1984 by George Orwell - Essay Example

George Orwell (whose real name was Eric Blair) makes satiric allusions to the communist manifesto and the regime it sought to promote. He was not anti-communist but towards the end of his career he felt disillusioned by the mechanics and “manifesto” of the Communists. He believed that such an ideology would always deteriorate into a dictatorial regime.The novel alludes largely to the situation of the regimes who took to the communist ideals (especially the case of Russia and the USSR) and how the Communist Manifesto fast moved away from its real aim of the emancipation of the working classes from the bourgeoisie.

The theme of the story in 1984 depicts the world in the year “1984” in the setting and assumption the Communist movement has successfully dominated the world. The main Character of Emmanuel Goldstein is an allusion to Marx and Lenin who were the most prominent leaders and supporters of the Communist ideology.One of the strongest allusions to the Communist manifesto (and to some extent Lenin’s book on communism called” Testament"),is when Orwell states in his book that the fictitious Communist leader Goldstein writes a book called "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism".

He goes further to describe his Communist “ hero” as having a “a lean Jewish face,(with) ….. fuzzy aureole of white hair" which if carefully examined reminds us of the appearance of Marx who wrote the Communist Manifesto.His bitterness can be seen further when he writes that Goldstein is deceiving the people in the name. of a new and prosperous life ,implicitly alluding to Marx’s theory which offered the working classes emancipation and his followers like Stalin in Russia and Mao in China who distorted this philosophy to dominate people and trample on their fundamental rights in the name of the "workers' paradise".

Orwell wanted to expose the distorted version of communism, which he now called totalitarianism. He showed how it was impossible to point out the evils of totalitarianism in Russia because of the way communication and the media is controlled. He goes on to say that Goldstein secretly supports the Big Brother (allusion to Bourgeoisie) and not the people as he claims to (the proletariat).He exposes the defects of the communist manifesto and the when he shows the celebration of the “hate week” where patriotism is encouraged and people are encouraged to become activists against “the enemy” who does not really exist, but is faked.

Goldstein even goes to the extent to show the public the dead people apparently killed by the “enemy”. Thus the public’s sentiments are played with while digging their roots with the poisonous trends of totalitarianism.For example at page 32 of the Novel ,Orwell writes how the Communist party could get away with all its atrocities against the working classes in the guise of being a pro worker party.“If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happene