Author's Note: The grading criteria is below, under the heading FCAs. PODs stands for Points of Discussion. TS stands for topic sentance. This essay was the first essay of the school year for a grade 9 honors class. We were to write on the topic of why George Orwell loved the past, hated the present and dreaded the future using as little from his biography as possible, but mostly with support from 1984. I believe I got a 77 on my first copy, then a B- on my rewrite, which is below. Please read and grade.
FCA's
Thesis 20
PODs – H 10
TS – H 10
Format
Content 50
The Path to a Totalitarian Government
As countries led by dictators rose in great numbers from World War I to World War II, and through the Cold War, there was always a fear that these dictatorships would evolve into something more, totalitarian governments. Citizens in the countries led by dictators feared and disliked the idea of a totalitarian government, because they were afraid of the oppression and tyranny that would continue and grow. George Orwell was one of those people. Orwell's fears prompted him to write about totalitarian governments, such as the Party, in the novel 1984. 1984 is about Winston Smith who lives in the dystopian society of Oceania, led by the Party. Winston tries to rebel against the Party, by being an individual, but in the end, his rebellion is futile, and the totalitarian government is successful in conforming him, and fitting him to the mold of monolithic unity they want. George Orwell uses Winston to demonstrate his fear that the increasing control of present dictatorships would prompt them to evolve into totalitarian governments.
Orwell hated dictatorships because they supported conformity and did away with individuality, which gave the government more power and eventually led to totalitarianism. Orwell demonstrated this through Winston and the novel 1984 in many different ways. Individuality is oppressed by the Party forcing all its members to wear the same blue overalls. Though it is a small detail, the Party members are not allowed to express themselves through clothing, and thus must conform to the physical appearance of the Party. By allowing the Party to take away this specific expression, it gives the Party more power and the people less, so when the Party tries to take away another, more significant right, it will be easier for them to do so. Though wearing the overalls themselves does not change dictatorships to totalitarian governments, it is a step towards that. By allowing the dictatorship to take away expression, even through something as insignificant as clothing, the public allows the dictatorship to take away more rights, thus resulting in more power, and ultimately resulting in a totalitarian government.
Newspeak, a principle of Ingsoc, also tries to take away the individuality of the people by not allowing them to think freely. As Winston's friend Syme explains, "Don't you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we should make thoughtcrime nearly impossible because there will be no words in which to express it" (Orwell 46). Removing words from the language will narrow the range of thought of a person, which will limit the way a person can think, which ultimately results in every person thinking the same way. If every person thinks the same way, they are not individuals. It is a domino effect that ultimately results in the loss of individualism. Newspeak gives the government more control, and more control eventually results in more power, which, in the end, results in the emergence of a totalitarian government from a dictatorship.
Orwell concluded that totalitarian governments control the individual, and rid them of their individuality, through Winston at the end of the novel. Winston describes how he feels as he takes the final steps to conformity, "He was not running or cheering any longer. He was back at the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow…The long-hoped-for bullet was entering his brain…He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother" (Orwell 245). No matter how hard Winston struggles against it, he conforms, and loves Big Brother. This is a vital step in the transformation from dictatorship to totalitarian government. When a person, such as Winston, completely surrenders all his individuality, it gives the government complete control, and thus a heightened amount of power. Power, as mentioned previously, is what gives a dictatorship the ability to turn into a totalitarian government. When Winston finally conforms, he feels, "The long-hoped-for bullet was entering his brain" (Orwell 245). This is a metaphor that represents the death of Winston's old self, the death of the person who was against the Party, and the death of Winston's individualism. This is just further justification of how a dictatorship gains power through the ability to conform its citizens. Though the lengths the Party went to, to curb the individualism of the public were a little extremist for dictatorships of George Orwell's time period, he wrote about them because he feared that was what the future held.
