Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four
"War is peace" "Freedom is slavery" "Ignorance is strength"
Genre: Dystopian • political fiction • social science fiction Published: June 8, 1949 Author(s): George Orwell Pages: 328

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by English writer George Orwell. It was published on June 8, 1949 by Secker & Walburg, as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. It is an allegory of the potential consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and behavioural repression. Set in the dystopian superstate of Oceania, where independent thinking is suppressed by the Party and the country's leader Big Brother. Via the Thought Police, the novel follows Winston Smith, an editor for the government's Records Department, who secretly despises the Party and Big Brother and dreams of rebellion.

Plot

The novel takes place in a world torn apart by war and split into 3 totalitarian super-states. Counted among these super-states is Oceania, a super-state ruled over by the "Party" and the enigmatic Big Brother under the principles of "Ingsoc" (English Socialism). The populace of Oceania is monitored by the Party 24/7 via a police force known as the Thought Police and constant surveillance (ie two-way television sets known as Telescreens). Anyone caught in defiance of the Party's favor disappears and has all traces of their existence destroyed.

One of the provinces that make up Oceania is Airstrip One (formerly England). In London, Outer Party member Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth, rewriting historical documents to shape up to the Party's present political agendas. Secretly, however, he despises the Party's rule and wishes for a rebellion to spark, even though he is aware that he may be caught for "thoughtcrime" one day.

Why It Rocks

1. The novel depicts the potential consequences of totalitarianism; free speech and individuality are outright suppressed and people are expected to display total loyalty towards the government, otherwise they risk being "vaporized" from existence.
   • The novel also warns against 24/7 surveillance, presenting it as not only an invasion of privacy, but also as a means of taking away freedom when used for malicious intent.
2. Some issues presented within the novel have become eerily prevalent in modern times, such as 24/7 surveillance and how online mobs work (there are parallels to the Two Minutes Hate).
3. Oceania's official language, Newspeak, is interesting as a concept, being a language whose vocabulary that actually decreases each year as a means of limiting the range of thought and suppressing any negativity felt towards the Party.
   • The appendix at the end of the book helps to further explain the means in which the language eradicates any thoughts that the Party does not hold in favor.
4. Interesting characters:
   1. Winston Smith is a free-thinking middle-aged man to seeks to destroy the Party's morale and learn more about his past prior to the Party taking over.
   2. Julia is a streetwise Fiction Department worker who feigns loyalty to the Party, enters a forbidden relationship with Winston, and helps him develop a plan to eliminate the Party.
   3. O'Brien is an enigmatic member of the Inner Party who initially seems to be working for the cause against Big Brother, but later betrays Winston and Julia and brainwashes them. He is also quite intimidating as an antagonist, torturing and brainwashing Winston into accepting Big Brother.
5. There are some pretty memorable quotes such as:
   1. "I understand how. I do not understand why."
   2. "Big brother is watching"
   3. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
6. Intriguing twists and turns throughout, such as the fact that Julia is actually in love with Winston and that O'Brien was not an ally after all.
7. Plenty of convincing suspense, such as when Winston is spotted by Julia in proletarian territory and he think that she's a spy intent on turning him in to the Thought Police.
8. The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, a book within the novel written by "Oceania's biggest enemy" Emmanuel Goldstein, is quite insightful, explaining the origins of the Party's philosophy as well as making clear what Winston thinks of this since the book shares many of the ideas he has.
9. Neatly-crafted world building. The details provided about the Party's propaganda, record changing, and surveillance, along with details provided in The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, help make clear how horrible the state of the novel's world has become.
10. The speed of writing helps to emphasize the suspense and details of each scene. For example, Winston's torture in Room 101 goes slowly so that the intensity can take hold and the ferocity of the rats being brought to Winston's face can be emphasized in order to give readers a sense of dread.

Bad Qualities

1. Since Oceania was written as an allegory of the Soviet Union, some may deem this book to be irrelevant to modern times since the Cold War is long over and the Soviet Union has been dissolved since 1991.
2. The setting is somewhat overly unpleasant to the point that it may not be viewed as tragic at all.
3. The Party's views on sex (that it should only be used for reproduction and that no arousal shall be felt during it), as well as some aspects of Winston and Julia's relationship, come off as lacking credibility (especially the former).[clarification needed]
4. While the appendix provides plenty of insight on how the language of Newspeak works, it may also be considered tedious to read.

Reception

Nineteen Eighty-Four received critical acclaim when it was first published. It currently holds a 4.2/5 on Goodreads. BBC named the novel on its list of 100 most influential novels.

V.S. Pritchett, reviewing the novel for the New Statesman, stated: "I do not think I have ever read a novel more frightening and depressing; and yet, such as the originality, the suspense, the speed of writing and withering indignation that it is impossible to put the book down." P.H. Newby, reviewing Nineteen Eighty-Four for The Listener magazine, described it as "the most arresting political novel since Rex Warner's The Aerodrome." Nineteen Eighty-Four was also praised by Bertrand Russell, E.M. Forster, and Harold Nicolson. On the other hand, Edward Shanks, reviewing Nineteen Eighty-Four for The Sunday Times, was dismissive; Shanks claimed Nineteen Eighty-Four "breaks all records for gloomy vaticination." C.S. Lewis was also critical of the novel, claiming that the relationship of Julia and Winston, and especially the Party's view on sex, lacked credibility, and that the setting was "odious rather than tragic." Historian Isaac Deutscher was far more critical of Orwell from a Marxist perspective and characterised him as a "simple minded anarchist." Deutscher argued that Orwell had struggled to comprehend the diabolical philosophy of Marxism, demonstrated personal ambivalence towards other strands of socialism and his work, 1984, had been appropriated for the purpose of anti-communist Cold War propaganda.

Trivia

• The novel's title is a reversal of the last two numbers of 1948, the year the book was written.
• The term "Orwellian" is most often attributed to this novel.
• When deciding on a title for the novel, Orwell decided between 1984 and The Last Man in Europe.
• "2+2=5" was actually a real slogan used by Joseph Stalin two years after he initiated a five-year economic plan in the Soviet Union.
• In real life, the Empire of Japan had a policing organisation, the Special Higher Police, which were sometimes nicknamed the Thought Police.
• The Room 101 torture chamber featured in the novel is based on an actual Room 101 in the BBC Broadcasting House that Orwell worked in during his time as a propagandist.
• The character of Julia is believed to have been modelled after Orwell's second wife, Sonia Brownell.

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