Major Themes in 1984

Orwell creates a terrifying vision of a completely repressive world in which every movement, every word, and nearly every thought is monitored. The ubiquitous Big Brother is always watching, trying to detect the slightest indication of disloyalty or incorrect thinking. The novel's protagonist, Winston Smith, is a miserable little man whose longing for things he cannot even name leads to his ultimate destruction.

Everywhere Smith looks, on coins and billboards and the sides of buildings, he sees three slogans. These three phrases contain keys to some of Orwell's most powerful themes in the novel: "War Is Peace," "Freedom Is Slavery," and "Ignorance Is Strength." The phrases are examples of a kind of expression he terms "doublethink," requiring the listener to believe in two contradictory things simultaneously, an essential skill in Big Brother's world. The underground movement that may be attempting to overthrow Big Broth

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oral obliquity of child-bearing - merely gross" (1932/1946, p. 153). John Savage, a man raised by an outcast from this well-ordered society and an oddity because he knows both his biological mother and father, is an alien in this world. His mother brought him up outside of civilization, and his introduction to this "brave new world" (the title comes from Shakespeare's The Tempest: "O brave new world that has such people in it") ultimately destroys him. Even in his name, Savage represents a natural man, untouched by society's conditioning and therefore a kind of demonstration of the "nature vs. nurture" question. While individuals raised by the World State's system act according to "hypnopaedic prejudices" (Huxley, 1932/1946, p. 62) which are ingrained in them in the laboratory, Savage represents a pure human being. His instincts and reactions are what Huxley suggests are true to the essential nature of human beings. At first, he is captivated by the simplicity and order of the new world, but Savage comes to realize that being human requires a certain amount of chaos and mess. He says, "I ate civilization . . . It poisoned me; I was defiled" (Huxley, 1932/1946, p. 248). The brave new world strives to put people into neat
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Approximate Word count = 2342
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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