George Orwell’s novel, 1984 creates a frightening dystopian society where people are at the mercy of a totalitarian government. They are feed lies about the past, present, and future in all aspects of life and made to believe that the crude life they now live is better than the one before the glorious Revolution that set the people free from capitalism. However, as we see through the eyes of protagonist Winston Smith, we learn how oppressed the citizens of Oceania’s truly live.
Shortly, withing the first couple of pages the readers is introduced to Big Brother (or rather a poster of him) the leader of the governing body of Oceania: the Party. He is made out to sound like what his name is, a big brother who wants to protect his country from harm. All the while, the Party manipulates and monitors the people via technology and brainwashing.
Take for example Winston Smith’s job: the power to rewrite history in any way to make the government come out as the honest heroes to their citizens. Rather than question their authority and risk becoming, “vaporized…never to have existed (pg.42).” They believe whatever they say or write. Even when it becomes obvious to Smith that things in Oceania are not as great as statics from the Party say they are.
The Party also constantly spies on people to keep track of any miniscule opposition or abnormality via telescreens; actual televisions that are set up everywhere to keep constant surveillance. Children are brainwashed into “adoring the party and everything connected to it (24).” They regard the Party and Big Brother as heroes, to such and exaggeration that they are more than willing to turn in anyone in, even their own parents, if they suspect them as traitors (24-25).
As the novel progress , the idea of bringing down Big Brother becomes more and more appealing to Smith. I was expecting for him to lead a revolution, to gather the masses of people and over throw the totalitarian system. Instead he just quietly opposes The Party. By writing his thoughts and opinions down in his diary, or sharing them with his lover, Julia.
Therefore, I do not consider Smith in any way a hero in this book. Granted he talked about ways in which to achieve the impossible: have the proles (peasantry) as the majority should rebel (pg 69-70). Later on, Smith is even willing to sacrifice everything for the greater cause, however is unsuccessful due to unfortunate circumstances where he is captured by the Party, tortured, and in the end accepts everything that he had come to hate about the Party. He influences no other being(s), but overall let’s himself fall prey to the Party’s mercy.
In the end, I did enjoy this book, even with its long-winded passages about The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, which explains how Oceania came to be ruled by the Party (184-217). The whole idea that a government was able to have such a massive hold on its citizens and the ways it was achieved was very interesting to read about. If you enjoy dystopian science fiction, I would definitely recommend this book.
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