Appearance vs. Reality
Discrepancies between inner and outer realities:
1984 versus Death of a Salesman
Both George Orwell's dystopian classic novel 1984 and Arthur Miller's realist stage drama Death of a Salesman create a contrast between appearances and reality in order to criticize the political and social structure that exists in society and its negative effects on the protagonists. In Orwell's novel, the world within Winston Smith's head is far more real than the propaganda manufactured by Big Brother. In contrast, the dramatic techniques used by Miller illustrate how Willy Loman lives in a fantasy world of his own making that stands in sharp contrast to the reality of the world inhabited by his loved ones. Orwell's novel is a critique of idealized socialism, a world where everyone is supposedly equal but where people have no freedom, even the freedom to think. Miller scathingly critiques the American Dream that it is easy to 'make it big' in America through a poignant tale of a salesman who is cast off by the company he worked for throughout his life, which now treats him as if he is no longer valuable.
The discrepancy between appearances and reality is most starkly manifest in 1984 through Winston Smith's job, working for the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth not only strives to change how politics are discussed and disseminated in the present; the Ministry also strives to change how the past is portrayed. Winston must change newspapers that contradict Big Brother's current version of events and destroy them. Although he knows in his own mind that the lies perpetuated by Big Brother are false, he seems to have no choice other than to eradicate history....
Orwell's narrative raises the question -- if history is destroyed, what is 'reality,' if even memory can be officially eradicated and the truth becomes officially false?
There is a continual discrepancy between the lies that Winston must project to the world and the truth he feels within. Early in the novel, when forced to participate in physical conditioning exercises, compelled by a television that seems capable of watching him, Winston's mind is elsewhere, even though he carefully puts on a mask. "Wearing on his face the look of grim enjoyment which was considered proper during the Physical Jerks, he was struggling to think his way backward into the dim period of his early childhood" (Orwell 1.3). Despite the fact that officially the nation is at war, Winston still retains a clear memory of when things were different. "Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war, but it was evident that there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his childhood, because one of his early memories was of an air raid which appeared to take everyone by surprise" (Orwell 1.3). Memories are what make us distinct -- our love for our parents, for example, suggests Orwell. Memories are also what give us allegiances to something other than the state; this is why Big Brother strives to wipe them out.
By the end of the novel, Winston's sense of self has been utterly obliterated, and there is a harmony between the emptiness he feels on the outside and on the inside. "A violent emotion, not fear exactly but a sort of undifferentiated excitement, flared up in him, then faded again.... Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table:…
