SHORT REVIEW:
This novel, written by George Orwell in 1.948, is one of the best
written in the 20th century
(without question). Many people see it (as
well as "Animal Farm"), as a warning on the dangers of the totalitarian
regimes.
But this book goes further, imagining a world technologically
developed enough as to completely carry out the principles of comunism:
citizens and human life lose their individual meaning, melting into
"the party".
At the same time, Orwell reflects about the importance of the
language at channelizing the thought (if you don't know the word that
defines the concept, you can't know / understand the concept itself),
the way in which is manipulated (or can be manipulated) the history,
the perception of the reality (and what is the reality, in case such
thing exists), and so on, with brief but interesting phrases about some
other topics.
SYNOPSIS:
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU:
This statement, written in several posters hanging in public and
private buildings, reminds the inhabitants of Oceania that all their
movements are being watched and analyzed by "the party", institution
that holds all the powers. The Big Brother is the visible head of the
party, its embodiment, created to channelize the love all the citizens
are forced to have towards the party.
Everything and everybody is the party: the inner party, to which
the most important members belong, takes the decisions and controls the
rest of people; the outer party, consisting on the rest of the people
considered as citizens (nobody controls the proles, for they are
considered subhumans), performs tasks such as: permanently rewriting
history, so, if any of the predictions done by the party was wrong, or
the Thought Police (the organization that actually controls the members
of the outer party) has decided that somebody should be "vaporized"
(those accused of "thought crime" are vaporized, which means that
automatically they become non-persons, they don't exist and have never
existed, so any trace of their previous existence is erased, rewriting
newspapers, books, or any other documents), this will never appear, but
only the "new version", that becomes the only version.
This is assumed by the "comrades" (citizens) by "doublethinking":
thinks aren't anything by themselves, thinks are what the party needs
them to be (this is applicable to everything).
WAR IS PEACE:
The world is divided in three superpowers: Oceania, Eurasia and
Eastasia. They live in a permanent war, with alternative alliances of
two of them against the other one. But a change of alliance means also
a change of the whole history.
Therefore, if Oceania starts a war against Eurasia, everything will
be rewritten, and Oceania will have always been in war against Eurasia,
although they previously were allied.In fact, war is a mere way of
favouring advances in the militar technology and therefore in the whole
technology, getting rid of isn't useful anymore. There's another reason
for this continuous war: it is a way of keeping the proles scared, so
they will never get to rebel.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY:
Hence, the citizens of Oceania are forced not just to act but also
to think according to the party. Otherwise, they will be vaporized.
This means a great pressure for them, increased by the sexual
insatisfaction due to the fact that couples can only exist under
consent of the party, that will only accept a marriage if there's a
complete lack of desire between the bride and groom.
The way of releasing such accumulated pressure is one of the best
creatios of the book: there is a fictitious enemy of the party, Emanuel
Goldstein, against whom all the tension and resentment are taken out
during the "Two Minutes Hate", in which all the members of the party,
together, vociferate and swinst him, releasing their accumulated
hatred.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH:
A new language is also being created (the so-called "newspeak"ill
delete all the expresions and concepts considered as dangerous by the
party, and this will limmore what citizens can think and, therefore,
their freedom.
The main character of the book, Winston, gets to understand how the
society in which he lives works, and rebels against it with Julia, who
also loathes it.They will soon discover more than they would like about
the party, that will vaporize and "re-educate" them.
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