FREE ESSAY ON GEORGE ORWELL - 1984

GEORGE ORWELL - 1984

George Orwell - '1984'- a bookreport by Olivier Stulp -Author: George Orwell (his real
name was Eric Blair), was born in India in 1903. He was educated at Eton. From 1922 to
1928 he served in Burma in the Indian Imperial Police, the following two years he lived
in Paris and after that went back to England as a schoolteacher. Later he worked in a
bookshop and went to Spain in 1937 to fight for the Republicans, but was wounded. During
WW II he was a member of the Home Guard and worked for the BBC. In 1943 he joined the
staff of the Tribune and contributed with his own page. He became regular contributor to
Observer, for which he went to France and Germany as special reporter. in the winter of
1948-49 he was taken seriously ill and died in London in 1950.Among his works are: 'Down
and out in London and Paris', 'Burmese Days', 'The Road to Wigan Pier', 'Homage to
Catalonia', 'Inside the Whale' and his famous 'Animal Farm'. His last novel, '1984' was
first published in 1949, and later a movie has been made about the book.Main
Characters:Winston Smith: A thirtynine year old man who is a member of the outerparty, of
the party that rules the world in those days. He works at the Ministry of Truth where he
falsifies the truth in order to correct the 'errors' from the past. He is good at his
work and is a vivid speaker of Newspeak, the official party language, also known as
Ingsoc. He makes the fatal mistake to begin a relationship with a much younger woman from
another department, and after he is discovered he is taken to the Ministry of Love to be
'remodelled'. Winston doesn't agree with what the party says and wants to join the
underground movement which is working on bringing the party down. He doesn't
succeed...Julia: The sex partner of Winston, although sex is only permitted to make
babies, they do it just for the fun. They have to do it in secret, for their relationship
is forbidden. Julia is also against the party, but also supports the party in everything
she does, so she won't be noticed by the Thoughtpolice.O'Brien: A member of the
innerparty, Winston turns to him when he wants to join the underground movement to
dethrone the party. O'Brien helps him getting on the illegal path and then betrays him
and takes him to the Ministry of Love.Big Brother: The face of the party. This is where
the slogan 'Big Brother is watching you' originates from. He is always right and cannot
die. The party's slogan is 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is
strength'.Goldstein: The enemy of Big Brother and the assumed leader of the underground
movement. Some people think Goldstein is not real and just made up by the party in order
to have an enemy to hate.Theme: The theme is somewhat the same as other books of this
sort like 'Brave New World' and 'Animal Farm', the writer wants to warn the reader not to
become too dependent or too obeying. 1984 is in some sense, just like 'Animal Farm', the
tale of Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell fought on the Republican
side and had to watch his comrades being murdered by Stalinists from within the
Republican Government.Characteristics: The story is set in a new world in the year 1984.
The world is devided into three major states: Oceania, that's Brittain and the Americas.
Eurasia and Eastasia are the other two, but Winston lives in Oceania, so the enemy is
always one of the other two. The narrator is sometimes omniscient, but sometimes you can
look into the mind of Winston. The 'camera' always follows Winston and thus he sort of
tells the tale. You also get to see the world through his eyes, his ideas and his 'false'
behaviour. There is symbolism in the book, the party represents evil and Winston is
supposed to be one of the good guys. But the story doesn't end like the normal book, it
doesn't have a happy ending, the good is defeated by the bad. But the writer warns you,
not to let this happen, not to let your life be controlled by a totalitarian government.
The genre, 1984 is in the tradition of alternative realism, for the writer creates a new,
'imaginary' world, but because new ideas are brought forward, it might as well be a novel
of ideas, just like 'Brave New World'. The title is just the opposite of the year in
which Orwell finished the book, 1948. He didn't start writing the book in that year,
because he has said once that he had started with 1984 before he wrote 'Animal Farm',
which was published in 1945. The language used is not difficult, although especially
during the explanation of the new society you sometimes need to reread something, but
that's also because in my version the letters were made very small in that passage, and
the Newspeak is from time to time a bit strange, but indeed very logical. The
turning-point is when Winston and Julia have been discovered by the thought police and
are taken to the Ministry of Love for mental reshaping.Summary:In the year 1984 the world
is devided into three superstates; Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The three superstates
are somewhat the same in social structure and ideals, they all want more power, but their
power is devided into three in that way that they can't completely win from one another.
