1984

1984 is a dystopian classic novel written by George Orwell. It was published in the year 1949. The book talks about a totalitarian government controlling every aspect of people’s lives with its omnipresent eyes over them. Orwell, being a strong advocate of democratic socialism, was pointing at Stalinist Russia with the novel. The novel written in 1949 was referring to a future year 1984 when the events in the novel occur.

The protagonist in the novel is Winston Smith – an outer party member belonging to the state of Oceania who falls in an illegal relationship with Julia. In this novel, the world consists of only three superpowers – Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia. These three superpowers are all governed by authoritarian governments and are in war with each other. The lives of people under a government which continuously monitor them and eliminates anyone whom it feels dangerous to its existence is the background in the novel.

The party forming the government of Oceania – Ingsoc – controls what its citizens read, what they hear, and even what they think by massive surveillance and twisting facts. The government has its own official language “Newspeak”, which essentially eliminates words and meanings which could make people rebel against the government.

A person called as “Big Brother”, is shown as the official face of the party to the people – their saviour. Emmanual Goldstein – another person is shown as the official enemy along with Eastasia or Eurasia. These persons may or may not really exist and are only intended to divert people’s attention and hate.

Orwell has contributed a lot of words to language through the book including “thought crime”, “thought police”, “two-minute hate”, “telescreen”, etc.  With the rise of social media and strong influence of government on print and electronic media, the messages in Orwell’s novel are most significant in our time.