1984 - Dystopian Novel Description
Dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), written by George Orwell, depicts a society under a dictatorship where thoughts and actions are monitored and controlled.
The first title for this novel was The last man in Europe, but Orwell changed it because Frederic Warburg, publisher, suggested him to do so. It's unknown why he has chosen the title 1984, there is presumption that he might have been switched the numbers( he began writing it in 1948).
The story occurs in London, a province of the state Oceania. Beside Oceania, there are two more totalitarian states that controlled world, Eurasia and Eastasia.
Oceania is a totalitarian state ruled by a group The Party which leader and dictator is Big Brother (resembles Joseph Stalin). Posters of "Big Brother" with the slogan BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU can be found everywhere. Public thought is guided with slogans: War is Piece, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. Oceania's citizens are divided into three classes- The Inner Party, The Outer Party, and the Proles, they have no right either to a personal life or to personal thoughts, his memory is quite cancelled, the past is considered as something to forget. The Party monitored the citizens through Ministry of True. The Thought Police has set hidden microphones, telescines in all living quarters and in every public area how they can find and spy thought criminals. Children are also thought to spy their parents and report their suspected thoughts. In the Oceania, there are four ministries: Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty, Ministry of Truth and Ministry of Love, in Newspeak : Minipax, Miniplenty, Minitrue and Miniluv. Newspeak is the minimalist artificial language invented by The Party.
The protagonist is Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, who lives in London and works in the Ministry of Truth. His job is to change historical information, destroy evidence, amend newspaper article and delete people identified as unperson by the Party, all that in order to portray the Party and Big Brother right and correct. He hates the government and he begins writing a diary in which he reveals his anti-government thoughts. The proles, the lowest class in the society who live without police surveillance fascinate him. He becomes friend with the the prole who owns a shop, Mr. Charrington, with whom he talk about the facts and life before the rule of Big Brother. She meets Julia, a worker in another department in the Ministry of Truth, who gives him a paper telling him that she loves him. They secretly begin a romantic relationship, renting the unmonitored room above Mr. Charrington's shop where they can meet and talk about their hopes of freedom.
One day, O' Brien, a member of the Inner Party, approaches Winston and in order to prove his contact with the Brotherhood - opponents of the Party dedicated to fighting Big Brother -gives him a copy of 'The book", a document written by the Emmanuel Goldstein, the leader of the Brotherhood. While Winston and Julia are reading the book in the rented room, the Thought Police arrive there and arrest them. Then, he realizes that Mr. Charrington is a Thought Police agent. They are taken to the Ministry of Love and separately interrogated there. O'Brien, who is actually a government agent, tortures and brainwashes him to accept and believe in Party doctrine. After his release, he becomes a valid member of society who loves only Big Brother.