The year is 1984, or is it? Does anyone really know for sure?
This is dystopian nightmare of a world, where your every move and even thought, is closely monitored. The Party is all and Big Brother is watching you day and night.
Winston Smith, worker at The Ministry of Truth, in Oceania, spends his days re-writing history to fit in with the current "truth" of The Party. But Winston knows that there is something wrong with the world in which he lives. He hates Big Brother and everything The Party stands for. He knows to even allow a hint of his true feelings to show would result in torture and execution, and yet he cannot help himself.
Winston is sure that there must be others among the apparent Party faithful that feel the same way as him, but how can you really tell? Is there anyone he can share his true feelings with in safety? Is there anyone he can love, and who will love him in return?
Compelled to act on his true feelings, Winston embarks on a course of rebellion against Big Brother, which he knows will ultimately lead to his death. Can he remain true to himself, or will be betray all he holds dear in order to survive?
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Although the year 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's prophetic nightmare of a future remains as timely as ever, even though it was written seventy years ago.
This is a modern classic, that has spawned a host of dystopian literature that borrows from its themes of power and manipulation, and its influence has even pervaded popular culture and language - for instance, "Big Brother is watching you!".
The future portrayed in 1984 is bleak in the extreme. This is a dark and fearful world, where your every move is closely monitored for signs of dissension. Even to be caught thinking unpatriotic thoughts will result in your torture and execution within the walls of the delightfully named Ministry of Love.
Orwell's own political leanings are more than apparent in this book, and he has borrowed heavily from the period of history in which he lived himself (you will certainly recognise references to the Nazi Party and Comminism within these pages) which does date it a little, but it still has a lot to teach us about the world today.
For me the most interesting aspects are the way that information and language are manipulated to keep The Party in power, and this probably stems from my background in psychology - I always find this fascinating in a book.
In Winston's world, The Party controls all information - history has been rewritten to show that The Party is right in all things and provides the citizens of Oceania with a kind of utopia that is far better than the past, but there is no way to corroborate any of this. Any written material that could disprove the current view has either been destroyed or re-written. The "facts" taught to the children of Oceania can never be disputed, so will always be the truth - and for those who are old enough to remember the times before, now far can you even trust your own memories when there is no evidence left to support what you thought you knew about the past?
This is a really interesting, if chilling idea, and before you say that this cannot really happen, take a moment to think about the way history is taught today. Certainly, there are countries today who colour the past in the text books that are used in their schools - for instance, China and North Korea. Shockingly, I also read recently in Zeba Talkhani's excellent book My Past Is A Foreign Country that she had not even heard of The Holocaust before studying at a college in Germany - and she had received her education in India and Saudi Arabia! Someone else's "truth" may be very different from our own. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to read widely and to read books by people who have different views to ourselves.
The manipulation of the language used by The Party in 1984 is something I find particularly fascinating. The Party is attempting to evolve language so that there is only a very limited vocabulary available. Any words with shades of meaning are being eliminated, especially where they may be used to express freedom of thought or ideas - so that is will eventually not even be possible for the population to think any anti Big Brother thoughts, because they simply will not have any words to express any sort of dissatisfaction with the status quo - even within their own heads. This blows my mind as a lover of the written and spoken word - what a horrible future this would be.
I am never truly convinced by the ending to 1984, but I not going to give any spoilers for those of you who have not read it. I will just say that in spite of the elements of this book which are relevant today, I cannot allow myself to believe in the existence of a world where the human spirit can be broken so completely as in Orwell's terrifying future. I hope I am right.
1984 continues to be one of those books everyone should read at least once in their life. I have read it several times over the years and get something more from it each time. It is not a perfect book, and some of the story will always fail to ring true for me, but its themes will always be relevant. It is definitely one of those books that I was always recommending as required reading to my older students, during my secondary school librarian days.
If you have never read it, I urge you to do so - if you think you cannot stomach reading its politically heavy overtones, then there are some excellent audio book versions which may change your mind. I have listened to a particularly good version from Audible, narrated by Andrew Wincott, but there are plenty of other versions available and some of them are even dramatised. I would steer clear of the film adaptations until after you know the text though, as inevitably they are never a faithful representation of the story.
Give it a go and feed your mind!
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