Orwell

Orwell considered his work a social and political instrument for the comprehension of human
society; his novels deal with social themes, such as the condition of the working class in the
first half of the twentieth century, and with political themes: the danger of totalitarianism, the
exploitation of the masses, the lies of official information, the failure of revolutionary ideals.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is the depiction of perfect totalitarianism. Orwell was against
any form of exploitation of the common people as is common with totalitarian governments.
The masses are manipulated, and their revolutions are doomed to failure by a lack of
unifying values and of class-consciousness.The language a writer uses should be simple,
but first of all clear and direct, so as to become an actual instrument of information and
communication.
Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts the perfect totalitarian state whose aim is the abolition of man
and the pursuit of power by the Party as an end in itself. Most of the instruments for
controlling the inhabitantswere inspired by the actual reality of the regime of the Communist
Soviet Union, in particular by Stalin's regime, as well as by Hitler' Nazi dictatorship.
short plot
The world is divided into three blocks, Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, continuously at war.
Winston smith, the protagonist, lives in totalitarian Oceania under the tyranny of the Party.
Big Brother's image is everywhere and can follow anyone anywhere. Winston’s job is to
rewrite history in the Ministry of Truth, bringing it in line with current political thinking.
Winston is a rebel, he starts writing a diary and has an affair with Julia. One day they are
arrested by the Thought Police in their secret room and taken to the Ministry of Love, where
people are tortured to be "cured" of their rebelliousness. O Brien becomes Winston's torturer
and destroys Winston's rational and intellectual integrity and finally he destroys his emotional
resistance: now he loves big brother.
Themes
the Party bombards its subjects with endless propaganda and monitoring, mostly done
through telescreens, devices which can never be turned off and which see all "Comrades”,
even in their homes. Both propaganda and monitoring are designed to overwhelm the mind's
capacity for independent thought. The Party also isolates individuals by undermining family
structure and suppressing sexual desires, and totally controls information. Doublethinking,
the ability to accept contradictory statements as correct, is how O'Brien, who tortures
Winston to "cure" him from his rebelliousness, reaches perfect orthodoxy. A new language,
”Newspeak", totally invented by the Party, is gradually taking the place of "Oldspeak"
(standard English). Orwell believes that Newspeak represents the corruption and death of
both language and thought and that language, especially in politics, and prevent
independent thinking by controlling language the Party controls thought.