1984 BY GEORGE ORWELL
1984 BY GEORGE ORWELL AS DYSTOPIAN NOVEL
Orwell’s Dystopian Approach
George Orwell has a standing against the utopian approaches. The animal farm was drawing a picture exhibiting that there is no perfect democracy or management in the world. Pigs were vicious; however, the other animals who got the power from the pigs were not so different, because they got rid of the pigs when they got on the power in the farm. He has a dystopian approach to the world. Dystopian means the worst things are happening in the world. It is called anti-utopian. As known, the utopia is an ideal world written by Thomas More. Utopia was the perfect world. According to George Orwell, the perfect world is impossible.
The Setting in 1984
1984 is one of the early science fiction novels. We observe the strength of Orwell’s imagination. Before the vision technology did not develop much, he created a machine in his mind for his novel similar to the smart televisions with cam in it. He created a strange advanced life in a developed future city. The objects in the story sound like similar to the objects on our time. From this view of point, we can say that his guess for the future was almost perfect. We live long in buildings. We use a lot of technological machines in every second of our lives. We prefer using some communication tools instead of speaking to people directly. We prefer getting ready information from the easy access sources instead of searching for the information.
In Orwell’s 1984 world, there is a kind of socialism. There were some people as counted first class, and they would make all the decisions. These people did stop all the crimes and the violence. In the past, people killed each other for ideological reasons and several other reasons. The humankind could not develop a way to share the resources, and they started a war that was almost destroying the world. Subsequently, some smart people ended the war, and they started ruling the world. They forbid many things that might cause a war again. Books, alcoholic beverages, sex, and many things were forbidden. Some smart people had to observe and control every individual because when you allow people to be free, they could start a new world war. Consequently, 1984 basically tells us a story very similar to communism.
Caste System in 1984
He created a strange world. In the world, he created for his novel had three castes. Some people were on the first place in the community. They were managers, judges, and head of every organization. They could understand everything. They knew all the good things for people. In another word, they would make the rules, and other people had to follow their rules. They would design the world. They would know everything, and they would get all the information.
The second class was the workers in the organizations developed by the first class. The second class did not have the best quality, but they could be educated. Thus, they could become officers or workers. They had given life conditions. A small house with a machine looking like a television was given to each individual. Although they had some capacity, they might do things against the state. Thus, they had to be under control. The machine was teaching them why the state system was important and what would happen if they would not follow the rules. The leader of the state was preaching them. The machine was on almost 24 hours to remind them the rules. The second class people’s lives were boring. They would hardly smile, or they did not have entertainment opportunity. They would go to work, work all day, come back home, eat dinner, rest, watch preaches on the machine and sleep. Everyday same things would repeat. They were allowed to go to the certain places. If one of them would break the rules then the police powers would punish them. The main idea would force them to accept the rules. If they would follow all the rules properly, then they could have a regular life. Saving, spending, private property rights and other economic decisions were made by the state. In another word, people were not free in this class.
The third class was away from the city centers. Actually, they were ignored by the civilization. They were bad people. They were impossible to educate. They had bad habits like having sex, eating bad food, reading books, praying to the unknown gods, etc. They were not allowed to go the city centers. They had reservations where they were allowed to live. However, they were not free. Everything was controlled in the reservations. Their lives were truly hard. Even sometimes they were having difficulty to find food, medicine, clothing and some other important things. They were not receiving any help from the state. People in the first and the second class were not allowed to communicate with or help these people. There were patrols controlling every point in their neighborhoods. The patrols could enter anywhere without any permission and even kill them.
Communism and Discrimination or Aristotle’s Ideal World
In 1984, George Orwell has two settings. One of them is communism for the first and the second classes of people. Their lives are controlled by the state fully. There is also discrimination. We do not know how the people were discriminated in the beginning; however, the third class people were discriminated. The state could use anything in their reservations, but the state did not have to deliver any service to them. They were always treated as criminals or bad people. Consequently, communism plus discrimination were the bases of the story. However, the communism, theoretically, does not like discrimination. In another word, in communism, every individual is equal. Thus, even the application of the rules look like communism, it is something else.
The social setting of the 1984 novel reminds us the ideas of Aristotle. Aristotle’s perfect system is very similar to the 1984’s social setting. According to Aristotle, there are three kinds of people: the golden people, the silver people and the iron people. The golden people are very important people. They have the capacity to do anything. They are very smart. Because of their capabilities, they become the rule-makers, managers, judges. Even we can assume that they are like gods. How they become golden is not explained by Aristotle. They just become golden. The silver people are the artisans, the soldiers and the artists. They do not have the capacity to be managers or rule makers. However, they are also valuable people in the community. Defending their country and producing the necessary things for other people. The last class is the iron people. They are worthless. They only can be the slaves of the other people. They only can do the simple production facilities.
According to the Aristotle, the individuals from the different castes cannot marry and they cannot trade. The iron people serve the silver and the golden people and the silver people serve the golden people. The golden people do not need to work. They are always served. Thus, we can claim that the setting of the 1984 novel is very similar to the settings of the ideal system of Aristotle.
STARTING A REVOLUTION
In many of the ideological approaches, the revolution strike has started by the poor people. They mostly do not have anything lose because if they do not start the revolution, there is no other way for them to survive. Thus, peace with the authority does not mean anything to the poor people. Analyzing the revolutionary movements, we observe that it is true that the poverty is the main reason behind the revolutions.
The revolution mechanism is a very complex. In every country in every century, there exist some poor people; however, we do not observe a revolution in every country. Thus, we need some necessary conditions in the countries. The following conditions are main points for a revolution in a country: 1) the strictness of the state implementations, 2) the level of discrimination, 3) the inequality in income, 4) the inequality in access to the public services; 5) the organization power of the poor people.
Every ideology and every religion believe in revolution. Actually, all the ideologies and the religions are revolutions in thought. Analyzing the lives of the prophets and the famous ideological leaders such as Marx, Stalin, they all contacted with the poor people first. After forming an organization among the poor people, they could start their revolutionary movements.
In 1984, we observed a similar revolutionary movement. There is an opponent group among the third class people living in the reservation. They are aware what is happening and why the state management is not allowing people to be free. These people have lost everything they have; therefore, they do not have anything to lose. Maybe, they might die; however, they do not see any difference between being alive and being dead. It might sound like heroic behavior. But analyzing the many revolutions in the real world, people can be that eager for a revolution.
Although the revolutionist people are so brave to fight against the state management, they are weak. Because they do not have any clue how to destroy the state management. At this point, the hero of the novel appears. He is a worker from the second class. He has a great appetite for learning new things other than taught him and freedom.
In the beginning, he has a role inside the community. However, his inspiration comes from his soul. There is no logical explanation is given in the novel. He just wonders why he lives like that and whether possible to have a different life depending on his choices. His amusement about a new life leads him to the reservations. He finds more interesting things there and learn about the real past which is completely different from the one taught by the state. Also, we should remember that the state management scares the second class people about the outside world. The state tells the people there are very dangerous sicknesses outside the cities. However, our hero understands how the system keeps him away from the real past and from the third class people; he stops being afraid striking against the state. He carries the necessary information to the revolutionist people. Thus, some brave people and some support to them by providing information bring a revolution.
Consequently, we can claim that the 1984 novel is about a revolution against a strict state management. The people want to be free while making their decisions. The technology does not guarantee full happiness for everybody according to the novel. Even worse, the technology might be a dangerous weapon that might destroy people’s freedom.
REFERENCE
Bloom, H. (1987). George Orwell's 1984. New York: Chelsea House.
