1984

By George Orwell

My Rating: 4/5

Genre: Sci Fi, Dystopia

Finsihed on: 13th Apr 2021

1984

By George Orwell

The infamous dystopian book which I had not picked up so far.

Until now. 

Without having any idea what this book could be about, I pondered for few moments regarding the expectations I'll be having.

1984.

It's an year, obviously, but what is the significance of this year?

Is it a historical fiction? War based?

What happened in 1984?

It was until much later that I realised the genre of this book is actually Dystopia.

And it was not the question of "What" happened in 1984..

But, "how" was 1984?

________

Part One:

Winston Smith. He's 39. 

The beginning of the story gives us an idea of how the life of the protagonist is like

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

Who is this big brother? No one knows. Yet.

And then the infamous chants throughout the book

WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Yeah, sounds contradictory, I know. But these are the chants they engrave in their hearts and anyone believing otherwise is a traitor.

I'm pretty much giving you the entire gist of the story by this point.

People in Winston's time, are supposed to live the life they are dictated to live.

They are not to choose/pick how they get to live their life.

There is no free will.

Winston lives alone. Living the robotic life they are meant to live. But unlike the others, Winston tries to recall how must the life years ago have been? How was it like?

But unfortunately..

"nothing remained of his childhood except a series of bright-lit tableaux occurring against no background and mostly unintelligible."

Winston works in a ministry. There are a couple of ministry having interesting names with an even more interesting purpose, which is the exact opposite of what the name stands for.

The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts.

The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war.

The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order.

And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.

Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.

What is Newspeak? Well it's basically "New" speak. "New" language.

And not a completely new one, but modified version of current one in the hopes of completely abolishing the usage of old. In Newspeak, the grammar has been cut down to such an extent such that one's thought process diminishes as they switch to this Newspeak.

And there's not just this Newspeak. There doublethink too. 

They are all the sacred principles of Ingsoc.

Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past.

Ingsoc is the society in which Winston lives in.

The dystopian society.

Winston's world is constantly monitored by the Big Brother's eyes. Any task, any movement will be watched by him and his men. Winston's task is to rewrite the history which supported Big Brother's speech in public. Everything on paper must be exactly what Big Brother's says, and if anything goes contradictory to what he said, every piece of newspaper was to be edited again claiming Big Brother has told/predicted exactly what which has happened in real.

And anything stating otherwise was to be destroyed and wiped out from this world.

So just imagine. What if Winston wanted the truth to remain on paper? To communicate with people in the future?

The future generation will keep learning that what the Big Brother says will always be true. How can Winston let them know that's not the case?

Is there any way?

But, as said earlier

"How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?"

To put it bluntly, there is no way.

Winston keeps pondering over this. Have we been living in such a World since a loong time? He tries his best to recall something from his childhood life. He was 10-11 years of age when his mother disappeared. Father was a dark, tall, lean man. He had a small sister too. She was a baby. And what happened to them all? We don't know.

Although Winston can recall something which never made sense to him

"There was no reproach either in their faces or in their hearts, only the knowledge that they must die in order that he might remain alive, and that this was part of the unavoidable order of things."

Unavoidable order of things. That's just how it is.

And will be.

It is assumed that his mother passed away during that time itself, when he last her being at 10-11. And now he's just left with the vague, blurry memories.

So apart from the weird language, society etc. it already is. The names of certain parts of the world are given weird names too.

England, for instance. It's called "Airstrip One".

And whatever changes occur in their life, be it a rule, a statement, or a lifestyle, they are bound to accept it. Whatever it is.

Winston states a good quote on that

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth."

Because who'd even have any evidence to state otherwise?

If what's being believed is a lie, just.. how is it a lie?

It has to be the truth. Since every record, every tongue says it.

Also tongue might say it, but the brain can't. 

Brain remembers.

If brain were to witness an incident happening, which the future records completely contradict to whatever has happened, then will not your brain realize this? Or does the brain confuses it to dream? Or a hallucination?

So anyway. Politically speaking, this "Big Brother" and his men who rule them all are known as "Party". Winston can't even recall when the Party had come into existence. Because ofc, the records would say they've been here since the origin of time. Every single thing is being altered to their whims and desires.

"Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain."

What's the year? Is it 1984? Is it really 1984?

None can tell.

And moreover if you think about this, just with some prints you could actually create someone out of thin air. Fictionally. Even though that person may never have existed in the lifetime.

"It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones. Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar."

He's a fictional character on paper, but for those who've read about him would believe him to be a real man who has done some real acts. Here in ingsoc, living men have been wiped out from existence and fiction men were being created out of thin air.

