Social Novels
George Orwell's 1984 was released in 1949, at a time when the worldwas still reeling from the effects of World War II. The Soviet Union hadjust exploded the first atomic bomb, setting off 40 years of the Cold War.Supports of capitalism thus latched onto the book as a warming about the In this novel, Orwell creates a future dystopia controlled bytechnology. Television screens were used to monitor individuals. Privacywas impossible as the authoritarian regime could control people's thoughtsand actions. Given the climate of fear that was set off by atomic bomb,Orwell's world of a technological dystopia seemed terrifyingly real. Orwell states that 1984 is a narrative satire. Fearing howtotalitarian ideas have taken root even in the minds of intellectuals, hewrote the book to show the dangers of these ideas run amuck. Orwell writesthat 1984 was set in London "to emphasize that the English-speaking racesare not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if notfought against, could triumph anywhere" (Orwell, Collected Essays, 502). In this sense, Orwell succeeds admirably. Much of the descriptions of
Steinbeck, for example,scores the system that divides people into rich and poor. Steinbeck lived in the"Dust Bowl" region during the Great Depression, as families unable to paytheir mortgages lost their farms. When faced with this dilemma, Boxer the horsepreferred to leave the decision to Napoleon instead of puzzling out adecision on his own. Napoleon, however, acts like a human being by sleeping in a bed, consumingalcohol and trading with the human neighbors. However, these novels go beyond merely chronicling reflections ofreality. Thus, instead of simply running away, Yossarian'sactions could also be viewed as an assertion of leverage, a personalrejection of the entire war itself. More important, these authors use these depictionsas a backdrop for greater social insight into human suffering, as well as acall to action. In ascene reminiscent of Dante's descent to the Inferno, Yossarian wanders thestreets, witnessing rape, disease, murder and all other forms of humanmisery. Thousands of families thus left theirhomes in Texas and Oklahoma for California, hoping to find jobs asfruitpickers. This raises the question of the potential abuse of power and language. However, Yossarian rightly recognizes the falsity of these choices,and the enormous responsibility of being made to decide the fate of otherinnocent men who, like him, are swept up in this absurd and immoralpattern. The futility of escaping the immorality of the bureaucracy of warthrough legal means leads Yossarian to devise other plans of escape. Thus, Steinbeck includes vivid depictions of the living conditionsin government camps, the government efforts to keep workers from organizinginto unions and of men literally dying in the street of starvation. Additionally, the notion of true equality demands great effort on thepart of everyone. The result, according to Steinbeck, is the bleak world of The Grapes ofWrath, where the cycle of poverty is virtually unbreakable.
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Acceptance Essays
