1984, LITERATURE AS A WAY FOR REBELION.

1984, LITERATURE AS A WAY FOR REBELION.
Laura Sofía Peña Velosa
11b
Mr. Fajardo

“El deber revolucionario de un escritor es escribir bien.”
-Gabriel García Márquez.

1984, by George Orwell was born in 1903, his original name was “Eric A. Blair.” Writer and journalist.

1984 is a dystopian novel in which a government, a totalitary power, manipulates the mind of everyone in the little country were the story takes place. “Big Brother” is the one that manipulates everybody by making them think they are always being watched, the government says that the people should act, think, do, etc. Just in one way, they must follow orders otherwise they will go to a camp where they will be punished until they learn how to act.

As we can see the novel touches a really known topic, World War 2; World War 2 was one of the most representative historic moments world wide, it involved many countries that at that moment were the super powers of all nations. In Germany, the political party “Nazism” was the principal cause for the reflection of the book started.
On the 1930’s Adolf Hitler reached the power, he convinced the others to work on the political ideas he had. The idea was simple, you just needed to do what the party told you, but, if you didn’t things would have get a little rough for you; as in the book you are not able to love, on the World War 2 you were not able to be Jew, Big Brother was the clear reflection of Adolf Hitler.
In North Korea the situation also started on the World War 2, but with a little difference, the big brother in this case is not Adolf Hitler, is the great lieder, the power that he has Is that strong that he could even manipulate peoples knowledge, so the history will have took him as the only one that’s good, the population in North Korea is totally under the control of Big Brother…

Even if these are clear examples of how the text can be related, the real topic here is how do the author is the clear reflection of the main character, Winston, and how the book is his hidden diary.



“His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”
-George Orwell, 1984.

When we are talking about Winston, our main character, we can see how he reveals against the goverment, against Big Btoher by making somethings that is forbbiden in his country, having a diary or writing, the main detonator for Winston to start a diary was the necessity for express what he really felt about his country, what he really felt about the national party and Big Brother. The time when Orwell published 1984 was on 1948, few years after the World War 2 had ended, as Winston, Mr. Orwell had the neccesity of expressing what he felt about that, is not a secret realizing that the main topic the author is touching on his book was war, manipulation, repression, power, violence, etc… He wrote a book of something that affected him directly or indirectly, because he noticed the injustice that the party commited, Adolf Hitler was his Big Brother, he was Winston and his ilegal act was 1984, but if it the war had never begun, would George Orwell have wrote 1984? Probably not, the didn’t had a detonator for moving forward, he may have lived a normal life without knowing the value of his book; his revolution started when he realized about what was happening and he had a motivation, those thoughts made him want to raise his voice against those ones who were still fighting for Adolf Hitler.

But he’s not the only one that made this, in latin america, “El Boom Latino Americano.” Was basically based on revolution, almost all texts talked about how society was, talked about what was happening on our contries.

“¿Quién los ve andar por la ciudad si todos están ciegos ? […] Son los amantes, su isla flota a la deriva hacia muertes de césped, hacia puertos que se abren entre sábanas. Todo se desordena a través de ellos, todo encuentra su cifra escamoteada; pero ellos ni siquiera saben que mientras ruedan en su amarga arena hay una pausa en la obra de la nada, el tigre es un jardín que juega. […] Ya están vestidos, ya se van por la calle. Y es sólo entonces cuando están muertos, cuando están vestidos, que la ciudad los recupera hipócrita y les impone los deberes cotidianos.”
-Julio Cortázar, Los Amantes.

As almost all people know, Julio Cortázar also support one revolution, the Sandinista Revolution, in Nicaragua, he sopported the idea of getting out of the power the family Somoza, this expirience helped him to write texts, about society, politics, people, because he was not confortable with what was going on with the power in all latin america, peoples need a detonator for create a rebelion, you can not make a change if you have no reason, when you do not realize of what ig going on and how that affects people and yourself, you’ll never do anything. And as Orwell, and Winston he wrote his own story, his own diary to prove and tell everything, even if it just pleased him.
“…si yo hubiera sabido que mi hijo iba a ser presidente de la república lo hubiera mandado a la escuela…”
- Gabriel García, El Otoño Del Patriarca.

Gabriel García Márquez fought against the dictatorship of Mr. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, his books were treated as inmoral beacause of their content, “Cien Años De Soledad” and “Memorias De Mis Putas Tristes” were vetoed, “Relato De Un Naufrago” Caused his exile, He continued his life in Paris, and never stopped writing, even if his ideals were somewhat communist, since that was what they wanted to avoid in the Colombian government, they did not want to let any information leaked out that Caused revolver in the people, this gave him more inspiration since Colombia has always been dysfunctional. He had the ability to say that what he liked and did not, each of the adversities that the government presented him took so good that all his writings were recognized, and showed the truth of everything, he was silenced, And he followed the process, like Winston, who never surrenders, and every time he has the oppotunity to be himself, he did his best to be a free man, a man who loved Julia no matter what ... And most writers represent that , They are Winston and they do not fear Big Brother.

But often, this absolute power to want to do something for the company can not always end since Venezuela is wished, for example, Venezuela was in the habit of being one of the nations with more wealth in the whole Latin America but an evil I govern, someone who made pass for a friend of them, it turned this great nation, in addition free, they could think since they wanted, to act since they wanted and the worse thing, the government they were so intelligent that it convinced all these persons free to join what would be his ruin. They were cheated, made them think that a government that was giving them everything in exchange could have them this way forever, when his great leader died and spent the very inexpert one, the whole people that they had bought with his false promises of given stability they are at this moment in a constant fight of opposition to everything what this government caused. This strange phenomenon of manipulation owes to that, as Big Brother and the political party, they abuse the weakest minds for his benefit, on having had rebellious and strong minds as those of Winston, Cortázar, Orwell, etc... To these they them prefer being quiet, killing them, to exile them, to the being more difficult to control, realize the things and this can harm them.

But the revolution is something of all, not only of the most indomitable minds, as it was said before, these authors only had written these texts if all these historical facts indeed had happened, if it had not been like that, it is probable that these had not had the explosive one to write indeed what they were feeling or they think. If the people do not realize from what it happens around it and allows that the things should happen without doing a critical analysis there will never have anybody who activates the bomb of the revolution, when a person realizes the rest also realizes, and little by little the revolution is started doing a topic of all, in this moment it is when Winston and Julia are reflected in all of us, not only in certain group elite that can stop and to say when it are something wrong or is right, we all have this capacity and if more people are capable of doing this, it is a small step the possibilities of achieving enormous things are the highest, we all must have this explosive one inside us to initiate things in the good of all, the man must create his own diary and to start writing his thoughts especially, even if it is known that alone this one thinks about his own good, when we all look for an own good jointly it is when the things start taking form and our revolution might be achieved, as well as when Julia and Winston in 1984 join to do his revolutionary act without mattering that the great brother was monitoring them.