Review: 1984 by George Orwell

Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Publication Date: June 8, 1949

Publisher: Plume 

Genre: Classics, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia

Add to Goodreads

The new novel by George Orwell is the major work towards which all his previous writing has pointed. Critics have hailed it as his "most solid, most brilliant" work. Though the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place thirty-five years hence, it is in every sense timely. The scene is London, where there has been no new housing since 1950 and where the city-wide slums are called Victory Mansions. Science has abandoned Man for the State. As every citizen knows only too well, war is peace.

To Winston Smith, a young man who works in the Ministry of Truth (Minitru for short), come two people who transform this life completely. One is Julia, whom he meets after she hands him a slip reading, "I love you." The other is O'Brien, who tells him, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." The way in which Winston is betrayed by the one and, against his own desires and instincts, ultimately betrays the other, makes a story of mounting drama and suspense.

The acclaimed 1984 lives up to its name. I have read this book when I was a young teen, perhaps 14 or so, but re-reading it again now that I am 21 has an utterly different feel. This book is downright disturbing at times but it is so interesting to see what a society would be like if we thought deeply about power, what it means to have power, and how power as an end can destroy the human race. Simply put, 1984 is a masterpiece and explores issues such as totalitarianism, mass surveliance, and repression with utmost nuance and thought. It is an ingenius masterpiece because of how obtruse the tenets it ring, (War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery) how seamless the arguments are in defending these tenets, and how mind opening it is to understand such antithetical reasoning. The Emmanuel Goldstein book chapter was by far the climax of the story, where we are finally revealed the secrets of the world and why those tenets come to be; after the readers are left waiting for answers on what these three statements mean, it is given on a silver platter using a book in a book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book a second time as an adult, because now I am able to fully understand the nature of the world and how societies are run. 

What I liked the most about this book was how thought out the worldbuilding was and how much detail was put into every aspect from an appendix to explain Newspeak, to the Goldstein book, to the terms such as Thought Police, thought crime, crime stop, blackwhite, and doublethink. Orwell argues that rules in this society are paradoxical--he asks many questions and explores them with utmost clarity in his writing. It was never hard to follow the arguments, and I believe this is a feature of good writing that arguments are not convoluted so that the general public can follow. What was terrifying was how true the book rung; paradoxes in thinking exist in everyday life and this manifests in how to be a good citizen and in political issues. Citizens of communists societies are required to not only obey but love Big Brother with all their heart. As O'Brien states, "You must love Big Brother. It is not enought to obey him: you must love him". Why is this? It is for the endless obtention of power. Winston Smith speaks for all of humanity, while O'Brien is the speaker for an authoritarian government. The most terrifying part is that Winston Smith has no power against the Party as a single individual. Individualism in this society is wiped out completely by the Party and people have no choice but to love Big Brother, and not only obey. This is because obediance has a catch to it; people who obey do so only with an external facade but inside they have not accepted all the doctrines of the authority figure. This internal fight between the inner and outer self is dangerous not only for the individual but for society because one day, if people simply obeyed but not loved Big Brother, they would rebel. The hate for Big Brother would cause an uprising and so O'Brien, in the Ministry of Love which is the torture chambers, states that he is torturing Winston Smith out of "Love" for humanity to make him sane enough to be controlled by the Party. But another question that must be brought up, in the midst of this mass surveilance movement and the extreme meausres to control individual thought, is that "Why is Big Brother always watching?" The answer is twofold. As much as Big Brother is watching to make citizens fear this figure that is not a single person that has even manifested but the collection of the government in this dystopian society, it can be also seen to be out of "love" and to protect the citizen. Having this twofold, paradoxical thought is already termed by Orwell as doublethink. It is so fascinating to see the meaning of words and its etyomology in its face value. "Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." The most shocking thing is that this is actually true and resonates in states of totalitarian regiments, making it so terrifying to read. The lawyers who make the laws for the sake of "justice" can also be the ones creating more discrimination and systemic racism. Orwell's 1984 is an embodiment of societal structure, critizicing, interrogating, and theorizing what a world would be like in a state of English Socialism, or also known in the book as Ingsoc. 

Another quote that held reverence includes "Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past." The Party's means of controlling the past means to control human memory by wiping facts and reccords out of existence. Winston Smith works in this department, called the Ministry of Truth. Again, the names are paradoxical. The Ministry of Truth is concerned with lying to the public about the past, rewriting it over and over. What Orwell means to say is that the past is so important because it is based on human memory which is an intangiable thing that is only kept in written reccords. But if the government were able to completely obliterate these reccords, the citizens have no choice but to believe what the Party says. The individual is left completely in the present state, believing every orthodoxy that comes out of the Party's mouth. But it is memory of the past that makes a human essentially human, and so for the government to control the past is Orwells way of stating how dangerous it is for a country to have complete state control. But in this society, the individual cannot simply still think that the past exists as much as it is wiped out in order to keep them sane, they must believe the Party when they say what the past is comprised of in order to defend against a state of dangerous neurosis, as illustrated by Winston Smith. 

Another thing I wanted to mention is how "Big Brother" is the equivalent of a family member; as much as you want to escape your family you cannot; hence, you cannot escape the love and care of the nuclear family. Big Brother is society's family. Big Brother is a citizen's protector and god. We must love Big Brother and follow his religion in order to function properly or else we will be suffering like Winston Smith. Winston Smith is the representation of a bad child who is not listening to society, hence the Thought Police are on him. Children are rule followers so it is children who condemn adults to the thought police. 1984 is basically the representation of society and the rules. 

Finally, fear is an important theme in this novel. Without fear, we would not love our family or Big Brother. We would be perpetually sad, lonely, and frustrated if we did not fear authority. Authority is the protector of mankind and therefore to love Big Brother is to love yourself. Fear is an important part of power, and whoever controls one's emotions and mind controls the entire world. Big Brother doesn't even exist as a single entity but it is a unified idea that embodies all. Big Brother is the epitome of a parent, but authoritarian and not authoritative in the direct light but in another light, he could still be authoritative because he is responsive to his citizens, or, his children. George Orwell unviels psychology and critiques it using the novel. 

1984 is truly a masterpiece that everyone should read. I read this book when I was a young adult, but I did not understand the full meaning of the book until now that I am 21. It synthesizes the issues of society and is a cautionary tale worth reading. It tells us the thoughts that we have in our minds but are afraid to speak out. It tells us what we already think and know, and puts everything into words. It is a precious masterpiece to behold and keep, so that we can remember what it is to be human. We, the reader, is Winston Smith trying to fight the Ingsoc society alone. But we have to remember that we are human and cannot forget our past so that we have a present. If we as individuals control the past, in particular, our past, then we control the present. I wholly believe in individualism having been born in a Western country, as much as I recognize the value of collectivism and survelliance of citizens "for their own good". However, Orwell's cautionary tale is an indicator that doing things "for their own good" is harmful to the individual and in some ways, horrific as well. I never want to have someone do something for my own good to the extreme because it would destroy my psyche. Orwell magnificently ties together society's problems in a book and it left me speechless. I am recommending this book to everyone, youths and adults included so we are aware of the problems we have in society and how to avoid a societal catastrophe.