1984, by George Orwell, tells the story of a nightmare dystopian society, where a brutal regime known as the IngSoc Party rules over the nation of Oceania. At the heart of Ingsoc lies their central figure: the omnipotent man known only to the public as Big Brother. Big Brother is everywhere in society, and is entirely inescapable, he is on all cameras and TV screens, he is drilled into party members, and always responsible for any achievements made by the party. 1984 tells the story of Winston, a disgruntled member of the Ingsoc state (known chiefly as Oceania) as he struggles to dissent against the ideas of big brother and pierce through what has been programmed in his mind for his entire life. 

At the beginning of the story, Winston is the average party member for the Republic of Oceania; he works his mandated government shift, consumes his daily rations, participates in state mandated activities, and sleeps (all under the monitor of big brother, of course). However, Winston’s first steps of dissent begin with the purchase of a paper journal, which is considered contraband in Oceania. With this book, Winston begins to write out all his inner, suppressed thoughts of resistance to Big Brother. This process continues, with Winston slowly recording his thoughts and also slowly losing his faith in Big Brother. The turning point for Winston later comes when while working, he meets a woman named Julia. Julia and Winston soon fall in love together, defying many of the party laws of love, and Marriage to be together. Their relationship continues to grow in secret, and as their relationship grows, they bolster each other in resistance to big brother. They go so far as to attempt to join the underground resistance organization known as the Brotherhood. They quickly become indoctrinated into the organization and Winston receives their founding novel. Written by one of the denounced founders of IngSoc, Goldstein, it covers the original principles of the IngSoc party and the inner workings of Oceania. Winston studies the book very closely, trying to understand the reasoning behind the party’s logic, but no real answer is given. While studying the book, both Winston and Julia are apprehended by the thought police, a shadowy organization that arrests dissenters and makes them disappear. They are separated, and Winston is imprisoned to be tortured for his dissent. Throughout the extent of this period, Winston’s mind and body are completely broken, yet through the torture he begins to form an emotional connection to his captor, and also starts to learn the truth behind IngSoc. Not only does he grow to see his captor as a savior, and intellectual, but he also starts to believe that they are really on Winston’s side. He also learns that IngSoc’s driving goal is power and purity; they want to do their best to hold onto their power and create the most pure, brutal, form of government. The extent in prison reforms Winston, and completely breaks him. He betrays every person that he loves, and he gives up all of the resistance that he has, finally accepting big brother in the end. However, this does not save him from his fate, and he is still killed.

Although 1984 does tell the story of Winston and his evolution of thought, within the world of Oceania, Winston is nowhere near an extraordinary case. It is my opinion that the brilliance and ominous nature of 1984 comes more from the setting and mechanisms of Ingsoc more than from Winston himself. If Ingsoc itself is the main story, then Winston is merely a plot device for the exposure of Big Brother.

One of the largest parts of 1984 to me that stood out was the concept of the distortion of knowledge in Oceania by IngSoc. Within the novel, Ingsoc has reached such a critical point of power that not only are they able to manipulate history to make the populace believe whatever they say, they can openly tell the public false information through their concept of what is known as ‘doublethink’. Doublethink has multiple meanings within the book, but in this particular scenario, doublethink is the term used to describe how a loyal party member should be able to willingly accept anything, regardless of what their memory or other information might tell them. For example, multiple times in the novel, Oceania declares war on new enemies, switching between the other two global conglomerates known as East Asia and Eurasia. Instead of openly admitting that the enemy has switched, Ingsoc flexes its control over the populace by censoring all information, and declaring that the new enemy has always been the enemy, and that there was never a switch. It is obvious to any readers that not only would it be an impossible task to censor on that level across entire continents, let alone make the populace believe in such a truth. However, this concept speaks volumes as to the control of Big Brother within their society, as not only is this censorship easily possible and rapidly completed, but almost the entire population vehemently follows the new will or news from Ingsoc because of their lifelong indoctrination of the concept of doublethink. The manipulation of knowledge to the point of being able to effectively brainwash people is an extremely scary power for any organization to possess, and in my opinion, one of the most disturbing parts of the whole novel.

The concept of doublethink and manipulation of knowledge only gets more scary when compared to public media of today. Although it may not lie in the hands of our government yet, many organizations (mainly news) have already started a shift towards a manipulation of knowledge. Shorter public attention spans and even shorter news cycles of today mean that facts shown on the news could easily be modified to project a different narrative. According to a study conducted by the hill (the irony of using a study from a news source is not lost on me), about 58 percent of Americans believe the majority/ every news story that is presented to them. Although it is nowhere even close to the extreme scenario envisioned in 1984, this ever growing ability is one of the largest threats to the modern political landscape, and therefore should be closely monitored.

Another large part of 1984 that stood out to me was in its similarities to Animal Farm. It is clear after reading 1984 and Animal Farm that George Orwell had a very clear picture in his mind of what he believed would be the largest threat to mankind and its political landscapes. Contrary to popular belief, after reading the text I believe that Orwell was not referring to Communism or capitalism in these novels. Although it may lean closer to Communism, Orwell’s main dystopian fear consisted of a tyrannical government that became lost within its own values and stopped caring for the people governments were originally made to protect. Both animal farm’s government and Ingsoc from 1984 followed the same evolution- transforming from a revolution against the upper class, into its replacement with a tyranny under the illusion of a common benefit. Within both stories, a disgruntled middle class uses the power of the working class to overthrow the ruling higher class, which typically takes the form of a capitalist society or monarchy (It was capitalist in 1984, but more of a capitalist/monarchical system in animal farm). After this revolution is completed, the middle class uses the support of the lower class to establish a new government with socialist ideals- equal rights, pay, and benefits for all. This dream is soon crushed however, as fragments of the new ruling class begin to splinter and fight for the power granted to them; in Animal farm, this occurred mainly between Snowball and Napoleon, whereas in 1984 this mainly featured Goldstein and the other two founders against the creators of the modern Ingsoc. The corrupt powers manage to gain control and ruin the idyllic idea of a perfect society and use their new power to solidify their grip, using methods such as propaganda and brutal methods to maintain control. This only becomes stronger with time as the new rulers use younger generations as a source of renewed patriotism and manpower, with their grip only tightening as each new generation grows. From the similarities of the governments in 1984 and Animal Farm, it is evident that Orwell not only had a main central fear for the future, but one that he felt was real enough to warrant issuing multiple warnings to the public through his works.

1984 by George Orwell may have been one of the best written political commentaries I have read to date because of not only the complexity of the political systems in place within the novel but also because of the parallels it draws to real life and to his previous works. 1984 issues warning to all readers and paints a picture of future dystopias in an extreme enough light to thoroughly shake readers, while still alluding enough to real concepts to ground the story within the realm of possibility. Because of this, I believe that 1984 more than deserves its reputation in popular culture as one of the best and provocative dystopian novels written to date.