Book Review: 1984 by George Orwell

In the bleak painted world of Orwell’s 1984, Winston Smith lives in Oceania, where the political party of Big Brother controls its citizens’ every move. A member of the Outer Party working for the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth, Winston is against the Party but initially keeps his rebellious acts, such as his writings in his diary, low-key, recognizing that he is a “dead man” in just committing thoughtcrime (28). However, Winston’s insurgence towards the Party only grows when the dark-haired girl from the Fiction Department gives Winston a note that reads, “I love you,” leading to a love affair between the two (108). Believing that O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party, is also against Big Brother, Winston and Julia confess to him about their relationship, hoping to join the conspiracy of the so-called “Brotherhood”. Things take a turn for the worst when Winston and Julia are caught in their hideaway by the Thought Police. The next thing that is known by Winston’s conscience is his presence in the Ministry of Love, where he is tortured by O’Brien, who reveals to Winston that the Party, including himself, had been monitoring him for the past seven years. Winston is completely stripped of humanity when he is taken to Room 101 to experience his worst fear, leaving his only sense of emotion to be his distorted love for Big Brother.

As many qualified professional book readers do, I read the blurb as soon as I received this book. Being a huge fan of novels containing historical features, the phrase that stood out to me when reading the description of 1984 was “timelier than ever”. Indeed, this book has remained timeless and even internationally acknowledged through several decades, as my father told me that he and his siblings read the book when they were in secondary school during the ‘70s in Argentina. The question that I ponder is, what exactly has enabled this book to become such an enduring novel to this day?

Like many political writers, Orwell had an intended purpose that went beyond the miserable fate of the “Last Man in Europe”. Orwell warns his readers of the dangers of totalitarianism; this can easily be understood by the circumstances that were occurring around the time of 1984’s publishing, which greatly influenced Orwell’s political thoughts. Upon researching Orwell’s political stance during his lifetime, I found that one event in particular deeply affected Orwell’s view towards totalitarianism. Believing in the socialist ideal of abolishing class differences, Orwell travelled to Spain in 1936 to fight for the communist republicans in the civil war against the fascists. However, when the Spanish government under the influence of Moscow persecuted members of The Marxist Workers’ Party, which Orwell happened to be a part of, Orwell was left with a deep mistrust and hatred of communism and fascism because he saw how the regimes from both sides has misrepresented the truth of the Spanish Civil War. From 1936 onwards, Orwell was to dedicate everything he wrote towards waging war on totalitarianism. In 1984, Orwell pursues his warning against totalitarian governments by demonstrating through Winston’s perspective how the Party controls its subjects’ through manipulation. The Party, which “seeks power entirely for its own sake,” alters history in order to control the present (263). That is why when Oceania is declared to be at war with Eastasia, it has always been at war with Eastasia according to the Party, and never with Eurasia, although Winston notes that this is not true. The Party does not allow its citizens to keep photographs, and the sources of information given to the citizens are always falsified, as seen by Winston’s job in the Records Department. Moreover, when people are vaporized, as what happened to Syme, no trace of them is left behind, further proving how the Party controls even people’s existence.

In the beginning of the book, Winston questions, “If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?” (80). This very question is enforced by the idea that the Party holds superiority over reality when O’Brien tells Winston, “Nothing exists except through human consciousness,” which indicates that if the Party controls people’s minds, then they consequently can control the present (265). Much like the contradicting USSR policies and the misrepresentation of intellectuals that Orwell experienced during his lifetime, the Party is able to manipulate its citizens with the language called “newspeak”. Newspeak is what allows dual explanations, such as that of “the earth is the center of the universe” to be recognized as false only for “certain purposes” where it is “convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometers away” (266). In addition, Newspeak is able to further restrict the freedom of the citizens of Oceania by cutting down words, which in turn makes the ability to express opinions impossible. Thus, as Syme states, “orthodoxy means not thinking,” because with Newspeak, there is no need for thought (53).

If purely based on the quality of a well-resolved storyline, I would not recommend 1984 to the average passionate reader. 1984 is by far the most disturbing book I have read, as the psychological and physical torture that is experienced by Winston illustrates an intense reading atmosphere. Furthermore, I was left with several questions and a feeling of lonesome at the ending of this book. Although I did not enjoy discovering the hopeless and dreadful situations of Winston and Julia, I ached to find out if the Party ever fell. The appendix containing “The Principles of Newspeak” describes Newspeak in past tense, which implies that the Party did indeed fall, but a more substantial resolution would leave me, as the reader, more at ease. However, I do recommend 1984 for a more philanthropic reason; Orwell was effective in his motive of warning his readers about the dangers of a totalitarian government. My own father, having grown up under the right wing dictatorship in Argentina, was lucky enough to receive a copy of 1984. Because of such political literature, my father was able to recognize the threat of his country under a repressive government and escaped the similar dystopia in which Winston will forever be entrapped in this timeless forewarning.