Review of Related Studies
12 In her study, Andriani 1987 found that Orwell’s political thought and
background influence him in writing. Most of Orwell’s works contain personal experiences in engaging in some political events. He spent all his life in the year
of World War II. As a writer, Orwell starts to record what he feels about a lot of things and his experiences in his essay and novels. Orwell hates imperialism and
he feels that he wants to escape from it and from every form of man’s dominion over man. After conducting her biographical research, Andriani concludes that
Orwell’s purpose in writing Nineteen Eighty-four is to warn the readers of the danger of totalitarianism when it is practiced p. 52.
The second related study is Adiyanti’s thesis entitled Arts and Religion as Threats for a Totalitarian Power as Seen in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-
four . Unlike the first study which focuses on the Orwell’s biography and his
motives in writing Nineteen Eighty-Four, in the study Adiyanti seeks to scrutinize the profound link between art and religion related on totalitarian power.
Based on the Adiyanti’s analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn is that the presence of arts and religion may become threats for a totalitarian regime in
the efforts to maintain their power. Empirically, both arts and religion are able to open people’s eyes. They share ideas or concepts that can drive human mind to
take action. On the other hand, the target of a totalitarian regime is to gain control over human mind. Therefore under the regime arts and religion are strictly
controlled and limited. Realizing the capability of arts and religion, they are made to be compatible with government. Thus, arts and religion are employed as means
to spread government’s ideology 1998, p. 56.
13 I would like to see from a deeper perspective on art and religion in the
limited existence and repression as a part of structural violence. The study of oppression and violence would be more complete if the structures that maintain
the oppression and violence are also dismantled. In this present study, I discover a new aspect of the novel that has not been
discussed and analyzed in those two previous studies. It pays more attention to totalitarian state and its relation with the structural violence as the main problem
in this novel. This research figures out how the action of structural violence is maintained in the totalitarian state.