How ironic?

And this Newspeak language they are inventing (or rather modifying) contains much much less words than the oldspeak (English) language. There must be no synonyms, no multiple words to describe the same thing. Good, better, best? Why not just stick with good?

With this, not only the language is being modified, but in a way the way people think is being modified too.

If anyone sees something extremely good, they have nothing to express but the simple "Good". The excitement cuts down to a very simple tone which, in a way, diminishes the significance of the things which was extremely good.

How.. crazy!

"You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won’t contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.”"

There was no good, bad, excellent, splendid. But only good, ungood, plusgood, doubleplusgood.

Just imagined yourself telling, "That's a doubleplusgood idea!"

It sounds like a mathematical sentence to me.

It's very ungood!

Winston consistently sticks to the fact that things HAVE been different in the past.

"Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?

He has a point. If this had been a norm since the origin, wouldn't you just adapt to such a life? Why would you feel it to be intolerable? Why would you feel suffocated in such a world?

These are the days Winston starts becoming conscious of everything. And just to get these suffocating thoughts outside, this is time he starts doing something which had been illegal before. Well, it still is.

He starts writing a diary.

And he writes everything. 

Surely he has to now be wary and careful, lest the Party catches him in this act. Also while he's at it, he begins to research a bit more. Suurely there has to be something which proves there were/are people with realisation and consciousness as him? 

And even in his research, how can he distinguish the articles from fiction to reality?

"It was like a single equation with two unknowns. It might very well be that literally every word in the history books, even the things that one accepted without question, was pure fantasy."

During his research he comes across one article which was close to what he was looking for. 

Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. — executed in 1968

These were basically rebels in the eyes of party, claiming something which they absolutely shouldn't. This excited Winston because now he got hold of something which prooves there is something out there which is objectionable. Otherwise it wouldn't have resulted in the execution of these people.

But again the question comes in about the authenticity of it, if these people were indeed rebels, how come this piece of article survived? Why has not the party altered it or destroy this completely?

The past not only changed, but changed continuously. The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious. I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY.

So he keeps looking. Continues to write his diary.

And he's in the hope searching someone who could share the same thoughts of him.

And that's the end of Part one 

Part Two:

This part completely focuses on another matter. Or rather another character which is introduced. She's a mysterious woman. Julia.

Initially she was found spying on Winston, and even following him, to the point Winston almost thought she's with Party and they have found out he's a rebel and she's probably assigned to him to catch him in the act.

But this one day she arranges a clandestine meeting with him after giving him a note which says she loves him.

Yep, loves him.

Here Winston had been going nuts worrying about the moment she'd confront him and possibly arrest him and all this time she had been crushing on him? Is this even real?

And it gets crazier after that. Winston took his chance and assumes she's genuinely in love with him and they meet. 

She takes him to a place where she assured him they will not be seen or heard by anyone. And there, real enough, she's standing, genuine enough and completely in love with him. 

In the first meet, nothing happens, in the second meet they get intimate. And this is part which I find really ridiculous.

Winston confesses how scared he was not knowing if she were or not a spy from the Party. And he legit said he'd have raped her had she not turned out genuine enough to him.

And listening to THAT she just laughs and feels proud of having disguised herself well.

I mean, really? Really? He just said he would have raped you and you focus on the part of disguising yourself well?

Ridiculous. 🤦🏻‍♀️

And how easy it was for them to fall for each other? They probably don't even knowing anything about each other except for the fact that they both are against the Party.

Now since even Winston loves her now, there was a brief mention of Winston's married life. How even marriages in the society are purely for the purpose of reproducing more kids who'll follow the Party and not for the purpose of having a family of their own. Winston's wife was Katharine, who stayed with him barely for 15 months and left because she couldn't conceive with him. And there was no affection between them at all. She was a true follower of the Party and she wouldn't have it any other way. If there was no child, what even is the point of marriage? And she leaves.

Here Winston recalls and realises this is how true love looks like. Not monotonous or robotic like how the Party wants it to be. 

Now while getting to know each other, Winston is curious. He has only seen her rigidly following the rules of Party. Even volunteering herself for some of the core tasks. He had no idea back of her mind these rebellious thought had even been lingering for her.

"If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones."

Is what she had said. She won't be in the suspicious eyes of theirs if she sincerely follows the small rules. And with this she'd get a chance to break the big ones. 

So they talk, and talk. In between she mentions India (the country where I'm from :P ) and that caught my attention for a bit. This is completely irrelevant for this review, but let me still add it over here.

