1984
by George Orwell
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Signet (New York): 1949. Paperback: 268 pages. ISBN-10: 0-451-52493-4 Suggested retail price: $5.95 (US) Tags: Big Brother; conformity; Dystopia; government; made into movie; Political; socialism; torture Tactical strength: [8/10] |
Orwell's 1984 impressed me most, not for the quality of the story or characters, but rather, for the sheer number of literary and cultural references that have originated from this text. "Big Brother" and "doubleplusungood" only scratch the surface of this book's influence. For example, I could easily make a case that the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation copied from Orwell in scenes where the Cardassians try to brainwash Captain Picard into seeing five lights. When a book has this far reaching effect, we can easily recognize it as a classic.
1984 follows a fairly simple plot. Winston Smith lives in an oppressive, socialist society. He belongs to the Party and works at rewriting newspaper articles so that history will always demonstrate the party's infallibility. Winston secretly hates the Party and wishes he could join the Brotherhood--an anti-government group rumored to exist. Winston falls in love with Julia, and they have a forbidden affair (Winston is married, and they have sex for pleasure rather than to produce new Party members). The Party has Winston and Julia arrested, and the remainder of the book shows Winston's transformation through torture and brainwashing into a Big Brother-loving party member.
The plot runs along smoothly except for two chapters of political lecture disguised as chapters of the text used by the underground movement. Orwell has Winston read these chapters, but the details would have worked better intertwined with the plot and not as a lump sum digression.
Throughout most of his torture, Winston clings to the idea that someone will rise up and overthrow the party. In a typical novel, the author would demonstrate the hero's superior position by having that character somehow triumph over the opposition. But Winston, as an individual, cannot stand against the power of the Party. Curiously, Orwell only offers a vague hint that man can overcome such an oppressive government. Orwell writes an afterword that describes Newspeak, the official language of the Party. He writes the entire afterword in the past tense, referring to the Party and Oceania, the Party's country, as curious items in the past -- the same way we discuss Hitler's Nazi regime today.
Written in 1948, Orwell meant 1984 as a warning about the trends toward socialism in government. Through the hint of hope in the afterword, Orwell suggests that something in the human spirit can triumph over an evil, oppressive government, but the effort of a single individual will probably not be enough.
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