Nathan M

“I think a writer’s job is to provoke questions… Something that would start (the reader)
thinking in a slightly different way perhaps. That’s what I think writers are for. This is
what our function is.”

Examine how composers have used storytelling to fulfill this function.

Composers such as George Orwell use storytelling to convey human experiences of hope,
liberty and individuality, inviting the reader to challenge their idea of political correctness.
Through a dystopian rendering of a world in which political omnipotence controls every aspect
of life, George Orwell’s post WWII political satire ‘1984’ explores the desire for autonomy,
ultimately the human experience of hope, the experience of liberty, heightened by the
pervasiveness of surveillance and the importance of individuality, emphasised by the
authoritarian control of the ‘Party’. This positions the responder to see how freedom can be
taken and ultimately warns against such political power. Thus, Orwell invites the reader to
challenge their idea of political correctness in the context of the intended audience and present
times.

Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984’ reshapes ideas on political righteousness depicting extreme
political institutions, such as totalitarianism, which force conformity and single-mindedness
increasing the value of autonomy and hope as an essential human experience. Orwell’s use of
repetition in “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free… From the age of
uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother” highlights Winston’s desire for
the destruction of controlled thought through his reference to the restriction on autonomy
governed by the ‘Party.’ Individuals are educated in this depiction of the potential for political
extremism and its impacts, allowing the reader to better understand the potential of their current
political system. Furthermore, the rhetorical questioning evident in “Why should one feel it to be
intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?”
highlights Winston’s deeply felt but intangible sense that his suffering is abnormal in a world of
conformity and orthodoxy. This invites an empathetic reaction for Winston, causing reflection on
the importance of preserving our individual memory of the values that shape us and resist their
erosion in our world. Ultimately, the depiction of Winston’s experience of hope and the desire for
autonomy draws parallels to what could have become reality in Orwell’s time, forcing the reader
to challenge their outlook on current political conditions and rebel against the possibility of
controlled thought.

Moreover, a satirical outlook on totalitarian authority gives insight into individual presence within
omniscient rule, reshaping the responders value of liberty as an essential human experience in
the face of politically controlled infrastructures. The invasiveness of technology is intensified in
‘1984’ where all aspects of life are observed and recorded by ‘the Party,’ allowing complete
control and forced conformity. The parallel syntax evident in “Asleep or awake, working or
eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed - no escape. Nothing was your own expect
the few cubic centimetres inside your skull” highlights the pervasiveness of surveillance, making
evident the omniscient control of the party, ultimately inviting the responder to reject the
Nathan M

destructive potential of similar political hegemony. Further to this, the irony of Parson’s comment
“Of course I’m guilty! You don’t think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you? … It was
my little daughter” emphasises the manifestation of the Party’s plan in that even children serve
as a surveillance force, referencing a technique used in Nazi Germany during the war and thus
pressuring modern readers to cherish liberty, neglecting conformity and fascism. The control
over mind is again ridiculed by the recurring motif of the “glass paperweight,” which highlights
Winston’s prolonged desire for freedom, ultimately crushed by the oppression of the Party,
reinforcing the significance of liberty to ones essential human experience and encouraging
readers to protect themselves against controlled political infrastructures. As such, Orwell’s
exploration into the pervasiveness of surveillance and oppression both physically and
psychologically lends itself to a restructured viewpoint against political control in the desire for
liberty taken upon by the responder.

Lastly, Orwell is able to provoke questions that challenge the reliability of current political
situations through the exploration into the importance of individuality. The destructive potential
of the party to eliminate any form of individual thought highlights the undesirable control of
authoritarian rule and invites the responder to neglect such conformity. Orwell’s use of
symbolism, including a euphemism, in Winston’s thoughts on Syme “Syme was venomously
orthodox… zeal was not enough. Orthodoxy was unconsciousness… Syme will be vaporized.”
emphasises the pervasiveness of psychological control in a totalitarian state. His ‘venomous’
orthodoxy symbolises the degradation of the intellectual in a totalitarian world. Winston’s
euphemistic prediction that Syme will be vaporized despite his orthodoxy demonstrates the
manner in which the world of Big Brother rejects human qualities of intellect and free thought.
This encourages the reader to reflect on the malleability of individuality through politically
controlled infrastructures, emphasising the importance of resisting political institutions that seek
to make experiences of free will impossible. Furthermore, the absurdity and particular word
choice in Goldstein’s Book and especially in “The two aims of the Party are to conquer the
whole surface of the Earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent
thought.” highlights the importance of retaining individuality in order to actively seek
righteousness when authoritarian rule wishes to ‘extinguish’ independent thought, allowing the
reader to then apply such a necessity to their own life and ultimately disapprove of similar
political approaches. As evident, Orwell’s ability to emphasise the importance of individuality
through the complete destruction of it encourages the reader to think differently about current
political situations and have an active participation in retaining their individuality.

Thus, it is evident that through a post WWII satirical approach to totalitarianism in ‘1984’, Orwell
invites the reshaping of one’s idea of political correctness both within the context of the intended
audience and in modern times through the individual and collective human experiences of hope,
liberty and individuality.