Monday, October 1, 2018

How is the image of a “boot stamping on a human face—forever” an appropriate image of this future anti-utopia in 1984?

In the dystopian nation of Oceania, the authoritarian regime oppresses the entire population through inhumane tactics and is dedicated to completely eradicating individuality. The Party's primary goal is to forever dominate and control the population of Oceania. The Party maintains a hysterical, threatening environment at all times, keeps the citizens under constant surveillance, publicly executes enemies of the state, and tortures political dissidents. The government also requires every Party member to worship Big Brother and completely accept their absurd propaganda. If Party members are not completely orthodox, they are tortured and brainwashed in the Ministry of Love.
In Emmanuel Goldstein's book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, Winston Smith reads about the various methods the government utilizes to maintain power and oppress the citizens. Winston reads about the necessity of continual warfare to use up valuable resources as well as the ideology of Ingsoc. Since the Party is dedicated to eradicating individuality and creating an oppressive, threatening environment, the image of a boot stomping on a human face is an appropriate image of the dystopian future under the Party's reign. The boot symbolically represents the tyrannical presence of the government and the squashed human face is the population of Oceania under Big Brother's authoritative rule. As Winston learns while he is being tortured by O'Brien, the Party's primary goal is to dominate the population and rule forever. Under the Party's rule, individuals will continue to suffer like the person whose face is being mercilessly smashed by the boot.


As has already been pointed out, the image in question is highly appropriate for the dystopia of 1984, but I would add that this image of an act of violence is additionally appropriate because of how it relates to the actual goals and motivations of the Inner Party itself. One of the key observations in 1984 is that, when you dig beneath the propaganda and the rhetoric, totalitarian states are at their core primarily about domination. We see this theme personified in O'Brien. O'Brien does not hold any ideology or justification for the things he's done, because for O'Brien, the means and the ends amount to the same thing. His position is about exercising power, for no other purpose than to wield that power over everyone else: it's literally oppression for oppression's own sake. That's the goal of the Party.
With this in mind, consider the image at the heart of your question. We're looking at an act of violence and of domination: one person stepping on the collective face of humanity. The key thing to keep in mind about the image, though, is that this image doesn't just apply to the tools of oppression that the State uses, it's also describing the motivation driving the State to act the way it does. The State oppresses just because it can.


The image of a boot stamping on the human face forever is an appropriate image of the anti-utopia established in Orwell's 1984.
The anti-utopia (or dystopia) of 1984 features citizens who are victims of an ongoing war, constant government surveillance, and blatant public manipulation. The government has even invented a language to replace traditional English, and the Thought Police control absolutely every facet of human life. There is no privacy or dignity for residents of this society. There is persecution for individualism and independent thinking; and the punishment for trying to break free from this oppression is horrific.
The image of a boot stamping on the human face forever is a perfect representation of the government oppressing its citizens and literally "stamping out" anything that makes them human (thoughts, feelings, individual expression, etc.).

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