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The Dynamics of Terror in Orwell's 1984 BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 24 Issue 1 Article 2 1-1-1984 The Dynamics of Terror in Orwell's 1984 Malcolm R. Thorp Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Recommended Citation Thorp, Malcolm R. (1984) "The Dynamics of Terror in Orwell's 1984," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 24 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol24/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Thorp: The Dynamics of Terror in Orwell's <em>1984</em> the dynamics of terror in ornellsorwellsOrwells 1984 malcolm R thorp few twentieth century novels have been as provocative as george ornellsorwellsOrwells 1984 1 orwell may have wished it that way for in his mind the book aimed at being a political satire in a sense a fantasy 2 that reflected the author s disillusionment with the present the story was largely written during 1947 48 as well as his fear of the future to him the political process had gone sour and literature could only reflect that fact this is a political age war fascism concentration camps rubber truncheons atomic bombs etc are what we daily think about even when we do not name them openly we cannot help this when you are on a sinking ship your thoughts will be about sinking ships 3 far from surrendering to the mysticism of violence orwell acts as a voice of warning lamenting the passing of liberal values and decrying the totalitarian boot forever crushing a human face by deducing what might be the next step beyond the barbarity of such masters of inhumanity as hitler and stalin he confronts us with the uncertainty of the future and he is in a real sense blaming everyman for collaborating with the enemy for succumbing too malcolm R thorp isis a professor of history at brigham young university specializing in english history and culture this essay written specifically for byustudiesBYU Studies is another in a continuing seriesserlesof review essays dealing with important authors books or special topics for various interpretations see ornellsorwellsOrwells nineteen eighty fourfouz text sources criticism ed irving howe new york harcourtHarcoun brace & world 1963 samuel hynes ed twentieth century interpretations of019841984 englewood cliffs NJ prentice hall 1971 jeffrey meyers ed george orwell the critical heritage london routledge & kegan paul 1975 two useful introductions to ornellsorwellsOrwells fiction arare jeffreyjefereyejeffrey meyers A readers guide to george orwell london thames and hudson 1975 and robert A lee orwell s fiction notre dame university ofofnotrenotre dame press 1969 but the best study connecting 1984 with the corpus of ornellsorwellsOrwells writings isis ruth ann lief homage to oceania columbus ohio state university press 1969 there is a useful bibliography on orwell by jeffrey and valenevalerie myers orwell an annotated bibliography ofcriticismof criticism new york garland 1977 two recent collections of essays on the theme of 1984 are irving howe 1984 revisited new york harperhasperand row 1984 and peter stansky ed on nineteen eighty four new york W H freeman & co 1984 in front of your nose 1945 1950 the collected essays journalism and letters ofgeorgeof george orwell ed soniasoma orwell and ianlanangus harmondswonhharmondsworth england penguin books 1968 43784 578378 ibid 463 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1984 1 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 24, Iss. 1 [1984], Art. 2 4 BbyustudiesBYUYU studies easily to the lure of authoritarian solutions to the political ills of his time 4 thisibisessay will explore the methods of totalitarian control envisioned in ornellsorwellsOrwells famous anti utopian projection into the future of world politics in many ways 1984 was a logical culmination of ornellsorwellsOrwells career as a political writer 5 and the book illustrates his belief that since the 1930s political behavior had become increasingly irrational ornellsorwellsOrwells morbid fears about a totalitarian future had their genesis in his experience in civil war spain where he fought as a volunteer for the socialist cause in 1937 on the barcelona front orwell witnessed firsthand an attempted coup detat by the communists who tried to crush left wing allies rather than to lead the coalition into battle against franco s fascists 6 disillusioned by such strife orwell who was wounded in combat returned home to england convinced a major war was on the horizon this fear of impending calamity is reflected in his novel coming up for air 19591919393 9 which is written with a rather successful touch of comedy in spite of ornellsorwellsOrwells gloom in this story george boilingbollingwho personifies a twentieth century john bull becomes obsessed with the possibilities of air raids and totalitarian violence while returning to the scene of his youth at lower binfield boilingbolling encounters the first action of the war to come when the RAF accidentally drops a bomb on a greengrocersgreengrocerygreengrocers shop reflecting on the dangers of the contemporary predicament boilingbollingconcludes its all going to happen all the things you ve got at the back of your mind the things you re terrified of the things that you tell yourself are just a nightmare or only happen in foreign countries the bombs the coloured shirts the slogans the enormous faces the machine guns squirting out of bedroom windows theres no escape fight against ibid41bid 564 patrick reilly nineteen eighty four the failure of humanism critical quarterly 24 autumn 1982 19 30 the best full length biography of orwell is bernard crick george orwell A life boston little brown and company 1980 better written and more stimulating are peter stansky and william abrahams the unknown orwell st albans england paladin 1974 and the companion volume orwell the transformationtrumTramformation london constable & co 1979 stansky and Abrahamabrahamssabrahamsess volumes end in 1937 and their thesis of a character transformation from eric blair to george orwell is not totally convincing no one interested in orwell should neglect george woodcock the crystal spirit boston little brown and company 1966 which is a major contribution to insight into orwell the man as well as his works raymond williams orwell glasgow FontanfontanafontanacollinscollinsaCollins 19719711 is a perceptive essay on orwell the man and the writer by a leading left wing intellectual all of orwell s works contain autobiographical fragments but special mention should be made of down and out in paris and london 1933 and the road to wigan pier 1937 the former work was ornellsorwellsOrwells first book and contains important material on his life in paris in the late 1920s as well as a sympathetic account of life among the underclass people in these two capital cities the roadtoroadroudboud to wigan pier stands out in its own right as perhaps the most important social document of the great depression in this work orwell also includes an autobiographical account as well as his justification for socialism georfegeorgeggeorge orwell s spanish civil war experiences form the basis for his homage to catalonia new york harcourt brace & world 1952 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol24/iss1/2 2 Thorp: The Dynamics of Terror in Orwell's <em>1984</em> 1984 george orwell in 1943 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1984 3 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 24, Iss. 1 [1984], Art. 2 6 BBYUbyustudiesYU studies it if you like or look the other way and pretend not to notice or grab your spanner and rush out to do a bit of face smashing along with the others but theres no way out 7 even the allied victory against fascism in the second world war did not turn orwell from his pessimism in 19451943 he published his classic allegory animal farm where he probed the theme of revolutionary betrayal 8 in this story the animals of manor farm russia seize control from the incompetent farmer jones everyman the animals proclaim an egalitarian society but in the course of time the pigs betray the revolution led by napoleon stalin the pigs assert that although all the animals are equal some are more equal than others thus the revolution ends in exploitation although the animals are not aware of the extent of their plight for memory of the old days has fled leaving them with no way to evaluate if they are better or worse off than before the revolution a condition that as we shall see is repeated in oceania in 1984 animal farm is also reflective of history in the 1940s as the warring farms and farmers around manor farm represent german fascism frederick and the allies pilkington the card game at the end of the book is likewise supposed to represent the tehran conference of 1943 where the animals and farmers trade obsequities but the whole affair ends in discord as both the pigs and the men are caught in the act of simultaneously pulling the ace of spades 9 thus animal farm concludes with the revolution becoming a new form of tyranny distinguished from the old mainly by the greater efficiency of the new masters but the very success of this new despotism raises the possibility of a totalitarian future for all mankind As the card game demonstrates pilkington and his cronies are not morally superior to napoleon and his minions in other words orwell was convinced that western leaders in the initial stages of the cold war were as corrupted by power as their russian
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