Identity Essay Intro

Question 1

Part 1

The struggle for identity is entrenched (CONTENTION)….. in…

Answer 1

The struggle for identity is entrenched (CONTENTION)….. in George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, and thoroughly explored in Anna Funder’s ‘Stasiland’.

Both authors wrestle with the idea of the individual versus collective identity with neither suggesting that they are ever mutually exclusive. Orwell and Funder instead offer a warning and real world insight into the dangers of oligarchical collectivism.

Funder, whose account sheds light on both the victims and perpetrators inside totalitarian regime of the GDR, uncovers how old wounds are still persisting in the present.

Question 2

Part 2

Despite that Funder’s interviewees are still somewhat ‘trapped in time’, they…

Answer 2

Despite that, Funder’s interviewees are still somewhat ‘trapped in time’.

By taking advantage of the flaws in the regime, many were able to live true to themselves despite the attempts of the stasi to reject individualism.

Winston, on the other hand, has far less agency in the fictionalised Oceania. The looming force known as ‘Big Brother’ enforces oligarchical collectivism as way to treat the citizens as puppets

Question 3

Part 3

It is this constant surveillance coupled with more extreme measures to…

Answer 3

It is this constant surveillance coupled with more extreme measures to force compliance that renders any free expression near impossible.

Thus while Orwell’s novel depicts identity as being dictated by forces outside the individual’s control, Funder’s account suggests that the sense of self is formed by internal and external forces.