George Orwell and 1984

In Orwell's negative utopian novel 1984, Oceania and Eurasia are perpetually at war. It seems that one of the purposes of the Party is to keep the war mindset going, and society is stripped of all peaceful, humanitarian thoughts and emotions. One of the ways of keeping the conflict alive in the minds of the people is the recurring appearance of the hated image of Goldstein, who was "hated and despised by everybody. . .and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed" (Orwell 13). Having a hated focus like this keeps the people somewhat united in thinking and action, as everyone hates the traitor. Goldstein seems not to actually exist, but he symbolizes the hatred of all opposition to the Party.

Over the past several decades the United States has been at war with countries that could be interpreted as EurasiaùRussia, Germany and Japan in World War II, North Korea during the Korean Conflict, North Vietnam, the Gulf War, and presently Iraq. Even though the United States feels somehow exempt from having wars on its own soil since the Civil War, foreign policies seem to include various efforts around the world to protect people and give them democracy whether they have asked for it or not. Korea and Vietnam were wars that could not be won, conflicts that were more or less handed down from president to presi

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fair trial. Mainstream media seems to be handmaiden to the politics behind the war, and it is rare that anything contradictory to the present executive powers slips by, such as the photographs of the coffins of returning soldiers who had died. It is somewhat surprising that the current news of American torture of Iraqi prisoners is getting so much coverage, as this turn of events does not fit the pattern that has prevailed. The institutions and processes at the core of the totalitarian world depicted in 1984 revolve around the unilateral complete control of one political party, The Party. It is a dictatorship, although there does not seem to be one man who heads it, such as a Hitler. Some of the mechanisms are the constant policing, the technology of the telescreens, and persuading people to constantly report on each other. The government is divided into various ministries to take care of the bureaucratic necessities of the regime, such as revising the dictionary for the eleventh time, "cutting the language down to the bone" (Orwell 51). Free communication among people is controlled and virtually forbidden. Books written before 1960 were hunted down and destroyed. The founding fathers of the United States carefully plann
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Some common words found in the essay are:
York Times, Guantanamo Bay, Middle East, Towers Americans, Green Party, Oceania Eurasia, Lincoln Truman, North Korea, President Bush, Bill Rights, attack iraq, american people, totalitarian regime, president war, north korea, world government, middle east, american history, executive powers, american public,
Approximate Word count = 2076
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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