Introduction
George Orwell wrote his novel “1984” in 1949, almost immediately after WWII, so the events, which preceded and caused the military conflict, strongly influenced the writer. Although the polity and society depicted by Orwell are fully imaginary, it is actually possible to assume that the regime of the “1984” superstate actually resemble the exaggerated, uncontrolled socialism, which grew into totalitarianism. The present paper argues that such themes as war, tyrannical state regimes, propaganda, terror and dehumanization of society are partly copied from the real-life Western and Eastern Europe, especially the Soviet Union, Germany and Italy.
Main body
As Bowker writes, “During the Second World War, George Orwell repeatedly said that British democracy, as it existed before 1939, would not survive the war, the question being: Would it end via Fascist coup d’etat (from above) or via Socialist revolution (from below)?” (Bowker, 2003, p.76). Thus, the writer anticipated the global dominance of totalitarian regime and partly expressed his fears in the novel. Orwell many times confessed that most works he created were directed against the inhumane forms of organization of political power, cult of personality and cultivation of ignorance among the ordinary folk. The specific inspirations for the Oceania society from “1984” were The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany with their inherent propaganda, betrayal of the ideals of the revolution, concentration camps and misinformation. For instance, in the Soviet Union of the 1930s-1940s, there were similar slogans to “Big Brother Is Watching You” (Orwell, 2004, p.8); for instance, the state ordered its citizens to avoid talking to much with others and revealing their personal opinion (Bowker, 2004, p.76). Similarly, in Nazi Germany, there were slogans about freedom, equality and economic well-being, so the country actually capitalized on the eternal and omnipresent human values. However, the Big Brother in “1984” seems to distort these values in order to turn the population’s thoughts into a different direction, as the Parties teach that freedom is slavery, and war is peace, so that citizens are gradually habituated to a new context of reasoning.
The distribution of power in the Oceanic society is based greatly upon the two above mentioned totalitarian states. First of all, the Inner and the Outer Parties greatly represent the respective structures in the USSR and Germany, which had their bodies of legislative and executive power, which citizens were not entitled to elect. Stalin is always referred to as a ruler who negatively changed or even “betrayed” the ideals of the 1917 Revolution; similarly, the protagonist of “1984”, Winston Smith, finds out that the revolution of the 1940s was actually aimed at bringing equal opportunity to all inhabitants of the country and improving the overall quality of life. However, the contemporary Soviet people could not be distinguished for prosperity, whereas the nomenclature, similarly to the Inner and Outer Parties, freely used and disposed of the state’s wealth for their own needs. The Big Brother as the object of worship is drawn from Stalin’s and Nazi Hitler’s figures and the related cults of personality (Hillegas, 1967, p. 153). Both regimes, in their uncontrolled striving for power, sought desperately to control even the private, non-public sides of human life, and “1984” represents this idea of the Parties’ power as the end in itself: “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power […] The second thing for you to realize is that power is power over human being. Over the body, but, above all, over the mind” (Orwell, 2004, p.329). In fact, the Inner Party from “1984” is interested in replacing all emotions and social instincts with a single feeling, which is love for the Big Brother. Similarly, in the totalitarian times, both Stalin and Hitler encouraged citizens to inform about their relatives and neighbors’ disobedience, even in the verbal form. Denunciations were extremely popular, and in “1984”, Winston meets in the prison cell a man, Parsons, arrested after his little daughter informed authorities about his thought crime (Orwell, 2004, p.291). In both Germany and USSR, “thought criminals” (mostly Jews in Germany) were charged with treason and treated as the nation’s enemies. In “1984”, the situation is identical and seems greatly supported by public agitation and mass media. For instance, the “Two Minutes’ Hate” television propaganda regularly informs viewers about the newly discovered traitors and serves as a warning and deterrent of the further crimes.
Conclusion
World War II is also addressed in “1984”. It s clear from the book that the state of war is continuous for Oceania, which easily establishes allies with either Eurasia or Eastasia and equally quickly breaks them. The novel contains direct parallels to the Cold War with its changing alliances and its ideological struggle over territories and nations. Moreover, the overseas broadcasting service BBC, which existed in Great Britain and was fully controlled by the Ministry of Information can be viewed as a prototype of the Ministry of Information. Impoverishment of post-war Greta Britain is represented through the never-ending poverty in Oceania, where proves, or the prevailing majority, receive food from the government.
As one can conclude, the Ingsoc, or ideology described in “1984” is the reflection of real-time events in the USSR, Germany and partly in Great Britain, and the embodiment of Orwell’s worst fears about the outcome of the Cold War. Given the strength of ideological pressure in the postwar Europe, the author’s creative choice of making ideology the means of controlling people is not surprising.
Works cited
- Bowker, G. Inside George Orwell: A Biography. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
- Hillegas, M. The Future as Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians. Souther Illinois University Press, 1967.
- Orwell, G. Nineteen Eighty Four. 1st World Publishing, 2004.