Analyzing Orwell's1984 - Essay Example

This allusion to the wiping out of memories is symbolic of a process of erasing memories, by which actually the sense of self within each and every human being is erased, culture is erased (Orwell, Chapter 4). In chapter 5 of the book, one understands that the Party is in a process of destroying many words which are supposed to be useless from the language (Orwell, Chapter 5). The reason for this is spelled out by Syme, a friend of Winston, when he says, “in the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it” (Orwell, Chapter 5).

Here, thoughtcrime is the act of thinking against the Party and its laws. With this kind of progression of the narrative, the author has shown that people are deprived even of their power to think, disagree and dream; people are totally dehumanized (Orwell, Chapter 5). Loss of privacy is the most important aspect of the dehumanization process. In this novel, the face of the Big Brother and the caption, “Big Brother is watching you” follow the people everywhere thereby depriving them of even a moment of privacy (Orwell, Chapter 1).

Even the “swirl of gritty dust” that enters with Winston into his apartment building is suggestive of the helplessness of people like him to have some personal space and time (Orwell, Chapter 1). Then there is this instrument on the wall, the tele-screen, which forces all to listen to what it says, through days and nights, so that nobody is allowed even the privacy for thought (Orwell, Chapter 1). When people have such voices screaming into their eardrums constantly, they become more like listening machines.

Again, a helicopter is also seen sneaking into people's lives from the sky (Orwell, Chapter 1). By depicting these three presences- the Big Brother, the tele-screen and the helicopter- Orwell has in the very first page of his novel, made the readers apprehend that they are entering a world totally mechanical, yet very familiar in terms of certain aspects of modern life. As we read on, it is also communicated that the tele-screen is a receiver as well as transmitter (Orwell, Chapter 1). It is transmitting all the visuals and sounds that the protagonist made, to the thought police (Orwell, Chapter 1).

From this moment, the reader actually enters the world of absolute power where, “you had to live-did live, from habit that become instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment, scrutinized” (Orwell, Chapter 1). The first chapter of this novel, in this manner, strongly predicts the drama that is about to be unraveled yet keeps the reader hooked to the text and yearning to read more. Chapter 6 unfolds another horror of living in the world controlled by the Party and Big Brother- there is no sexual freedom, no freedom to love a person from the other gender (Orwell, Chapter 6).

The reason behind this is explained as given in the following paragraph: The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as well as outside it. All marriages between Party members had to be approved by