Throughout the novel 1984, the infamous George Orwell uses rhetorical descriptors and vivid diction to describe the tyrannical way of life the characters go through. As each day passes, the citizens of London live under twenty four hour surveillance while at the same time, going through a destructive war. Every thought has to be held with caution and the knowledge that there are consequences to resistance. Orwell conveys struggles and major conflicts with his somber tone, vivid imagery, frequent repetition, and many more elements all through this book.
As of written in 1949, this futuristic novel describes a sense of hopelessness as well as a gloomy tone with extreme sides to it. The intensity of Orwells words reflects the dangers of each characters life. For instance, in the beginning of the book, Orwell writes, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath the poster ran.” This creates concern and confusion from the audience, since this is not an ordinary occurrence for most people in the real world. Being that the words are all capitalized also creates a serious tone towards the book. The use of the peculiar description of “Big Brother” adds to the eerie feeling of the novel.
On every page lists a strong description of something that may seem important. George Orwell’s utilization of imagery creates a specific picture in your mind. This picture can represent something normal in one case, and in another, something so surreal that you couldn’t comprehend the reality of it. One example of this is written on page 133, “Another bomb fell on a piece of waste ground which was used as a playground and several dozen children were blown into pieces.” Orwell normalizes these bizzare incidents by repeating these events over and over while the citizens find it very common.
These unconventional situations are not the only thing being described by Orwell. He incorporates feelings towards the city from the audience, other than being appalled by the recurring sight of corpses. He includes imagery of beautiful and brighter things like speaking of the morning with “a yellow beam from the sinking sun slanted through the window.” In this instance, and many others, Orwell integrates pieces of hope, mainly for the reader. Since most of the story is despairing, the reader needs a desire to keep going forward. These pieces of hope are being invoked because of the connotation of Orwell’s diction and syntax. He is asserting aspiration for the audience to want to discover more seeds of hope. With this being said, Orwell includes a main character that has a strong mind with self perseverance and resistance to whatever comes his way. Without Winston Smith as this main character, Orwell’s objective of the novel would not be expressed clearly.
Similarly, Orwell has positive and negative diction to demonstrate the significance of certain parts of the story. Most of his word choice throughout this book represents a pedantic and abstract type of diction. Pedantic diction is represented through his detailed description while his abstract diction is alike. Abstract word choice is used often in this novel to create description of emotions and the unknown. Since a majority of the novel creates a mysterious mood to it, Orwell uses abstract diction perfectly. As for Owell’s pedantic diction, he narrates the story as if he can see into Winston’s mind. With this, he shows specific feelings and descriptions of Winston’s thoughts and actions.
To let the audience understand the main topics of his novel, Orwell integrates repetition very frequently. He repeats phrases so often that one might say it’s at an excessive amount. Although these words are used habitually, his use of anaphora persuades the reader to believe the societal norms of Oceania, the city that the characters live in. Some reocurring phrases are: “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is stength,” “Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia,” and, “We are the dead.” These expressions all have specific meanings behind them and affect different people in the story. Nevertheless, it also affects the audience. They consider how important these words are to the book and remember them as they keep reading.
In the society being represented in this book, you learn that their reality is fake. Citizens know nothing of the past or of the many conflicts going on in their city. The irony and juxtaposition of numerous factors mislead the community. For example, on page 189 it states, “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, The Ministry of Truth with Lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.” This, at first, also deceives the reader because of the unknowledgeable ways of this community. Orwell intended to do this because he wanted the audience to connect with the characters of the story for further persuasion to read further into the novel. By doing this, the reader has the perception to keep reading, considering that this juxtaposition intrigues them.
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In the dark and intense novel, 1984, George Orwell uses the perfect amount of rhetorical strategies throughout the novel. His use of imagery, tone, repetition, and many other strategies to persuade the audience to figure out the meaning of the text. Additionally, he gives the audience an incentive to read further into the mysteries and unsolved conflicts of the story. To read this book, it takes someone who is curious enough to figure out the circumstances that are being introduced, as well as the reasons of why the author chose to incorporate different situations to the text. This astounding futuristic novel from the past ties in the essentials to what every audience wants.
