This was certainly the most depressing dystopian novel I have every read. (The book in second place is The Road by Cormac McCarthy.) Orwell wrote this book in 1949 - and died in 1950 at the age of 46. He certainly had a dismal view of what the future held for our world.
The main protagonist is Winston Smith, who works for the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth was responsible for re-writing the news, books, history. So in reality, it was the "Ministry of Lies". This is a book of opposites. It is set in London. The slums are referred to as the "Victory Mansions". The Ministry of Peace was responsible for maintaining a prolonged state of war. The Ministry of Love spread hate. The Ministry of Plenty made sure that no citizen ever had enough of anything. The Party, who oversaw all of these Ministries, had three slogans they lived by: 1) War is Peace; 2) Freedom is Slavery; 3) Ignorance is Strength.
The world was separated into three sections: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.The goal was ultimate control, or reality control, of people's minds, memories, emotions, bodies and language. The official language of Oceania was Newspeak. Newspeak was developed to support English Socialism. Oldspeak, which the Party wanted phased out completely, was Standard English. Newspeak eliminated much of the English language. The purpose was to limit individual thought.
Big Brother watched over every member of the Party. There were cameras everywhere, so absolutely no privacy. People's thoughts were also monitored by the Thought Police. Doublethink was the goal for each person, which means that each citizen needed to believe in opposites - or believe in whatever they were told: black is white; two plus two equals five. If people were caught thinking differently, they were taken and tortured until they were completely and unequivocally brainwashed.
Winston starts thinking outside the box. Since his job is to re-write history, he knows that actual history is being lost. He wants to fight against the Party. He understands that the proles (the non-Party individuals who made up 85% of the population of Oceania) are the only ones that could destroy the Party. But they are not conscious of their own strength. Winston starts fighting the Party the only way he can. He starts journaling in private (which is dangerous because owning paper and writing utensils is forbidden). He falls in love with Julia and finds a "safe haven" for them to meet. They are of like minds and want to rebel against the Party. He trusts a man by the name of O'Brien, who he thinks also wants to destroy the Party.
I guess I don't have to say that this dystopian story ends badly. The entire book is depressing. Let's hope that our world never comes to this! It was certainly time that I read this classic however. Done.
Wendy's Rating: ****
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