RESEARCH PAPER

Submitted By Matthew-So
Words: 363
Pages: 2

1984 Chapter One Response

There wasn’t much irony in chapter one as Orwell concentrated on developing the setting and mood of the story. However there was one obvious use of irony that I found regarding the names of the ministries. The ministry of peace was responsible for raging war, meanwhile the ministry of plenty was ironically accountable for controlling food rations; starving citizens. Furthermore, the ministry of truth basically feeds all citizens propaganda and changes historical records to the government’s liking. Finally, the horrible ministry of love monitors all and tortures criminals for their imagined or real crimes. As one can see these names are direct contradictions of their actual operations. Moreover the name of the victory mansion is quite ironic as the mansion itself is horrible. I think that Orwell used this form of irony to send readers the message that the governments of our real world are never actually telling us the complete truth.

From only the first few pages of the novel, I found it extremely difficult to imagine a society where any form of independence is considered a crime. The fact that the government and the “higher ups” are constantly surveying all citizens is also quite chilling. As an artistic and freeminded student, I believe that creativity and freedom is what gives our world “colour”. For example throughout world art history, there have been many pioneers who developed their ideas and presented them to the world. Although these pioneers