This article was written by Kyla Baker of Richard Montgomery High School
The mind-boggling dystopian future created in 1984 by George Orwell makes the novel a must-read. Orwell’s final and highly controversial dystopian novel, published in 1949, follows Winston Smith, a man living in Oceania—one of three warring totalitarian countries—while he questions life as he, and everyone around him, knows it. Oceania is made up of several different areas, but the main setting of the novel is London. It’s fellow totalitarian countries are Eurasia and Eastasia, which it frequently shifts between being allied with and against. Though, if you asked anyone in Oceania, they would say that Oceania had always been enemies with whichever country they’re at war with at the time.
One of the slogans of the government of Oceania was “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” The citizens of Oceania lived by it, while the government fed them other lies, such as “2+2=5” and drilled it into their brains.
Winston, however, is the exception.
While working at the Ministry of Truth—Minitru, in Newspeak, the language of Oceania—he corrects old newspaper articles that are found to be incorrect. For example, an article written about a war hero could later be corrected by Winston, and others in his department, after being found to contain information about an “unperson.” “Unperson” is the Newspeak word meaning exactly what it sounds like it means: a person who doesn’t exist, and has never existed.
Newspeak, in itself, is a language designed to withhold the truth. As it is developed, it eliminates “Oldspeak” words, such as “bad” and replaces them with prefixes and suffixes to create words such as “ungood,” with the same meaning, but less individuality. In fact, that is what the government of Oceania—the Party—does, it erases individuality. One way it is explained is “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” In erasing anything other than simple language, the government erases any possibility for free thought against them. Consistently throughout the novel, there are mentions of thoughtcrime, in fact, Winston himself is a Thought Criminal. A Thought Criminal is someone who thinks, speaks or acts against the Party. Amongst the common people, whether it be the Outer Party, or the proles (those who are not affiliated with the party, but still live in Oceania), there are Thought Police. Thought Police are members of the Inner Party who go undercover in order to make sure that there is no thoughtcrime, as their name implies. The ultimate goal is for everyone to be Orthodoxy, which is expanded on as “Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”
To fully understand the entirety of 1984, one would have to read it themself. The depth of the parties leadership, and the impacts of their rule are far too complex to simply be explained—they must be witnessed. Trapped in the same mental cage as Winston, the reader's eyes are opened to just how terrifying totalitarian rule can be, and the terror that comes with being the only person who knows the truth. Additionally, the novel can be heartbreaking. Betrayal, loss, and isolation are major themes—as demonstrated by the interpersonal relationships depicted, and the memories that Orwell is not supposed to have, but is stuck with.
However, there are definitely major downfalls that come with it. For starters, George Orwell’s depiction of characters who aren’t white men is less-than-satisfactory. Julia, Winston’s love interest, is grossly underdeveloped and seen as an object for the majority of the novel, as well as being the subject of Winston’s disturbing fantasies, which doubtlessly caused this novel to make banned-book lists. Additionally, Orwell rarely mentions any characters of color, but when he does, they are clearly presented as inferior to their white counterparts.
As Orwell’s last novel, 1984 serves as a warning to its readers, alerting them of the harmful realities of truth, and the government's control of it. Through biased media and mind-control procedures, the Party manages to utilize human nature against humans themselves, manipulating everyone under its rule to blindly follow their word. Similarly to today, in which major media is often biased to one side or the other.
Further, the Party erases and fabricates the past. As mentioned earlier, Oceania is always at war with either Eastasia or Eurasia, but regardless of who they are at war with, however recently they began that war, it is decided that whoever they are at war with is who they have always been at war with. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past,” in this scenario, the past, present, and future are all being controlled by Big Brother, the figurehead of the Party. Even now, ideas such as this are applicable. Truth and history are controlled by those in power.
Overall, despite its concerning and out-of-date ideologies, 1984 was intelligently crafted. With a thrilling plot, and an unexpected ending, it left me, and countless other readers, questioning the faith we put into the government as well as those around us, and who can really be trusted to define truth.
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