1984 by George Orwell
In this book, Orwell brings it out clearly that the structure of politics has its basis on a lie. It is evident that the human thought is always suppressed and tormented by the injustice associated with corrupt political systems (Orwell 11). No matter how one may strongly rise to see to the defeat of this vice, he ends up completely defeated. The story mainly revolves around Winston Smith who is employed in the ministry of truth in as a records editor. The events take place in Oceania state in 1984 in the month of April on a cold day in Europe after Second Word War. The state has a totalitarian form of leadership and the leader is known as Big brother and he hails from a group known by the name, party (Orwell 22).
Winston drags himself to the victory mansions to have lunch. He is so depressed as well as oppressed, thus he starts a journal based on his defiant thoughts in opposition to the Party. If someone finds out, the journal would lead to him being executed. He takes a lot of precaution thus he writes only when the telescreens used for surveillance are not focusing on him. Winston’s curiosity about Julia, a machine- operator in the department of fiction, increased with each new day. Although a day came when he was overwhelmed by the fear that the lady belonged to the secret wing of the Police. This fear hits a dead note when unexpectedly the lady leaves a note for him written “I love you”. Winston lived with the notion that this love affair they began was so secret and all the events were off the surveillance cameras (Orwell 36).
The love for the two grows deeper. His views concerning the government take another shape. Something seems not right about the whole system. There appears to be some kind of manipulation. The history seems to be changing. There appears to be a lot of corruption. Winston is slowly assimilated into the brotherhood of revolutionary. He ends up getting close to O’Brien who belongs to the secret police. All along Winston thinks this fellow belongs to brotherhood fraternity but he is totally mistaken (Orwell 77).
Throughout the book, Orwell makes use of symbolism. He makes use of this literature tool so as to add more weight to the issues he is trying to discuss in the book and also make the content more interactive with the reader. There is a dream that Winston had (pg 36-40). Winston sees in his dream his mother, his sister as well as his father who he hardly knew who had been executed by the party. “They were in the saloon of a sinking ship, looking up at him through the darkening water”. He presumes that his mother and sister had been killed so that he could survive. In the dream he would see them in a very deep grave and he could always feel like they are down there so that he could remain up on the surface. “He was out in the light and air while they were being sucked down to death, and they were down there because he was up here”. He says that, he knew it and they knew it and that he could see the knowledge on their faces.
Again he could see Julia in his dreams. There is this beautiful landscape that Winston does not rally remember having seen in the real world. “The landscape that he was looking at recurred so often in his dreams that he was never fully certain whether or not he had seen it in the real world” (Orwell 86). A dark haired lady could come and strip off her clothes. “With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside”. Winston looks the lady with a very fascinated gesture, but he was not really interested in her body. The books states that the ladies body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in Winston and that he barely looked at it. The act of throwing off the clothes symbolized the abolishment of the cruelty that the Party had imposed on humanity causing suffering.
Life was not at all interesting with the Big brother always keeping an eye on the people and influencing to believe in the truth they manufactured. Winston lived with the hope that he would one day wake up and see things changed. This is the reason behind his positive dreams. After all this dreams of hope he would wake up to the harsh reality and to make matters worse the torture by the party was day by day growing worse. Winston again never knew that, when faced with this dark reality, it was only wise to find solace in his dreams. He always went wrong when he shared these dreams with O’Brien who in this case was a traitor (pg 42-50).
The dairy eventually leads Winston to another hope symbol which is the paper weight. He reduces his writing and now a transition takes place. He starts using words so as to voice his concerns. From words he gradually graduates to action. He says that he kept his first sign of hope secretly. Publicity got hold of him in his affair with Julia and his meeting with O’ Brien and this is a confirmation of his transformation into actions. The dairy is now used against him. His only link to the past and a strong symbol of hope is destroyed. Winston had written in his dairy that "Freedom is Slavery" and "God is Power"(Orwell 248). O’ Brien tried to convince him that they both contributed into the writing of the dairy.
Another symbolism comes out in room 101 where Winston is facing the problem of rats (pg 361-362). Winston tries to figure out who could save him from the rats menace after O’ Brien opens the cage with rats for him to be haunted. “But he had suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just ONE person to whom he could transfer his punishment—ONE body that he could thrust between himself and the rats”. Rats here symbolize the intensity of torture. Rats in real life are considered pathetic. They bring fear to many people and no one would like to mingle with rats on any given day. So for Winston to be tortured with rats means that O’Brien is instilling fear in him. The author says that Winston struggles to stay away, so far away from the rats and this kind of brings forth illusions. “He was still strapped in the chair, but he had fallen through the floor, through the walls of the building, through the earth, through the oceans, through the atmosphere, into outer space, into the gulfs between the stars—always away, away, away from the rats” (Orwell 287). The situation makes him detach from Julia his lover and becomes trapped in the Big brother’s cage. In other words, it is like Winston turns out to be a rat trapped in that cage. This shows how the rule of the Big brother has caused misery to the human society on the Oceanic state. So if people do not take action and thrush out powers like that portrayed by Big brother, they will just turn out to be simple minds that are easily manipulated.
When Winston is finally released, he is overwhelmed with immeasurable joy and he seems to love the Party. He meets Julia by chance and they feel uninterested towards one another. The bitterness is in the fact that the last person who was the hope for Europe is already converted and completely destroyed by the Party.
Work Cited
Orwell, George. ‘Nineteen Eighty- Four’, 1949, ISBN 0451524934, 9780451524935, 268 pages