In 1984, Orwell describes the futility of a resistance against a dictatorship. He shows Winston trying to resist the Party, by being with Julia and writing in his diary. Winston believes he is effectively rebelling, though in truth he is not. Winston and Julia realize this as their once-safe haven turns out to be a trap. In a strong moment of truth, Winston thinks,
The picture had fallen to the floor, uncovering the telescreen behind it. "Now they can see us," said Julia…Mr. Charrington was still wearing his old velvet jacket, but his hair, which had been almost white had turned black…It occurred to Winston that for the first time is his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police. (Orwell 182-185)
Winston realizes that he has been deceived. The Party has always known what he was doing, but they were allowing him to continue his rebellion. By allowing Winston to continue rebelling, the Party was able to find out who he is, what his weaknesses are, and how he feels, so they could conform him when they felt it was beneficial to them. Winston's world crumbles around him as he realizes that the Party knows everything he has been doing, from writing in his journal to meeting with Julia, they know everything. The Party was always watching Winston, so his rebellious efforts were futile, he never even had a fighting chance. The fact that Winston's rebellion was all in vain proves the strength of the Party, of the dictatorships, and it proves the power they hold over the entire population. As every rebellion is crushed, the dictatorship gains more power to destroy the next one, and eventually becomes a totalitarian government.
Even after his fruitless rebellion was crushed, Winston did not give up hope. Even after he was taken to the Ministry of Love, Winston still rebels with his thoughts. He knows what truth is, and what the Party says is truth. For example, Winston knows that two and two make four, but in the Ministry of Truth, O'Brien says the Party claims two and two make five (Orwell 206). The Party tries to quell Winston's rebellion by changing the facts Winston thought he knew to be true, and in the end, they succeed. O'Brien told Winston, foreshadowing his conformity,
You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty then fill you with ourselves…At this moment there was a devastating explosion…There was undoubtedly a blinding flash of light…As his eyes regained their focus he remembered who he was, and where he was, and recognized the face that was gazing into his own; but somewhere or other there was a large patch of emptiness, as though a piece had been taken out of his brain. (Orwell 211-212)
The Party had begun to conform Winston, proving that no matter how much he resisted, his efforts were ultimately futile. The Party proves they have complete control, in the fact that they allow Winston to continue rebelling, to conform him when the time was right, and that they did eventually make him love the Party. The complete control that the Party holds over the society of Oceania proves that no matter what is said and done, resistance is futile. This control is power, and power is what changes a dictatorship into a totalitarian government. The futility of a resistance shows yet another aspect of the control dictatorships have.
Orwell feared that, once dictatorships evolved into totalitarian governments, the future promised monolithic unity. Monolithic unity occurs when everybody conforms to one idea, or concept, in other words, orthodoxy. Monolithic unity, or orthodoxy, is a major theme in the novel 1984. Orwell constantly showed the population of Oceania blindly following Big Brother, acting as one unit, and not thinking for themselves. He made this point to show that, even in the dictatorship of the Party, there was already monolithic unity, which he believed would only intensify as the Party grew stronger. In the Canteen, Winston observes,
It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising chocolate rations to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. (Orwell 51)
The orthodoxy of the public is blatantly advertised to anyone, such as Winston, who can see the hold the Party has over them. They believe what they are told, they believe what Big Brother says is truth, and in believing, they are one. A united force under the lead of a tyrant, and they know no better because almost everybody believes in the same idea, and those who do not believe what the Party believes never say a word about their unorthodoxy. Big Brother has achieved complete mind control, and in achieving that, he achieved monolithic unity, a oneness of the nation. Monolithic unity is another form of control. Once the entire population of Oceania conforms, the Party will have all the control it needs, and thus all the power to develop into a totalitarian government. Complete orthodoxy, complete control, that is monolithic unity. The monolithic unity was caused by the loss of individualism, and the fact that those who resisted, who tried to maintain their individuality, were vaporized, so the public knew no better. Orwell feared that, as individuality was lost, and rebels vanished, there was no escape from the monolithic unity, the orthodoxy, which loomed ominously in the future. He feared that once monolithic unity was achieved, the dictatorships would have all the power they needed to transform into totalitarian governments.
Orwell dreaded the totalitarian control that he feared would emerge from present dictatorships, and the desolate future it would create. He feared that the lack of individuality and the futility of a rebellion would create a future of monolithic unity, led by a terrible tyrant. Orwell lived his life surrounded by a constant state of war, only a few years in the beginning of his life were without world-wide conflict. The memories of these calmer times made Orwell hate the present dictatorships he was living under, and dread the possibilities of worse in the future. Worse could be anything ranging from the dictatorships gaining even an iota more power, to a totalitarian government. Every aspect of 1984 was a statement of Orwell's fears for the future. Through the loss of individuality and failed resistance to a higher power, George Orwell's novel warns us of what may lie in wait for us in the future, taught us to never forget ourselves, always be individuals, and fight for what we believed to be true. 1984 is a warning to save us from the totalitarian rule that Orwell feared.