Capitalism: For or Against?
In the book, we can see very obviously that the main character and the book itself possess strong anti-communist views. We see the main character stating that he feels there is something wrong, that something is missing. The whole book portrays the communist society in a very negative light, and we are very much supposed to go along with the main character in our dislike of communism, especially since we are part of a capitalist society that is very against communism. However, at least to me, it seems difficult to tell the views this book has on capitalist society. Is all the little jabs at capitalism just what the author believes a communist society would say? Or is there more to it? Do you think this book is against, or for capitalism?
Good question, and this angle on the book does make me wonder why it has managed to stay so relevant. Maybe what we connect with in 1984 is the mechanism rather than the ideology. Communism is no longer perceived as a threat the way it had been in Orwell's time (most people couldn't define communism, socialism, or Marxism if they tried), but we still have surveillance, mindless slogans, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the very pro-Capitalism lean within the book too (it's hard not to notice when the Party seemed so bent on destroying Capitalism and that's framed as a bad thing), but at the same time, the wildly unhealthy distribution of wealth and control of people in their daily lives feels very capitalist to me. So I'm sure that while the book didn't want to come off as communist in any way, the systems that the book has put in place make it seem like a far more anti-capitalist argument than I think it means to.
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