|
Nineteen Eighty- Four is a good reason why. The novel shows what could have
happened if Hitler was able to continue upon his quest for power. The novel can
also apply to the present era, as the novel was actually set in more modern
times. Not only does the novel apply to Hitler's way of thinking, but also to
Stalin. Even though both are at opposite sides of the political spectrum, they
both established totalitarian governments. The Party also ran a totalitarian
government but on a much larger scale. A large part of the novel deals with the
relationship between The Party and society. Many of the techniques used by The
Party are similar to those used by Hitler or any controlling government for that
matter. One of these ways is by propaganda. With telescreens in everyone's
homes, it was very easy to broadcast the views and beliefs of The Party. Also,
as this was the only form of broadcasted media, the government could easily
control what the people watched and listened to. Another form of propaganda was
by means of posters and slogans. In this society it was impossible to go
anywhere without seeing a poster of Big Brother and reading slogans such as BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU and War is Peace...Freedom is Slavery...Ignorance is
Strength. Hitler was a big fan of propaganda and used it a great deal. Also, The
Party controlled all written media, and therefore could write and re-write
anything it chooses to. During his reign, Hitler realized that he needed to get
younger people involved in his conquest. He set up youth camps and youth
organizations. This made the younger generations of Nazi Germans feel like part
of the struggle. In the book, youths are also involved in various governmental
groups. The mind of a child is a very easy thing to manipulate. If the
government can convince a child, even reward them for turning in family members
and loved ones, they will have succeeded in corrupting one of the basic units in
society, the family. One thing you can count on is that your family is usually
there to support you, and not be more loyal to a dictatorial leader than
yourself. When establishing a society in which you plan on oppressing the
people, you must make sure of one thing: they do not think they are being
oppressed. The only was in which you can do this is to withhold information and
blatantly lie to them. One way that this is done in the novel is by re-writing
history as time progresses. By doing this, people can look back on the past and
will only see whatever the governing party wishes. Although Hitler did not go to
such extreme measures, he had no problem lying to the general population to give
them a false sense of security. Back in the 1930's and 1940's, the population of
Germany probably thought they were better off than they actually were. When one
of the key governmental figures in the novel is discussing the motives behind
the rule of The Party, he mentions that its main purpose is to watch over and
guide the people, as they are frail and cowardly, and cannot do it by
themselves. This is very similar to what the English political philosopher
Hobbes thought. He believed that man was self-destructive and needed a powerful
government to control them. Many people today despise the views of Hobbes as
they are very insulting to us as humans. We like to believe that we can be
responsible for our own destiny, and do not need an all-knowing government to
take charge and run our lives. One interesting point in the novel was that the
chief enemy of The Party was a Jewish man named Emmanuel Goldstein. Goldstein
was a political figure who had vanished into the underground and was rumoured to
have started the group called The Brotherhood. Since The Party was an extreme
version of Hitler and the totalitarian movements in the earlier part of the
twentieth century, it was ironic that the crusade for freedom was led by a
Jewish man. This also relates to W.W.II, as the Jews were the principle group of
people persecuted by the Nazis. On a whole, this novel was a very interesting
piece of reading. It really makes one think how lucky we are to live in a
society in which we have the freedom to live as we choose. If many of the
fundamental freedoms which we sometimes take for granted were taken away, we
might find life to be like it is in the novel. I could not imagine living when
anything I believed which deviated from normal paths of thought could result in
my death. Many of the greatest changes in society have been made by those people
who stray from the well-beaten path in search of a greater truth. The novel also
caused myself to reflect upon how important it was that such tyrannical
dictators such as Hitler have been stopped, sometimes with great costs, from
making life unbearable. Reading this novel gave me a great sense of hope for
human kind, as we have been able to keep totalitarian movements under control.
Maybe sometimes people can get carried away with a lust for power, but it will
always come back to living in a society that is tolerable to everyone. It is
safe to say that a Utopian society will never exist, but we must make an effort
to get as close as we can. Many disputes which occur today are because of petty
differences between people. Although there are some flaws in human nature, we
have always been able to keep from digging a grave too deep to climb out of. It
is scary to think how close the world could have come to having a society like
the one in Nineteen Eighty Four, and know that we as humans have to gain a
better understanding of one another. I enjoyed reading this book because not
only did it give the reader something exciting to read, but it also was able to
put an interesting perspective on life itself.
|
