show what society could be like if we let someone or something get too much control of our lives. Would not be able to live happily or sanely.