George Orwell's 1984 and its implications on the political system of the GDR

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1 (A), University of Kassel (Anglistics), course: George Orwell, language: English, abstract: The following paper deals with the parallels between the society described in George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984' and the society of the German Democratic Republic. Given the fact that Orwell's own experiences concerning totalitarianism, and especially communism, play an important role in all his literary works, I think it is very interesting to have a closer look on a society that existed in a communist environment and to compare this society with the fictional society of Oceania in '1984'. In the first chapter I will give a brief summary of the author's biography, followed by a short synopsis of the novel '1984'. The second part deals with the society of Oceania. I will focus on the main aspects of society, such as governmental institutions, the surveillance apparatus, etc. In the third chapter I will analyse the society of the GDR and try to establish links and parallels to '1984'. The last part of my paper consists of a short summary and some conclusions on the nature of totalitarianism and freedom.