Question

What are some examples of paradox in 1984?

Accepted Answer

One example of paradox in 1984 is Winston's belief that the proles are the only truly revolutionary class and that only they are capable of overthrowing the regime. On the contrary, the proles are not politically active. When not procreating, they spend most of their time drinking, fighting, and playing the lottery.

Answer

As the Party slogan has it, "Proles and animals are free." Whereas members of the Outer Party, like Winston, are subject to constant surveillance through telescreens, the proles are pretty much left to their own devices. The Party doesn't care to observe them, believing that they lack the kind of revolutionary potential that would make them a clear and present threat to the regime. Instead, the proles are palmed off with bread and circuses to keep them happy: lottery tickets, soccer, and copious amounts of cheap booze.
Yet, in one of the book's many paradoxes, Winston Smith actually believes the proles to be the only group in society capable of effecting revolutionary change, of overthrowing the Party once and for all. The reason for this is that Winston regards the proles as still having enough of the human in them to bring about change. Whereas everyone else in society has been reduced to the status of a robot, the relative freedom that the proles enjoy has inadvertently preserved within them the characteristics necessary for demanding an end to one-party rule.
Crucially, the proles also preserve Oldspeak, the form of language that existed prior to the revolution. It is this connection with the past that further makes the proles ideal revolutionaries in Winston's eyes. Yet, paradoxically, the proles remain blissfully unaware of their vast revolutionary potential.

Answer

A paradox is an illogical or contradictory statement. Sometimes, in their seeming illogic, paradoxes illuminate truths.
Party slogans in 1984 illustrate paradox. Here are some examples:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Obviously, war cannot be peace and neither can freedom be slavery. Through these self-contradictory, and hence paradoxical, slogans, Orwell parodies or makes fun of similar political slogans from the twentieth-century, especially those produced by totalitarian governments.
It is also a paradox that the ministry he works for is called the Ministry of Truth when, in fact, its function is to produce lies. Winston creates lies on a daily basis as he rewrites history. Likewise, the Ministry of Love is a place of torture and hate.
O'Brien's insistence that two plus two equals five if the Party says so is a paradox as well. Totalitarian governments operate on the premise that they can use their power to bend truth to their wills, but the logic of history has shown this tactic not to work. Through O'Brien's insistence that a basic mathematical truth can be bent to serve power, Orwell shows the absurdity of his position. Winston may be tortured into believing this, but that doesn't make this illusion true.
Orwell is encouraging readers through the Party's paradoxes to take a hard look at the contradictions and absurdities promoted as truth by those in power in our own society and not simply swallow them. The truth 1984's paradoxes illuminate is that the passing off of lies as truth happens in our own culture too.

Answer

George Orwell’s futuristic novel 1984 details the Party’s efforts to completely remake its citizens by destroying their ambitions and emotional attachments and replacing them with the Party’s goals. The main character, Winston Smith, realizes that the Party is destroying his individuality and tries, unsuccessfully, to rebel.
Orwell mentions a place called the “Ministry of Love” several times in the book before the reader ever actually sees what goes on there. Citizens suspect that it is a place where non-compliant citizens are taken for torture and interrogation for the purpose of punishment and information retrieval. They are correct about the torture and interrogation, but not about the reason for it.
A paradox is something that appears to contradict reason or expectation. The paradox here lies in the name “Ministry of Love.” Such a name implies that it should be a place that creates or administers love in some way, not a place that uses pain and humiliation to remake citizens. During Winston’s interrogation and brainwashing process, O’Brien reveals the true mission of the Ministry of Love:

By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing left in them except the sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother.

Their goal is a bit of a paradox itself. To create this love of Big Brother, they must also eliminate love for anything else, so the Party goes to great pains to keep its people from forming loving relationships by stoking suspicion of others and blind adherence to Party goals.

Answer

It would be the three slogans of the Party.

Answer

In an essay entitled “Politics and the English Language,” Orwell says much about the way the society of 1984 uses language. In that essay he also argues that our society now, as his then, has used it so loosely, not adhering to the true meaning of words but using them instead for political purposes or other purposes of persuasion, such as advertising. Because language is used to persuade and then eventually to lie, argues Orwell, it has become “decadent,” and the extreme form of this can be seen in the paradoxes the other respondent has provided. To help you understand these, you might consider some of the ways that language is used in our own political arena, such as when we are told “we must go to war to make peace.” The link below will lead you to Orwell’s essay. You might also look at some of the criticism eNotes provides on Orwell to answer your interesting question.

1984

What are some examples of paradox in 1984?

Expert Answers

Unlock This Answer Now

Related Questions

What are some examples of allusion from 1984?

What are some examples of foreshadowing in 1984?

What are some examples of juxtaposition in 1984?

In 1984, what are examples of Winston's thoughtcrime?

In 1984, what are some examples of peer pressure?