“There’s been a lot of tea about lately. They’ve captured India, or something,” she said vaguely.

They, as in the Party. So India had been captured.

Okay enough deviation, let me move on 😂

So since this is part two, most of the pages from here weren't much interesting. It was mostly about their secret affair. Although one thing had happened..

Syme disappeared.

Or I should be using the word Vanish.

Now who is Syme, you ask? He was a hard core follower of the party. He was one of the main people responsible for creating the language of Newspeak. Or rather creating new editions. He once excitedly spoke how this Newspeak will completely abolish the old one. Winston had then predicted Syme would vanish one day.

I was honestly very confused. Shouldn't such people be given VIP treatment? Since he so loves the party and everything?

It took me some time to understand. Apparently Syme is smart. And for the party even this smartness is dangerous. And they basically wipe out anyone who could be a potential threat to them in the future.

Have I mentioned what "Vanishing" concept is in this book?

People are not executed here (at least unlike Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford) but they are simply vanished. And when they do, they become "unpeople". They simply cease to exist, with no record of them anywhere. People aren't even supposed to pretend they ever knew them before, because they "don't exist" at all. They never did.

How crazy.

There was no mention of what really happens with Vanishing people. Or rather what had happened to them. It's all left to our imagination. But we know what really happens to them all. Charm of dystopian world.

So with this, Winston's and Julia's bond becomes stronger over their mutual hatred for the Party. Also (and disclaimer: this is completely my opinion) I've found Winston very annoying in his relationship with Julia. There was a part in which he mentions he has "right" over Julia. Patriarchy much?

Firstly you have joked about raping her, and then now this?

What's wrong with you man?

However, this one day comes when someone approaches Winston.

And not only someone, he's "O'Brien".

And he wanted to have a meeting with him alone.

Now O'Brien wasn't like Syme where Winston knew he supports party. O'Brien's case is different. Winston believed there is a community in hiding who must be against the Party. And Winston believed (or assumed) O'Brien could be part of it.

But it is all assumptions.

What if he's with them? What if it's a trap?

It was a risk Winston wanted to take. And the meeting happens.

We are past 50% in this book. And from now on, things gets slightly interesting.

Winston takes a double risk and gets Julia along with him. O'Brien doesn't object. They meet at O'Brien's place. They had no idea with the telescreen watching and hearing how will they ever communicate. But once O'Brien turns off a switch, which lets them know the telescreen is no more watching or hearing them, they knew.. they knew O'Brien is on their side! Wow.

And no, there was no smiling/hugging/celebrations for meeting yet another anti-party member! O'Brien in this meet was as formal as he could ever be. Treating this clandestine meeting as an obligatory act as part of some procedure. He lets them know that yes, like how they had assumed there IS a secret community called "The Brotherhood" consisting of all anti-party members. They don't know each other, and in fact this is the first and last time they will ever be meeting with O'Brien. This is to maintain anonymity and in case anyone is caught, the others aren't compromised, no critical or sensitive information would be fished out of them as they'll be knowing as little as possible about this brotherhood.

He asks them some questions, lets them make some promises. And let me tell you, those were some serious (and crazy!) promises. Such that they were asked if they'd willingly kill a person. An innocent being. Even a child! If it came down to it.

And they said.. yes to it all.

Whyyy? Why would you be so ready to kill a child? All for some freedom? Is this.. even a right thing?

I don't even know anymore. This is the thing with dystopian books. You never know what is morally right.

Anyway, when the conversation almost comes to an end, O'Brien offers them a book as part of their first step in this journey of Brotherhood. It's the "Goldstein's Book".

Aand rest of the few pages/chapters are all about whatever contents the book had inside it as Winston so eagerly reads it all.

This is the book which lets both Winston and us know all about this Dystopian world. And here are some of the snippets..

"Eurasia comprises the whole of the northern part of the European and Asiatic land-mass, from Portugal to the Bering Strait. Oceania comprises the Americas, the Atlantic islands including the British Isles, Australasia, and the southern portion of Africa. Eastasia, smaller than the others and with a less definite western frontier, comprises China and the countries to the south of it, the Japanese islands and a large but fluctuating portion of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet."

This was some of the geography, if anyone was wondering. And Winston wondered.

"If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies."

Which is true. This is equivalent to someone being imprisoned forever in a place and being told the world outside is scary, and they'd believe it unless they themselves come out of their shell and figure it out if it's true or not.

Hey, I could have simply told the story of Tangled 😂

And reading continues...

"In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-Worship, but perhaps better rendered as Obliteration of the Self."

