Review of Ninteen Eighty-four by George Orwell
In the mists of a cold war that threatened to warp humanity into a dangerous, authoritarian society, obliterated by nuclear bombardment and weaponry with incomprehensible consequences, George Orwell’s dystopian vision has defined the way we see the government, the secret services and ourselves. Set in a world where no one is safe and everyone fears for their lives, their integrity, and the very thoughts that make them human, the novel follows one seemingly unimportant “comrade” as he attends to his everyday duties: destroying incriminating photos, documents of “un-persons”, participating in the two minutes hate and rejoicing at the execution of traitors as they confessed their crimes against the glorious and godlike leader of the party: Big Brother.
But when Winston Smith begins to wonder about the significance of his own place in this society and the meaning behind his increasingly mundane life, he begins a downward spiral which leads him to embark on an illicit affair, hunt out the sworn enemy of the party: Emmanuel Goldstein, liaise with the outlawed Proles and commit the worst sin of all: that of thought crime. Overwhelmed with fear and feeling increasingly suspicious of all those around him, the only thought Winston had left to ponder in the rare times when he was truly alone, away from the all knowing telescreen’s, was when would he be taken?
As insightful and provocative as I found the novel's general motif's and themes, I often felt the novel relies too heavily on exposition, making the narrative feel clunky and un-even at times. However the prose itself is very fulent and the writing gives every character an odd sense of fear and depression about their person. Alluding perpahs to a reality felt by many real people, who lived through the regimes of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin who heavily relied on fear as a way of persuading people to grass up fellow Jews and “traitors” to the country.
Published in the Guthlaxton College newsletter December 2009
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3 Comments
When the book was written (in the late forties?), and even when I read it in the early sixties, the idea that a Big Brother could be watching our every move seemed quite preposterous - unbelievable science fiction. I'd be very interested to hear how a modern teenager, reading Orwell's story, views this aspect in the light of our current technology and the plethora of surveillance cameras all around us. Perhaps not inside every TV screen (as far as we know!), but just about everywhere else.
That Mist I think should have been "In the midst of a cold war" My bad.
Well first of all I was referring to the real cold war not the war in the book, perhaps I didn't make that quite clear enough. I was simply trying to emphasise the context in which Orwell was writing. But I suppose you could call the constant wars between Oceania, Eurasia and the other major power (whose name escapes me) a sort of cold war in the sense that there was no proof it was actually taking place and that the three nations seemed to be almost eternally locked in either a state of alliance or of war.
Also it appears to me that the affair does highlight Winston and Julia's (the girl who he was seeing, who seemed to lead him on) need and want for individuality. But I think it is more than just their desire to defy the party and "Big Brother". It is more about human nature and the desire to find the truth. Winston is clearly an intellectual and I think this is his greatest downfall. His intelligence must nag at him, bringing dissolution to the party's propaganda, propelling him to embark on a mission to find the truth. This can only be achieved by breaking out from the "mould" so to speak. Trying to come to some sort of conclusion from these ideas, I actually think the affair was more of a metaphor and a sub-text of the novel than it is an obvious lustful betrayal.
Of course these are just my views and it appears you think differently but I think it shows something when a piece of literature such as that can create so many varying and complex views.
On the effect it has on me. Well I spend most of my time in a school, whose computers have a very strict filtering system and even blocking the word "Maths" from being typed into google and several pages on wikipedia which really did make me stop and think. Knowledge is actually being restricted, we are being banned from learning certain subjects. Is this not what happened in 1984? The system also records everything we do. The teachers and the IT staff are all defiant in their justification of this which is that if people were allowed to go on whatever they wanted, most lessons involving computer ie: IT, would descend into an incontrovertible orgy of games, instant messaging and porn. So, in answer to your question I have thought about this in great detail and the novel I am writing at the moment deals with the failure of the education system and very much so like 1984, reviews what happens in a dictatorial state or school, only eleven to fourteen year old pupils really are helpless in that situation.
You can access a free copy of the book via google books online. If you do a search for "Nineteen Eighty four" you should find the complete text which you can print or view at your lesiure. It's well worth the read and unlike our conversations, quite a short novel.
Harry
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