1984 By George Orwell

“Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared. And even if we chose to let you live out the natural term of your life, still you would never escape from us. What happens to you here is forever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.”

This is what Winston Smith heard from one whom he believed was an ally during his imprisonment in the Ministry of Love. In 1984, the world is divided into three main factions: Oceania, where Winston dwells, Eastasia and Eurasia. In 1984, the government in Oceania is divided into four main branches: the Ministry of Truth, which handles the news, entertainment, education and the arts, the Ministry of Peace, which concerns itself with the war, law and order is maintained by the Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty is responsible for economic affairs. In 1984, even though nothing is illegal, because there are no laws, the simple act of keeping a diary could result in the death of the writer, if the Thought Police were ever to capture him (it is not a question of whether or not the Police would discover it, it would be inevitable for the writer to keep it secret forever). George Orwell’s 1984 ensnared me completely, using a well written story as the bait, the content of that story being the trap.

Orwell wrote this book in the `40's, using what was happening in the world as inspiration. 1984 illustrates what would have happened if democracy had been lost and communism and socialism had prevailed. Of course, in this book, none of the governments claim to be either communist or socialist, but considering their policies and methods of handling matters, it is only completely clear to someone from our time that the governments are what they claim they are not. Hardly anybody in 1984 realize this, though, because the government essentially brainwashes all of its people. If a person is not completely brainwashed and is able to think for themselves thoughts that contradict that of the government’s ideals, the Thought Police handles them. Kidnaping and vaporizations are common but are almost ignored completely. A coworker may be talking to someone one day and that will be the last day he is ever seen. If who he was talking to is inquisitive and asks around for news about him, he will be shocked to learn that the coworker who went missing never existed in the first place! The Thought Police handles any opposition to the government harshly and swiftly, whether the opposition is a single thought (“I doubt that the government actually cares about its people as long as it can remain in power,”) or the massive bombing of a building. “The more power a government holds over its people, the less human its ‘people’ become.” With the use of Newspeak, a language in progress (basically English but limited greatly; this was so to be able to limit the thoughts of the people), Big Brother, the government of Oceania, held more and more power over the people with each passing day. With each passing day, the people became more and more inhuman, following and listening blindly, with independent thought becoming more and more obsolete.

Doublethink is prevalent in 1984. Doublethink is the ability to KNOW that black is white when told so and to forget that black and white used to be two different things (2+2=5. to be able to know this when Big Brother proclaims that this is correct is to use doublethink; two plus two was four, as it used to be known, but when Big Brother says differently, it is different. so two plus two may equal anything but right now it equals five. to be able to know that two plus two equals five and to be able to forget that it used to be four and to know that it has always been five and to forget that doublethink is being used at all in the process (to forget that you are lying to yourself) is to use doublethink itself). Orwell uses a myriad of contradictions in his story, proving that the government has absolute control over its subjects and that the subjects are oblivious to this (in the story, though this possible future may become the present soon enough). Big Brother is always right. “Yesterday we were at war with Eastasia and it had always been so...”,“Today, Eurasia is the enemy, Eastasia is our ally and this has always been so.” It may be difficult to understand how the people could be so ignorant. All records that contradict what the government says now are destroyed or edited to ensure that the government has always been right and correct. The people in the Ministry of Truth, where Winston worked, tamper with history (newspapers, books, movies, etc.), making sure that Big Brother has always been right and that his/its mind has never changed (to change one’s mind is to show weakness). The editors then forget that they edited history at all and remember what they had edited to be truth. The Ministry of Truth is based on nothing but lies. Doublethink is prevalent in 1984.

1984 is a complicated story and needs to be read at least three different times to be able to understand every part of it completely. This should not be a chore though. This book is written well enough that each time it is read, it should still captivate the reader. Other than needing to read it more than once to catch every detail and contradiction, despite how complicated and how hard the story is to follow at times, this is one of the best books, if not THE best book, I have read and I recommend it to anyone who can read it. If a person can not read it, they should master the craft of reading and/or the English language just to be able to read this book.

(NOTE: this is not a good book in the sense of “happily ever after.” this is a good book in the sense that it provokes analysis of oneself, of the government and of the world.)