And maybe that's why their social structure stays intact, because the war keeps the
advance rate low and the people in a constant state of terror, hereby submitting them to
your authority as their ruling Government. 'War is Peace': by being in warfare, you keep
the people's education level low, there is not much advance, and the people aren't
actually gonna think things over, you keep them suddated, garantueeing your own power.
'Freedom is Salvery': By being in a state of peace, the people are free, are gonna think
about political things because the struggle for life isn't a burden anymore. By thinking
they are gonna realize the imperfectness of modern society, hereby calling the doom of
the future upon themselves. Therefor you have to keep them occupied with war and terror.
'Ignorance is Strength': the people aren't learnt, and can fight without a conscious in
this way, and they won't think about the oddness of the constantly changing history, the
changing of the ally and the enemy of the party. No one has got thoughts not approved of
by the party, everybody excepts the party's 'truth', and everybody is happy.Winston is a
thirtynine year old outerparty member, and he works at the Ministry of Truth, dealing
with falsifying the past. He is good at his job, and although he does not agree with the
ideology of the party, he always does his work in the party's organisation, he even is
faithful to the two minutes of hate everyday, hate against the enemy of the party and the
opposite of Big Brother, Goldstein. The whole world is watched by telescreens, a sort of
television, but with the ability to watch the people looking at it, and it can never be
turned off. In this way the party watches all the partymembers and can thus control their
lives (Big Brother is 'watching' you). Actually Winston is a very stressed man who tries
to remember everything from the long gone past, not permitted to think about. He knows
that he is falsifying the past in his job, but while doing this he notices that the real
truth is drifting away, further and further. He then meets Julia, also a member of the
outerparty, and they have a forbidden sexual relationship. Forbidden because sex is only
permitted to create new life, not for pleasure, because the pleasure could endanger the
system. They have to meet in places where there are no telescreens nor any microphones,
put there by the party. Julia is also against the party's ideology, but disguises it by
acting very party-ish, just like Winston. After a while Winston rents a room, right above
an antiqueshop, where there are no telescreens and they can be intimate without anyone
knowing about it, well except the shopkeeper off course... Winston meets O'Brien, an
innerparty member, who says he is part of the anti-party-movement. Winston is interested
so they get together and O'Brien gives him the book with guidelines of the movement,
written by Goldstein. When one day Winston reads it to Julia in the room above the shop,
suddenly the Thoughtpolice is on to them and they are arrested, the shopkeeper wasn't to
be trusted after all. They're both taken to the Ministry of Love, to have a mental
remodelling session. They know that they will be tortured and probably will never return
to the world of the living again. For the world outside they have never exsisted. They
knew the risks when they embarked in their adventure, and were willing to take the
risk.Inside the Ministry of Love Winston is tortured in all sorts of horrible ways, but
never does he see Julia, not even a glimpse, and he stays loyal to her love. O'Brien
leads Winston's remodelling personaly and makes him suffer and does the most awful things
to him, always telling him that HE isn't right, and that the party is, the party is
always right. He also tells him that Goldstein is just the creation of the party, to have
a subject for th people's hate, and thus creating a very strong love for Big Brother, who
in fact is also a image, and not the real leader of the party, Big Brother will never
die, nor will he ever be wrong. And O'Brien himself wrote the book with the guidelines,
assumed to be written by Goldstein.A prisoner in the Ministry can only be executed, when
he has turned to the party completely, loving Big Brother and everything he stands for,
because otherwise he/she would too easily become the personification of resistance, a
martyr.The moment Winston sucumbs to the party is in room 101, where everybody's worst
nightmare becomes true, for Winston rats are the worst. At this moment he betrays Julia
for the first time by calling the suffering upon her, in order to save himself, at that
point he is completely turned over to the party. And he is released. And he LOVES Big
Brother.Outside, in the world again, with another identity, he meets Julia once, almost
unrecognizably changed. Then the story ends...- The End -