1984- Party slogans
You’re going to be getting some reviews of classic literature more than contemporary books over the next few months. I have a long reading list ahead of me for a course I am starting in September. 28 years old and heading back to College again.. Thanks a bunch Ireland, austerity is keeping me a student for life!
1984, written in the 1940’s by George Orwell paints an all-too vivid dystopian nightmare, and is now even more relevant than the day it was written.
Orwell began to write the book in 1946 having suffered through the second world war. He was recently widowed and was raising a young son alone. When his Editor at the Observer offered to let him write and live at a house he owned on the island of Jura in the Hebrides, Orwell jumped at the chance. In poor health, Orwell set to work on his manuscript. 1984 would be his swansong, and he struggled to complete it. He died shortly after its completion in 1950. Perhaps in some way his sense of isolation and recent grief fed into the book, because 1984 is not an easy read, nor is it meant to be. It is a lonely and claustrophobic book which serves as a cautionary tale to a world with an uncertain future.
Orwell constructs his nightmare civilization in an interesting way. The government of Oceania a totalitarian state which governs ever expanding territories including Britiain aims not only to control citizen’s lives but also their minds. Party members who work at one of the ministries have to be constantly vigilant , at work and at home they are constantly observed by a telescreen (iphone?) which both transmits constant news and monitors citizen’s every move.
Winston works at the ironically named ministry of truth, where his job consists of re-writing news stories, effectively editing history to suit the current mood of the party.
” ‘Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'” Part 1, Chapter 3, pg. 37
The originals are then burnt leaving no trace. According to the party, the new truth must then be accepted by all as the absolute truth, even though “truth” is constantly in flux. A process called “doublethink” allows citizens to erase the previous truth but believe the new one. If one is able to “doublethink” correctly, then it is easy to avoid “thoughtcrime”.
A three tier class system operates in Oceania, at the bottom are the “proles” who are ironically the most free. They are not monitored by telescreens, they live in slums and are encouraged to entertain themselves into servitude. The ministry of fiction has a whole department dedicated to churning out entertainment such as pop songs and porn for the proles. This type of material is known as ‘Prolefeed’ in newspeak. The proles drink, breed and fight amongst themselves, they live in different areas to party members. The party is of the opinion that the proles can never rise because they lack intelligence.
“They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and, above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.” Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 71
The middle class consists of outer party members like Winston and Julia, the most unfortunate class, they are closely scrutinized by the inner party and have to be constantly on call both in work at the ministries or in the recreational time during which they are meant to take part in community activities. The inner party represents the top tier and consists of the elite government officials, little is revealed about this class but it can be deduced in the novel that corruption is rampant within this class and the privileges that they enjoy compared to the outer party are immense.
Winston constantly struggles with his anti-party sentiments, keeping a secret journal just out of view from his telescreen. This linguistic crime might seem minimal but in a society where even unscrupulous thoughts are illegal, physical evidence of subversion is an extreme act of rebellion. Winston’s second act of dissent is an affair with fellow party member Julia. Together, they rent a small bedroom illegally above an antique furniture store. It is in this small space that they are free to experience love, to experience each other with such freedom that it feels as though they have annexed a small piece of territory which is free from the oppressive rule of Oceania.
However, even this love affair contains within it the seeds of it’s own destruction. Winston knows he is doomed before he begins because Big Brother is always watching and no one escapes his omniscience. Julia and Winston try to join a revolutionary group but find themselves face to face with the inner party. Winston finally meets an inner party member named O Brien, who he mistook for a revolutionary. O’ Brien tortures him for what seems like years, arguing his ideology between electric shock treatments.
But Winston still manages to evade the mind control the party aims for. He holds on to his love for Julia, or at least the idea of it. He holds on to the idea that he has not betrayed her. But something is waiting in room 101 which will push him beyond his limits. Winston’s story ends on a sad note, but there is still hope for the future. In an appendix to the story, which is written in the form of a historical essay on ‘newspeak’ (Oceania’s official new language which aims to reduce the number of words, and therefore the number of thoughts). The existence of this appendix gives hope to the reader because it signals that Oceania ceased to exist at some unknown point. Maybe the proles finally rose up against the party? Maybe the never ending frontier wars ended unfavorably? Orwell is not giving anything away. Just a tiny sliver of hope- and at the end of this novel, it felt like enough.
Book Urchin 