Assignment 107 George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four

Name:- Hinaba D. Sarvaiya 

M.A. sem 2

Paper no:- Twentieth Century Literature: from World War II to the end of the Century 

Roll no:- 09

Enrollment no:- 4069206420210032

Email ID:- hinabasarvaiya1711@gmail.com

Submitted by:- S.B. Gardi Department of English MKBU

 Q:- What Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four tells us about today's word.

"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear"

             - George Orwell's

Introduction:-

Nineteen Eighty Four also published as 1984, novel by English author George Orwell's published in 1949 as a warning against totalitarianism. The novel presented many of concept, such as Big brother and the thought police, are instantly recognised and understood, often as bywords for modern social and political abuses.

Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.

Let's discuss about the "Nineteen Eighty Four" tells us about today's word, 70 years after it was published.

Seventy years ago, Eric Arthur Blair writing under a penname George Orwell, published '1984' now generally considered a classic of dystopian fiction.

The novel tells the story of Winston Smith, a helpless Middle aged bureaucrat who lives in Oceania, where he is governed by constant surveillance, even though there are no laws, there is a police force, the 'Thought Police' and the constant reminders, in posters that "Big Brother is Watching You".

Smith works at the ministry of Truth, and his job is to rewrite the reports in newspapers of the past to conform with the present reality. Smith lives in a constant state of uncertainty, he is not sure the year is in fact 1984. Although the official account is that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia, Smith is quite sure he remembers that just a few years ago they had been at war with Eastasia, who has now been proclaimed their constant and loyal ally. The society portrayed in '1984' is one in which social control is exercised through disinformation and surveillance.

As a scholar of television and screen culture. And that time full of modern and developed mant technology that used in Orwell in his novel. Now the time for technology and also many people are watching through technology and control by us like the telescreen used in novel and today is CCTV camera and we know that the everywhere find this CCTV camera and aslo known that we are central through camara and someone is watching You. It very appropriate to technology and technologies described in the novel are very much present in today's world.

'1984' as History:-

One of the key technologies of Surveillance in the novel is the'telescreen' a device very much like our own television.

The Telescreen displays a single channel of news propaganda and wellness programming. It differs form respects. It is olimpissible to turn of and the screen also watches its viewers. The Telescreen is television and surveillance camera in one. In the novel, the character Smith is never sure if he is being actively monitored through the Telescreen.

Orwell's Telescreen was based in the technologies of television pioneered prior to World War II and could hardly vbe seen as science fiction. In the 1930s Germany vhad a working videophone system in place and television programs were already being broadcast in parts of the United States, great Britain and France.

Past, Present and Future:-

The dominant reading of 1984 has been that it was a fire prediction of what could be. In the world's of Italian essayist Umberto eco, 'at least three quarters of what narrates is not negative utopia, but history."

Additionally, scholars have also remarked how clearly '1984' describes the present. In 1959, when the novel was written American watched on average four and a half hours of television a day, in 2009, almost twice that in 2017, television watching was slightly down , to eight hours, more time than we spent asleep.

1984 as present day:-

In the year 1984, however there was much self congratulatory convrage in the U.S. that the dystopia of the novel had not been realized. But media studies scholar mark Miller argued how the famous slogan from the book "Big Brother is Watching You" had been turned to "Big Brother is You, watching Television".

Miller argued that television in the United States teches a different kind of conformity than that portrayed in the novel. In the novel, the Telescreen is used to produce conformity to the party. In Miller's argument, television produces consumtion through advertising as well as a focus on the rich and famous. It also promote endless productivity through message regarding themeaning of success and the virtues of hard work.

Controlling behaviour:-

The shows nod to the novel invokes the kind of benevolent surveillance that 'Big Brother' was meant to signify 

"We are watching You and we will take care of you"

But Big Brother, as a reality show, is also an experiment i. Controlling and modifying behaviour. By asking participants to put their private lives on display, shows such as 'Big Brother' encourage self scruting and behaving according to perceived silocial norms or roles that challenge those perceived norms. 

The stree of performing 2417 on 'Big Brother' has led the show to employ a term of psychologists. Wglhilr contemporary reality T.V. shows do not order participants to directly harm each other, they are often set up as a small-scale social experiment that often involves intense competition or even cruelty.

The Message for Today in Orwell's 1984:-

"In a free Society" wrote the French philosopher Montesquieu, 

" It is not always important that individuals reason well, it is sufficient that they reason, from their individual thought, freedom is born"

Exactly two centuries later, in his futuristic novel '1984' the English political novelist George Orwell gave a tragic illustration of what the world would be without the freedom to think.

Winston, the main character of the novel, lives in a century where individual thought is banned, where only the leader, Big Brother, is allowed to reason and to decide. The large mass of common people do not find in themselves the need to think independently, to question or to investigate what they have been taught.

In our 1984 , Big Brother will not conques the world. However the warnings of George Orwell are more than ever relavant. Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia do not exist and the Big Brother did not succeed in destroying individual thought. However, in a large part of our world, he did succeed, through the management of the news and the considers of the written and spoken word, in severely imparting mans, ability to think freely. Even in the free work, many maintain, inroads have been made, commercial interests try to doctor the news and sometime succeed, elected officials are tempted to misrepresent the truth, government agencies attempt privacy of the individual and military leader feel compelled to hide some of their activities.

The book with its disorientating first sentence "it was a bright cold day I April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" defines the peculiar characteristics of modern tyranny. Today it is social media that collects every gesture, purchase, comment we make online, and feeds an omniscient presence in our lives that can predict our every preference.

Conclusion:-

 " Who Controls tha past, controls the future, who Controls the present, controls the past"

In this assignment we see the George Orwell novel 1984 in concept of the today world. And we find that the Orwell used to technology and show the Big Brother image and controls everyone and most famous slogan is "Big Brother is Watching You" and it today it is very appropriate because this time of full of modern any everyone are used it and bacame the part. And technologies are controls to everyone like Big Brother is Watching You and here we are watching by technology.

Work citations:-

Lowne, Cathy. "Nineteen Eighty-four". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 May. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nineteen-Eighty-four. Accessed 8 May 2022.

Bossche, Edmond Vanden. “The Message for Today in Orwell's'1984'.” THE MESSAGE FOR TODAY IN ORWELL'S '1984' Https://Www.nytimes.com/1984/01/01/Nyregion/the-Message-for-Today-in-Orwell-s-1984.Html?Smid=Wa-Share, 1 Jan. 1984.

Seaton, Jean. “Why Orwell's 1984 Could Be about Now.” Https://Www.bbc.com/Culture/Article/20180507-Why-Orwells-1984-Could-Be-about-Now, 7 May 2018.

https://theconversation.com/what-orwells-1984-tells-us-about-todays-world-70-years-after-it-was-published-116940