individuality

[tigercheer05]

A huge problem I have with 1984 is the lack of individuality. No one throughout the first part of the novel shows any emotion or any individuality. It's like they're all the same. Why don't they show who they really are, is it because they're afraid of Big Brother? Are they just scared for their life? My opinion is that you aren't really living any life if you can't show your own personal characteristics and just be yourself. In that case, then why would they still want to be alive when in fact they aren't living their lives, but actually the lives Big Brother wants them for them?

[starrwriter]

A huge problem I have with 1984 is the lack of individuality. No one throughout the first part of the novel shows any emotion or any individuality. It's like they're all the same. Why don't they show who they really are, is it because they're afraid of Big Brother? Are they just scared for their life? My opinion is that you aren't really living any life if you can't show your own personal characteristics and just be yourself. In that case, then why would they still want to be alive when in fact they aren't living their lives, but actually the lives Big Brother wants them for them?
I think that is one of the main points of the novel. The citizens of Oceania aren't living authentic human lives. They are like robots in their slavery to Big Brother, whom they fear more than death. As to why they don't commit suicide to escape their meaningless existence, humans can adjust to the worst conditions through the instinct for self-preservation or cowardice or the undying hope that things will somehow get better. Some Jewish people endured unimaginable horrors in Nazi concentration camps by clinging to life and doing whatever was necessary to survive.

[Tis]

It has been 42 years since I have read Orwell’s 1949 book. Based on what I recall of it, were today to be my first exposure, my perspective would likely vary profoundly. My first exposure was in school in the early sixties, just prior to the free wheeling hippie generation; during the height of the Rock-n-Roll/Beatle phenomenon; and after being raised in a military family by an exceedingly proud career soldier and a gifted, patriotic mother. Consequently, at the age of 17, I found this book and its idealistic predictions completely alien and contrary to the principles I had been taught all my life and I would feel compelled to agree with your stated opinion.

To be candid, I simply could not wrap my mind around the concept of absolute conformity. Even life for a kid growing up in the military during the fifties did not permit one to even conceive of the social behavior characterized in this book. In short, I suppose I found the book laughable, not to be considered seriously and in conflict with every principle of liberty my parents had pounded into me.

Hence, to provide some conclusion to your questions, Orwell was likely attempting to demonstrate the futility of totalitarianism in any form.

Interestingly, recent global DNA studies suggest that every single human that has ever existed, or currently occupies this minor little planet today, regardless of ethnic or racial origins, owes their existence to a single woman that lived in the African basin about 200 to 250 millennium in the past. While I do not find this particularly troublesome personally, it is the limit to which I am willing to readily conform. If accurate to any reasonable measure, it would seem that the fundamental principles established by Jefferson in our Declaration of Independence, that... “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal....”, was coincidentally and fortuitously accurate as well.

[Teacher]

Greg..... you have it exactly right because if BIG BROTHER controls individuality they controll the feelings and emotions as well. MORE POWER. Orwell wasn't quite right about this leek around you in a class room. You see people of different heritages people dress differentley. people are individuals :crash:. peoplehave the right to be individuals. so why dose orwell do this? well he is going by what has happened in the past and what was happening in 1948.!!!!!!!!!!!:wave:!! see you later. hay charb thanks...

[imprudentica]

The book may seem laughable and incredulous to some of you for many reasons, including the socialist conformity imposed on the people through coercion and intimidation. They all seem more robotic than human, and one would think if such a society could exist, it wouldn’t stand, because there would be mass suicides or something. I mean, no one in their right mind would want to live in a world like that.

The problem with this line of reasoning is it takes no note of history. Over a billion people in the world today live in a strikingly, Orwellian society. And little more than a decade ago, yet more lived in the Soviet Union.

These Socialist societies are founded on Collectivism. The citizens own nothing. Outside influences are prohibited, and if practiced, often times they are punishable by death: religious beliefs, philosophies, even dress and popular culture issues. Parents are encouraged to do ‘patriotic’ deeds for the State, and children inform on them for failing to do so.

I think the warning Orwell was trying to convey is that once a government becomes unchallengeable and all-powerful, it’s too late for you to do anything about it. You need to watch for the signs now, and accept any moves in a direction that tends toward Authoritarianism or Collectivism with great trepidation.

[student014]

T :brow: he whole point of big brother is to keep the people dumb and stupid. So they want to eliminate everything.They make people wear uniforms so there is no individuality because thats they way they want it. Thats also why they made the new dictonary and give out dirty magizines from pornosec because it is uneducating and it keeps them busy. Yes i think your right about them being afraid of big brother

[Teacher]

hi
:confused: :flare:

[Teacher]

it was me who said the government sucked