Korchmar Svyatoslav, 308 language group
The review on the book “1984” (by George Orwell)
About the author
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel-antiutopia written by George Orwell in 1949. It was published half a century ago, but it is appreciated nowadays in several ratings like The Times or Newsweek like one of the best antiutopias written about the threat of totalitarianism. The name of the novel has become a common noun describing a way of life of the socialistic society if the USSR and its ideology would have conquered the world.
George Orwell was born in 1903 in Motihari, a place of British India, in a family of a British trade agent. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair. He studied in the school of St. Ciprian and attended Eton College from 1917 to 1921. In the period of 1922-1927 he served as a colonial policeman in Birma, and then he lived in London for a long time on casual earnings. Also in that period he set out writing prose and political essays. His pen name was inspired in 1935 by the river called Orwell.
He participated in the civil war of 1936 in Spain. That event he described in the documental narrative “Homage to Catalonia” and in a feature story “Remembering war at Spain” published in 1953.
In 1946 he wrote a novel “Animal Farm” where he showed the reborn of revolutionary principles and programs. It is considered to be an allegory to the Revolution of 1917 in Russia.
The novel-antiutopia “Nineteen Eighty-Four” has become an ideological continuation of “Animal Farm”. That is where a lot of worldwide known phrases as “Big Brother is watching you”, “doublethink”, “thought crime”, “newspeak” and others came from.
George Orwell died from tubercle in London in January 1950. A few days before, Desmond MacCarthy had sent him a message of greeting on his last book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which he wrote: "You have made an indelible mark on English literature . . . you are among the few memorable writers of your generation."
Contents
This novel arouses interest as a product of deep analysis of political socialistic system. As for me, this book shows an example of what the government is capable for the purpose of profit and concealed despotism. The phenomena described by Orwell take place in the modern society: biased information disseminated by mass media, exceeding one’s authority and acquiring success by deception of people.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the world is divided into four huge territories: Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia and the disputed area lying between the frontiers of the super-states. The World has overcome the consequences of the global nuclear war in 50s, and after that on the territory of disputed area, it means in South Africa and on the territory of past India the permanent battles between super-states are conducted. None of the countries isn’t able to conquer each other because of the military power of each.
One of the super-states, Oceania, is a country with a severe totalitarian regime. Its inhabitants are deprived of the civil rights and individuality. There is a strict hierarchy in the society, headed by the Big Brother – a common name that is considered to rule all over the country. He carries out the supervision of all the dwellers with the help of television screens that are equipped with the dual image communication – the audience can also be seen at the other side of the cable. Big Brother demand the implicit obedience from the citizens, and they shake from the fear to be punished by their God, Father and Protector at the same time.
The social class system of Oceania is threefold:
The Inner Party, the upper-class, the elite ruling minority
The Outer Party, the middle-class, numerous minor workers
The Proles (from proletariat), the lower-class, who make up 85% of the population and represent the uneducated working class
As the government, the Party controls the population with four ministries:
the Ministry of Peace, which deals with war actions
the Ministry of Plenty, which deals with food, goods, and domestic production
the Ministry of Love, which deals with identification, monitoring, arrest, and conversion of dissidents
the Ministry of Truth, which deals with propaganda
The main slogan of the party called INGSOC (means “English Socialism”) is:
“WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
Any thought that is hostile to The Party must be eradicated. The organization called Thought Police suspects the thought criminals and delivers them in the Ministry of Love (the love of the Big Brother) first for punishing and making him confess, and then for the torture. For the purpose of making people think less, the language becomes primitive, mentioned in the novel as Newspeak; books and newspapers are rewritten to hide the real truth; betrayal and snitching are respected, even on the members of the family. This atmosphere of never-ending persecution drives people to despair and insensitivity.