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Nineteen Eighty-Four – A Tale Of Totalitarian Repression


George Orwell’s most notable book is most definitely ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, a book that showcased Orwell’s deep seated hatred for Totalitarian regimes. The book was a what if rhetorical question; what if the west lost?; what if Stalinism persisted, and took over the world as we know it. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a peering look into the bleak world, split into three main continental powers… Oceania, Eurasia and East Asia.

I read the first chapter and saw how Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rather influential book. The working class men going to work and going through his daily routine is now almost a cliché opening scene in storytelling. Perhaps cliché is too harsh a word… but it’s been used so often in all forms of media since the publishing of this book. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is an outer party worker working in the news department. In this world, no one writes any longer. Machines churn out pieces of fiction and even news(which is fiction themselves) and Winston modifies the news to mirror new changes to the parties stance or to correct so called ‘errors’.

Winston clearly is not how we would define a human… he is completely heartless even emotionless as the thoughts he has is downright psychopathic. He contemplates or rather imagines strangling and ravaging Sarah, his love interest the first time he met her. He felt a strong hatred for her, it wasn’t really explained well enough why. This rather unexpected emotion Winston has defines what Nineteen Eighty-Four is. And as the book progresses, it becomes clearer why Winston thinks the way he does.

The ruling party called Ingsoc(which is short for English Socialism I gather) runs with the motto War Is Peace, Ignorance Is Strength, Freedom Is Slavery. A complete totalitarian regime that rewrites history to fool the masses into thinking the situation is a lot better prior to the revolution. Emotions and thoughts are the main enemies of Ingsoc. Thought police monitor everyone all the time to apprehend those that has been deemed to commit a thoughtcrime(the thought of committing a 'crime' is as good as committing said crime). A constant state of war is perpetrated by Ingsoc to keep people focused on the enemies of Oceania. The party itself is divided into the inner part, outer party and then we have the proles(which is a short for proletarian as many have surmised).

The term Big Brother was invented by Orwell in this novel. The all seeing, overbearing leader of the party. No one knows where he is or has ever seen him.  Big Brother's presence haunts Winston and other denizens in the form of propaganda posters. The type with huge bulging eyes that constantly follow you wherever you are. Winston starts to have doubts and begins to discover his humanity long lost within him.

With Sarah, he finds someone who makes him human again. Sarah as a character is rather naïve and rather apathetic to the human struggle.  Winston is unperturbed by this and goes against all his reason, knowing that it’ll be the end of him if ever the thought police catches on to his rebellious thoughts. Winston and Sarah eventually get caught and they end up being brainwashed in the Ministry of Love(a department where pain and torture are the order of the day).

Nineteen Eighty-Four is obviously not a feel good novel. It’s dark and depressing and the ending in particular is chilling. It is a haunting reminder of the dangers and cruelty of totalitarian regimes. The warped minds of a brainwashed society that doesn't even know what is right and wrong. Or that humans are even capable of feeling and thinking. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four remains a venerable piece of writing to this day for this.

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