I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY (Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell)

Member Name: carly_pussycat

Product:	Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
Date:	28/04/04 (505 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting twisted view of a futuristic world

Disadvantages: Slightly taxing on the brain at first

Hunting around Amazon for something to read I stumbled across this classic and decided that it was high time I read it. Although I am not the biggest fan, shamefully I must admit I do sometimes watch Channel Four's Big Brother when it's on and also Room 101 (which appears in the novel) therefore was intrigued to discover where these ideas had originated from.


PLOT SYNOPSIS

Written in 1949, George Orwell set this novel in the then future of 1984. From the very first page we are enveloped in Winston Smith's grim existence - boiled cabbage, an out of order lift in his apartment due to the electricity being cut off during the day and a painful varicose ulcer in his leg, not to mention the chilling posters on every landing of the flights of stairs.

'BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU' promises the poster; an enormous image of a moustached man with eyes so piercing you could almost swear they were following you, coming to rest wherever you stood. This promise is upheld by telescreens, present in every party member's place of residence. Telescreens are able to simultaneously transmit party broadcasts on screen and transfer every move, expression and slight sound made by party members back to Big Brother.

Winston Smith is the central character of the novel, and we experience everything from his perspective. Winston is a 39 year old strong minded intellectual man, living in London and working for one of the four Ministries of the government - The Ministry of Truth.

At this time, the world has been split into three superpowers - Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia - all of which are very similar in their ruling and relative power. The Ministry of Tru th, The Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Plenty and The Ministry of Love are the Big Brother's four main Ministries which collectively rule the empire of Oceania. They are housed in four separate looming towers, dwarfing the rest of the buildings in the city. The irony in these titles becomes apparent when we learn of their purposes: The Ministry of Truth employs party members to concoct extravagant lies, altering the past in books, newspapers, films, soundtracks, periodicals, photographs, cartoons and anything else deemed to contain something displaying the past in a way that Big Brother does not approve of. The Ministry of Peace is in charge of all matters concerning war (which incidentally is continual with no end in sight). The Ministry of Plenty is concerned with economic affairs; namely rationing and making sure the public went without any luxuries, no matter how little - and The Ministry of Love, by far the most sinister with its lack of windows, maintained law and order in any way it deemed necessary.

In addition to the Ministries, Big Brother employs services such as the Thought Police, the Junior Anti-Sex League and the Spies (youths employed to spies on adults, including their own parents).

The party has three bold statements as its slogan:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

They certainly appear bizarre and nonsensical on first reading but their true meanings become more apparent as you near the end of the book.

Winston's daily participation is required in the Two Minutes Hate. Much as we pause fo r two minutes silence to remember soldiers who died during the war, the people of Oceania pause from their work for two whole minutes to direct all the hatred they can possibly muster towards The Enemy of the People: Emmanuel Goldstein. Goldstein was rumoured to have been a leading figure of the party, almost as high as Big Brother himself, until one fateful day he (apparently) took part in counter-revolutionary activities but somehow managed to escape death only to secure himself as Oceania's Most Hated.

As the novel progresses we learn of Winston's increasing opposition to the party. He secretly hates Big Brother and the constant attempt to lie to himself (doublethink) and yearns for a better life - or perhaps the life he had before, if only he could remember what it was like. For fear of revealing his thoughts to the telescreen in his apartment during his vivid dreams, Winston makes a risky investment in a diary (which is strictly not allowed, punishable by death). It is this diary that truly sets his cognitions in motion, and from that day on there is no turning back. In no particular order, love, pain, betrayal, freedom and suffering follow - but to say anything else would be to ruin the plot entirely.


MY ANALYSIS

One question that becomes evident after the Winston looking at the posters plastered around the city is 'Who is Big Brother?' The answer, quite honestly, is that no one knows. However, all that we know and all that we need to know is that he is the head of the government, he is omnipresent, he is NEVER wrong and he will NEVER die. My interpretation of this is that Big Brother is not simply one man, but a way of life imposed by the government - and for that reason, if the party is big enough to continue its rule indefinitely, then Big Brother will never die.

The principal language of Oceania is Oldspeak - or traditional English to us normal folk - however Big Brother, ambitious in his pursuit for total power invents a new, simpler language: Newspeak. The ultimate objective of this language is to use as few words as possible to communicate - and for communication simply to illustrate processes and government related issues; for enjoyable conversation and freedom of expression through speech to cease entirely. Reducing people's ability to think a wide range of things thus prevents them from having the capacity to oppose Big Brother, and with little or no opposition, Big Brother will be able to remain in power forever.

Newspeak words are generally abbreviations of other words and joining particular words together. The most important word in the newspeak dictionary appears to be 'doublethink'. It has many meanings, but most prominent is how it empowers you to simultaneously possess the intelligence to know that 2 + 2 = 4 but at the same time truly believe that 2 + 2 = 5 when you are required to do so. Essentially doublethink means cheating your own mind, but as Winston discovers it is not a process that is easily completed. The whole book relies on the reader having a strong understanding of the concepts behind the language of newspeak; and likewise to truly understand the concepts behind Ingsoc (English Socialism) the Big Brother party members are required to possess an adequate understanding of newspeak.

There are so many more things I would like to explain, like the meanings behind the party slogans. However I think to do so would partly ruin your enjoyment of the book, because the explanations of the slogans were, to me, one of the most interesting parts of the novel.


CONCLUSION

Having just read Jane Green's Spellbound this was an enormous contrast - I almost felt like I had been hit by a brick over the head. It is not as if I am too stupid to understand the words in the book, but at the beginning it took a little getting used to and I read a couple of sentences a few times over as I knew it was important that I truly took each word in because it would be essential to my comprehension of events later on in the novel.

After this initial glitch I was absolutely hooked. I couldn?t wait to discover what kind of action Winston would take, if any. I found the inclusion of newspeak words slightly confusing at first, but once I had reviewed them all became clear (and the inclusion of 'The Principles of Newspeak' as an appendix was very interesting to me!)

I didn't particularly feel that any parts of the novel were dragged out to fill pages - in fact it felt as if it was packed with new information on each page. This is no a 'fun' read by any stretch of the imagination, and it requires your full attention but I am so glad I got round to reading it because amongst other things I believe it has expanded my imagination a little!

I find it extremely hard to believe that this book was written in 1949, as it didn't seem at all old to me - in fact it seemed frighteningly realistic and modern in parts. Quite how George Orwell foresaw some aspects of the future way back then is quite terrifying - he must have had a very active mind!

I would recommend that everyone read it at some point in their life, because although it is very bizarre and in places, far fetched, it does make you appreciate how lucky you are just to be able to go where you want with who you want and have exactly the conversation you want.


ISBN 0-14-027877- 88

£6.39 from www.amazon.co.uk

Summary: If you have a brain you must read this at least once in your life