Topic: Echoes of 1984 Today: Orwell’s Novel and Its Relevance to Our World
Introductory set-up: Create in the first paragraph a counter-argument, the set-up for your argument that comes in the second paragraph, your thesis paragraph. Here, you might describe the horrific world Orwell describes as one remote from our own. Example: The world depicted in Orwell’s novel 1984 seems hardly imaginable in a free, democratic society. Orwell describes a totalitarian state has more in common with regimes like the former Soviet Union or Communist China or North Korea, where everyone bowed to all-powerful leaders. But it is even worse than those states. Here, in the novel, we meet Winston Smith struggling to find his individuality within a state that tries to crush it at every turn. [Describe the oppressive world Orwell is portraying in the book]
Thesis paragraph: Construct an argument that, however remote or foreign the world described in the novel, it is a chilling reminder of what could happen to democracies if they are not careful about preserving freedoms and civil liberties. [Argue how Orwell’s book is not just a prediction of future dictatorships but comes as warning to how easily democratic countries could slip into totalitarian methods of control. Bring your second paragraph to conclusion with a thesis statement and a focus on some of the themes that have parallels with our world today.]
Body of the Essay and Possible Themes (Of the four themes below, limit yourself to two or three of these themes of an 8 to 10 page paper)
1a. Surveillance state and the Thought Police [Explain how the novel portrays a surveillance state, a mechanism of control for monitoring all behavior, looking for any signs of non-conformity. Explain how this type of monitoring people works in 1984.
Discuss the importance of Big Brother and telescreens and other techniques of control, based on passages in the book and what happens with characters to such as Winston Smith and Parsons. How are children also used by the state to control parents?
1b. Argue that even in our “free” society today there are signs of attempt at total control of the population, whether government (state) or corporate control. Research possibilities: how the Internet (Google, Facebook, etc.) is like the telescreen in the novel; how it has become a device transmitting information but also gathering information on all of us; or discuss the limits of privacy in the age of the Internet; show the NSA monitors us, and how Edward Snowden, a whistleblower on the NSA has been persecuted or placed in exile (“vaporized”) for exposing the truth. How also have corporations, such as Big Pharma, exercised control over populations during what some might call the tyranny of Covid lockdowns here or elsewhere? [Address only a couple of these or similar issues.]
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2. The Ministry of Truth—control over information and language and what is true:
See in the novel Syme’s role in shaping the language and the truth; how the ministry controls the reading material and meaning; explain Newspeak and the reduction of language. Discuss control over actions and thoughts.
2b. Discuss modern examples of the above: Possible research on book or language banning today; how texting and Internet communications such as Twitter reduces language and speech, not allowing for the full potential of language to convey ideas; censorship and cancel culture; censorship of reporters like Julian Assange; example of information suppressed in order or serve state or corporate interests; propaganda or lies in the media serving corporations, as related to Covid treatments. [Discuss only a couple of these or similar issues.]
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3a. The erasure of history: explain how the novel portrays how the past and memory of the past is erased or deleted or manipulated. For what purpose is this done, and how does it serve the interest of the state in controlling people? How are past military conflicts portrayed in ways that distort the past? How is culture, or markers of the past destroyed, as the novel describes churches or statues or other cultural markers?
3b. Modern examples: Research on such things as the way history books have often left out inconvenient truths about American history or heroes of the past; how war crimes or other events in war have been covered up: the truth about the Kennedy assassination, or how the official story of wars—in Vietnam, Iraq or present-day Ukraine—differs from the true story. [Address a couple of these or similar issues.]
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4a. Big Brother and Worship of leaders and Hate of enemies: explain the way the novel portrays an authoritarian leader and how that leader takes on the essence of almost religious worship; and how that kind of idolizing of Big Brother stands in opposition to hatred for the enemies: explain the enemies and how Hate Week, or Two Minutes of Hate, is portrayed and how it serves the interest of the state.
4b. Modern examples: how we are manipulated to look at leaders as objects of worship: how have such leaders as Trump or Fauci been idolized or deified by supporters? Or look at the modern-day leader of North Korea. As for organized hatred: How has fanaticism of one kind or another turned into intolerance of others? How have members of the right wing, whether pro-life activists or white supremacists, showed intolerance and organized hate toward progressives, and how have member of the political left, whether Antifa or transgender activists, shown intolerance toward conservative speakers? How has the social media been an instrument for spreading hate speech? [Address a couple of these or similar issues.]
Conclusion: Do not simply summarize what you’ve already written. Instead, conclude your essay by reinforcing your original argument. If Orwell has written 1984 as a warning to free and democratic societies, how should we deal with those warning signs in order to avoid the dangers of totalitarian tendencies we observe in our world today?