You see the words they choose?

"Death-Worship"

"Obliteration of the Self"

These alone should make anyone shiver with fear. 

"A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE."

Does this make any sense to you? At least a tiny bit of it?

Not to me.

If I were to give a mathematical example, I would say since positive infinity and negative infinity travel.. well, infinitely? And both are not defined? Then I equate both positive & negative infinity to be equal.

Does THIS make any sense to you? They are poles apart!

🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

"Jews, Negroes, South Americans of pure Indian blood are to be found in the highest ranks of the Party," -

You read that? "Pure Indian Blood" in the "highest" ranks of the party.

(Totally out of context yet again for this review, but yeah 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Also even this didn't make any sense to me. Either I'm turning dumber every other day or.. this really doesn't make any sense.

In the book (I mean the book which Winston's reading right now), even the terms used by the society now has been explained. Have I mentioned doublethink earlier? This book has told what it means 

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."

Also fun fact, this is now a legit English word in our dictionary, this book being the origin of that word.

(How cool :D )

Anyway, do we have any real examples of doublethink?

Have youuu double-thought anytime? *Wiggling eyebrows*

If Paradox is a situation or a concept, Doublethink is well.. belief? Because you're accepting and believe two contradictory opinions. I like it. Going to ponder it for few moments/days.

"In our society, those who have the best knowledge of what is happening are also those who are furthest from seeing the world as it is. In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane."

Couldn't agree more to it. The more you try to understand the world, the more maddening it gets leading you to become insane.

Is delusion the way out? 

Is ignorance really bliss?

With this, the book which Winston has been reading ends. 

He admits knowing/being aware of most of the things mentioned in the book. Not sure if there was any clue in the book which will let him know what is the next step for him as part of this brotherhood journey.

Julia is here. There are at that place Mr. Charrington lends them, where they have been having their clandestine meetings.

From the window they could hear a grandmother singing. They like her song. They appreciate it. Have been appreciating it quite a while since only in such areas like the Proles you're going to have the freedom to do things you'd have been scared to do otherwise.

Winston personally believes people from the Proles have the power to take down the party if only they realize the strength of their unity.

Because they are large in number. It's only a matter of their combined rebellious belief and number, and they'd themselves see how easily the party is taken down.

If only their conscious self realises it.

As they are discussing this, something suddenly seems off. 

The grandmother stops singing, it's eerily quiet.

Winston and Julia are quiet too, fearing the worst.

And the worst is what happens. 

They are ambushed by the party who come and take hold of Winston and Julia. And how were they caught?

Mr. Charrington.

He had been part of the Thought Police all along.

And with this we come to end of Part two of this book!

I'm not even sure if I want to describe the third and last part in detail as — let me tell you — it is THE most depressing part of the book.

No strings attached.

Part Three:

Julia and Winston are separated and needless to say they are both imprisoned (and tortured) separately.

There's nothing but prison, prisoners, torture and torture.

In between there's a mystery of Room 101.

A man is ready to sacrifice his entire family in the hopes of avoiding that room. He is ready to die but not go to Room 101.

What even is in that room?

*Shudders*

Anyway. No good book can be without a climax which will make us go 😲

Soon someone familiar walks into the room..

And that someone was O'Brien.

“You know this, Winston,” said O’Brien. “Don’t deceive yourself. You did know it—you have always known it.”

Did WE guess this? Maybe. Maybe not.

With the way Winston had been too paranoid to trust anyone, even Julia، what makes us trust this guy now.

Mr. Charrington had already betrayed Winston and Julia, but O'Brien's revelation tops it all off. Since we assumed he could be the hope, being the leader of the brotherhood. 

But was it just a subtle way to fish these rebels out among them? Could be.

So O'Brien comes, reveals himself, sits and has a nice chat with Winston. He tells Winston about what they reaallly do here.

"We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them."

O'Brien explains how everything in the universe which they had been assuming/believing so far, earth revolving around the sun and star light years away from earth, what of it? Can't they present something to them all which might prove otherwise? And make them believe that?

Winston was taken aback with this.

"The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind—surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false?"

Hearing all this and much more was too much for him. We know this because a couple of pages later we find out the bitter truth.

Winston had surrendered to them.

They brainwashed him, his mind and he surrendered. And he got better too.

"How easy it all was! Only surrender, and everything else followed. It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it. Nothing had changed except your own attitude: the predestined thing happened in any case. He hardly knew why he had ever rebelled."

Surrendering was so easy. Why even choose to take the difficult path? When you can slide of in an easy one? To us readers, it's the part which is a bit difficult to read.

