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argument: Orwell's Burma experience heightened his suspicions of social inequities and his sympathy for oppressed peoples. On his return to England in 1927 he aggressively transferred this suspicion and sympathy to the British class structure. Claim: In 1936 Orwell wrote that his desire to "submerge myself, get right down among the oppressed" reflected the " bad conscience" he had acquired from the Burma experience. Evidence: where the narrator is employed as a dishwasher. Here Orwell reverted to a favorite strategy: illustrating through analogy so that British readers might apprehend a lesson about class structure.

article on why Orwell is actually considered to be a leftist

Argument: 1984 is a bad book, but will survive because it will always have relevance to society. Claims: 1984 has moral force as an early political warning; it is the Uncle Tom's Cabin of our time. Overall though, the book is poorly written with only the parody of the political slogans being decent aspects. Evidence: -1984's biggest reason for success is because society is moving towards the society portrayed in the book. -"Uncle Tom is a more interesting martyr than Orwell's failed martyr, the drab Winston Smith" -"Wyndham Lewis sensibly compared Orwell as a writer to H.G. Wells, but Wells was consistently more inventive and entertaining" -"A great pamphleteer, like Jonathan Swift, is a master of irony and satire. Here again, Orwell plainly is deficient. His literalness defeats his wit" -"He was a moral and political essayist who had the instincts of a pamphleteer" http://search.ebscohost.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16405585&site=lrc-live

argument: the comparison of Orwell's books and the affect his life had on them claim: Orwell put an unerring finger on the totalitarian element in anarchism itself, the nightmare of a society ruled by a public opinion so powerful that it can take the place of law.... evidence: The evidence lies not within the article itself but within the comparison of both 1984 and Animal Farm

Argument: The meaning of the word equal within Orwell's two texts allow different readings due to the exploitable ambiguities of its meaning Claim: If "equal" can mean something desirable and good, it can also in a primary sense mean no more than "identical" or "same." Evidence: "The concept of political equality no longer existed, and this secondary meaning had accordingly been purged out of the word equal.(6)" "Whereby "equal" starts to lose its libertarian meaning and comes to mean no more than "identical." The term "equal" may, at the beginning of Animal Farm, hold its revolutionary connotation intact, but by the end of the book it carries a drastically reduced and sinister meaning."

Argument: The idea of Doublethink allows totalitarian regimes to keep their iron grip on power without degrading its people and exposing them to thoughts which might cause them to question the regime control. Thus these types of governemnts should keep a "reality control" on its people Claim: Knowledge of Doublethink in such regimes as totalitarian ones, can lead to an instability amongst the citizens and ultimately lead to a failed state. Support: "Doublethink was a form of trained, willful blindness to contradictions in a system of beliefs. In the case of Winston Smith, Orwell's protagonist, it meant being able to work at the Ministry of Truth deleting uncomfortable facts from public records, and then believing in the new history which he himself had written" "Doublethink's self-deception allowed the Party to maintain both huge goals and realistic expectations: 'If one is to rule, and to continue ruling, one must be able to dislocate the sense of reality. For the secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one's own infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes'" "Doublethink has grown to be synonymous with relieving cognitive dissonance by simply ignoring the contradiction between two worldviews"

Argument: Animal Farm is a modern satire. Claim: -The novel satires Russia's perversion of socialism -The animal's revolt is a symbol for any modern revolution -Any revolution is ultimately self-defeating Evidence: -"The use of multiple historical references gives a universal quality to this work." -"The rise of a ruling class of intellectual workers, the development of a leader figure, the use of scapegoats, and, above all, the rewriting of history and the misuse of language for party purposes, all figure in this satire" http://search.ebscohost.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=MOL0089900020&site=lrc-live

Argument: Although Orwell's dystopian vision has not been born out by Soviet-style communism, the author's fears about the ability of the state to control people is still a danger in modern society Claim: The all-seeing manifestation in 1984 of the Party's power has come to stand as a warning of the insidious nature of government-centralized power, and the way that personal freedoms, once encroached upon, are easily destroyed altogether Evidence: "Winston maintains two avenues of hope for a life outside the confines of the party" "One of these possibilities is conscious, spoken: the proles. One of these possibilities is conscious, spoken: the proles. Just as Marx foresaw, in the nineteenth century, that the Revolution would come from a spontaneous uprising of the proletariat as they shook off the chains of their oppressors, so Winston writes in his diary that if there is hope, it lies in this 85 percent of Oceania's population that exists outside the confines of the Party" "The second possibility remains mostly unspoken and unconscious: desire. It is this possibility, the momentary destruction of the Party through intimate union with another person, which solidifies Winston's relationship with Julia"

Argument: Realist tendencies drive political actions Claims:-Hobbesian philosophies define most political decisions -Western society was founded on realism and pessimism -Realism is more practical than idealism Evidence:-"The realist may have the same goals as the idealist, but he understands that action must sometimes be delayed in order to ensure success" -Pessimism and realism are growing trends in modern societies with general shifts away from supranational organizations and diplomatic/humanitarian efforts. -Malthus, Hobbes, Machiavelli, and Kant, who provided the base philosophy of western society, were all pessimistic realists

Ideals of Communism