乔治.奥威尔的代表作《1984》

当前栏目:免费论文 更新时间:2019-04-16 责任编辑:秩名

 摘要:乔治.奥威尔的代表作《1984》是一部反乌托邦、反极权主义的经典著作。长期以来,研究者们更多地关注的是这部作品的政治色彩,探究极权主义的统治以及人性的禁锢。而本文将从人性善良迷失的角度来进一步探究出迷失的根本原因。本文一共分为两章,第一部分将对小说《1984》的内容进行介绍,并且就现今国内外对乔治.奥威尔及《1984》的研究情况进行一个简单的综述。在第一章中,人类的本性是善良的,即使是在《1984》所描绘的极权社会里,也可以看到一些人性中善良的微光。我将关注小说中那些闪耀着人性光芒的善良的片段并加以分析。但是,由于环境的影响,与外界的接触、教育等因素的影响,也许最初的善良会逐渐消失。甚至在某些特定的因素下,你无法坚持那些善良。尤其是在奥威尔《1984》的极权统治下。在第二章中,极权主义的社会对人们进行个人思想意识和个人情感的禁锢,并且残暴的进行身体和心理的摧残,使人们最终渐渐丢失了原本的善良。最后一部分为结论,通过对主人公温斯顿和无产者的分析,证明了人性的种种善良,在这样一个极权统治的社会中,也不得不被摧残得面目全非。

关键词:乔治·奥威尔; 《1984》; 本善; 极权社会; 迷失

 

Abstract: George Orwell’s masterpiece —Nineteen Eighty-four is a dystopian, anti-totalitarian classic. For a long time, researchers pay more attention to the political nature of this work, to exploring totalitarian rule and durance of humanity. However, this paper attempts to interpret the novel from “the loss of goodness”, and dig out the fundamental cause why people gradually lost the original goodness in human nature. This paper is divided into four parts. The part one serves as a general introduction to the content of the novel Nineteen Eighty-four, and makes a simple review about the research situation of George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-four in China and abroad nowadays. In Chapter One, the nature of human beings is good, and we can see some glimmer of good, even in the totalitarian society depicted in Nineteen Eighty-four. This article will focus on and analysis of some fragments about the shining light of humanity and kindness in the novel. However, due to the influence of the environment, contact with the outside world, education and other factors, perhaps the original goodness will gradually be lost. In certain conditions, you can't hold on to the goodness, such as the totalitarian rule. In Chapter Two, totalitarian society imprisoned people’s individual ideology and personal emotion, and carried out brutal physical and psychological devastation. So that people gradually lost the original goodness. The last part is the conclusion. It is proved that the goodness of human nature, in such a totalitarian society, has to be destroyed completely through the analysis of the protagonist Winston and the proles.

Key words:George Orwell; Nineteen Eighty-four; the totalitarian society; original goodness; lose.

 

The famous British writer George Orwell, born in 1903, is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. After Orwell personally involved and underwent anti-Nazi activities in 1936 of the Spanish Civil War and in 1939 during World War II, he made a further deep thinking about war and peace, totalitarian and democratic, social and human ideals. So his works until today still have a profound effect on the world.

Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ye • Zamyatin’s We are called three dystopian novels in the 20th century. Fiction metaphorically presents a picture of a nightmarish totalitarian rule. Because he criticized sharply the totalitarian society that is devoid of humanity and stifles freedom, Orwell called “the cool conscience of a generation”. 

Nineteen Eighty-four is a political fable; it is a novel with the nature of prophecy.

In the novel, the world was divided by the three super powers in 1984——Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The war between the three countries was continuous. The social structure to the interior of the country was completely broken, and the whole country implemented highly centralized rule, suppressed people’s thoughts and instinct by changing history, changing the language (such as Newspeak), breaking the family and other extreme means, and controlled people’s behavior by telescreen with surveillance and monitoring function, and maintain social functioning by the personal worship for leaders and the hatred of enemies at home and abroad. 

Winston Smith, the hero of the story, lived in Oceania which have only one political party——IngSoc. According to the relationship between the party, the society was divided into Inner party members, Outer party members and the proles. Government agencies were divided into four departments: The Ministry of Truth, which was responsible for publicity, education and distorting history; The Ministry of love, which was responsible for maintaining order, repression and torture; The Ministry of Peace for armaments and war; and The Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for production and distribution. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.

Winston, one of the Outer party members, working for The Ministry of Truth, was responsible for distorting history. He gradually had doubts about the society and the leader “Big Brother”, and had feelings for Julia that was another member of the Outer party. Therefore, he became thought criminals. After experiencing the Ministry of Love, which was specially responsible for the internal cleaning, he eventually became a “pure mind”.

Nineteen Eighty-four attracted a lot of attention of western scholars when it was published. Most researchers are concerned about and comment on the political topic reflected in his work. Irving Howe compared the political problems that presented by Nineteen Eighty-four with the problems of his time in 1984 Revisited: Totalitarianism in Our Century. Stephen Ingle’s George Orwell, A Political Life combed Orwell’s life experience and the transmutation process of his political writing. J. R. Hanmmond’s A George Orwell Companion: A Guide to the Novels, Documentaries and Essays has a more comprehensive study about Orwell’s works. The book collects the most authoritative study and review article about Orwell. Domestic academic research on Orwell is also unfolding with the simplified Chinese version of the publication in 1985. Researchers explained the Nineteen Eighty-four from different angles, but most studies have focused on the discussion of the dystopia, anti-totalitarian thought and Orwell’s humanist care embodied in the text. In recent years, some researchers have interpreted the text from the perspective of feminism and space philosophy, which shows that the research on Orwell has been gradually emerging. Even some scholars have studied and discussed the glory of human nature and the confinement of human nature in the book, yet few people noticed why in the novel people step by step lost the glory of human nature and original goodness. And this thesis will discuss and study how the good human nature is lost through the further analysis of the good and the bad of human nature in the book.