In the entire book, Winston had been dreaming of rebellion. Dreaming of finding out what happened to his family. Dreaming of finally having a life in which he can be free and have his own free will.

And now we are reading how easily he's getting brainwashed.

One thing was always mentioned in the book..

Oceania was at war with Eurasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia

No one truly knows who's at war with who and who's faring well.

One thing we do know is what the party wants us to always know.

Oceania was at war with Eurasia.

Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia

So Winston is giving in and accepting whatever the party wants him to. But, are we not forgetting something? What about Julia?

When Winston remembers her, it all comes back. The hate for the party. Party is the reason he met Julia, fell for her, and she's the reason they both have been separated now.

He remembers the reason behind their separation.

Big Brother.

Oh how he hates him now. And this doesn't go unnoticed.

When the party finds out, they decide to do one thing which they had not tried for Winston.

They take him to Room 101.

As a reader I was pretty excited to find out what that room even is about, when a father is ready to sacrifice his family and even accept death to save himself a trip to that room.

And.. let me tell you. The room disappointed me.

It was basically a boggart (from Harry Potter), but a room version of it.

And in this the thing you fear the most won't magically appear out of thin air, but they themselves will produce it in front of you.

And in Winston's case it was.. rats.

Not sure if I've mentioned earlier in the review but when Winston and Julia stayed in Mr. Charrington's room, Winston goes pale when a rat appears. He even refuses to shoo it away, and Julia does it for him. The reason for this unnatural fear is not known, but it could be something related to his past, which is also unknown for the most part. And there's no surprise in knowing the Party knows about this information as well. When Mr. Charrington belonged to the party, it's obvious they had been keeping tabs on both of them in that room.

So they take the advantage now and present rats before him.

Their rule was simple. Love the party. Hate Julia. And he's saved.

Julia was the last knot left which kept Winston a bit same, and now they are desperate to break that knot and release him from the clutches of rebellion.

I'm not going to describe in much detail, but Winston doesn't disappoint them. To save himself from the rats he gives in and betrays Julia. He wanted them to do it to Julia, torture her, kill her or whatever, anything but save him from the rats.

And.. that was enough. They know now they have torn the last knot. Winston has turned into a man they wanted him to become.

And with that, they release him.

He's finally free. 

And healthy. 

But not in a same way.

Soon he meets Julia. There was no excitement to meet each other, they survived it all after all.. but there was contempt and hate.

The affection they had for each other was no longer there.

And their conversation added to the bitterness we readers were already feeling...

“Sometimes,” she said, “they threaten you with something—something you can’t stand up to, can’t even think about. And then you say, ‘Don’t do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.’ And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn’t really mean it. But that isn’t true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there’s no other way of saving yourself, and you’re quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.”

“All you care about is yourself,” he echoed.

“And after that, you don’t feel the same towards the other person any longer.”

This.. pretty much explains everything.

And it breaks my heart to tell there isn't much to the ending now.

They part and life goes on. The Party has won, an 11th edition of the Newspeak dictionary is on its way.. and there is no stopping it.

The Party is here to stay.

Their rules are here to stay.

Their new language is here to stay.

As a reader, I was asking myself how I expected the ending to be like. Since it's dystopian, I can't be too optimistic and expect it to be a happy ending. So what would it be? Him getting caught as a rebel, him getting tortured with their futile attempts to turn him in favour of party, only for them to leave him to his death?

At least he'd die disbelieving in the Party.

But that's not what happened.. the last part of the book is something which I personally didn't expect to happen. In fact, it was something I consider it to be the worse ending of all the possible ones.

He is brainwashed to an extent that he loves Big Brother.

The same Big Brother he hated since the beginning.

The same one who ruined lives of his and so many others.

That hate has turned to love, and there is no going back.

The Party has really won.

Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

The End

______________

This was scary in its own way. Imagine living in a world with absolutely no hope of getting the truth out. Only the false truth prevails. Always.

Your entire life is you being their puppet.

With no free will of your own.

No freedom of speech.

Or even freedom to think.

So with this one, Orwell wants us to ponder and understand, what if this becomes a reality one day?

How would one find out?

Winston had that realization, with no clue if there are others like him or not.

How would you distinguish yourself from others?

Can you figure out if something's wrong?

Which brings me to biggest and most important question..

What do you consider something as right and the other as wrong? Where do you draw the line?

Coming to my favourite quote from the book, there were countless quotes which I absolutely loved from this book, but as always I'll stick to just one for this review.. 

___

Quote from the book:

She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead.


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