1984- A Comparative Discussion

Part One: Back Ground Information

So unless you failed out of high school, were born before 1949, or your English department was just lacking, you’ve more likely then not read Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984. If you haven’t, however, then I recommend it. It is one of those novels that, despite being written 61 years ago during the fall of Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia (of which Oceania, the dystopia where the novel take’s place is based) it still can speak volumes to a person; for me it defines what can happen when people allow a government to spiral out of control; the terrible possibility of a future where 1+2=4 and history is revamped at the touch of one’s fingers.

Now, here is the general plot of the novel, for those who need to catch up or for those who’ve yet to read it. According to Wikipedia, “Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes written 1984) is a 1949 dystopian novel by George Orwell about a degenerated workers' state. The novel depicts an oligarchical, collectivist society where life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control. The individual is always subordinated to the masses, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the Party to manipulate and control humanity. In the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue, in Newspeak), protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party's propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct, yet his meagre existence disillusions him to the point of seeking rebellion against Big Brother, eventually leading to his arrest, torture, and conversion.”

In addition, here are some important terms to understand.
Ingsoc “the political ideology of the totalitarian government of Oceania in George Orwell's dystopian science fiction novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
Main Points:
-"complete submission – mental, moral and physical – of the people, and will torture to achieve it."
-"psychological control that compels confession to imagined crimes and the forgetting of rebellious thought in order to love Big Brother"

Big Brother: “enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence - where the ruling elite ('the Party') wield total power for its own sake over the inhabitants. In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you", which is the core "truth" of the propaganda system in this state.”

Class system of Oceiana:
The hierarchy of social classes is as follows:
Inner Party- The elite of Oceanic society, they have the right to eat non-rationed food such as chocolate. In comparison to the derelict living quarters everyone else lives in, the Inner Party is exquisite. The center of the goverment.
Outer Party: Everyone else who is not in the inner party. Hold government jobs, and are expected to be loyal to big brother at all times.
Proles: The poor of the Oceanic society, they are not monitored and have freedoms that the Outer Party does not; they are the only hope for rebellion, but are brainwashed as well.

Telescreen:
television and security camera-like devices used by the ruling Party in Oceania to keep its subjects under constant surveillance.

If you need to know more, the link to Wikipedia is here.
en.wikipedia.org...

Part two is coming up, and in that we will discuss some similarities between Oceania and the world we live in today. Until then, keep the discussion flowing.