1984 and Nineteen Eighty Four

By James Cox, Student

A Talk given in class

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

Nineteen Eighty-Four has never been just a year since George Orwell wrote his magnum opus in Nineteen Forty-Eight. In the novel, Orwell criticises the 'perfect society.' Some famous authors have written utopian novels, but 1984 is different. It is an anti-utopian novel, one of the best written in all time. Thanks to him, the world of 1984 is not just a Fable. Rather, it is a warning. It is what will happen if, as the whole of society, we turn our backs to the light.

Two things that perhaps scares us most about the world of 1984 is that there is no individual, and no chance for overthrowing the Party. You have no privacies, 'massmindedness', to coin a phrase, 'ensures that an individual exists merely to serve the group'. As the Party 'creates no martyrs', removes people who are too intelligent to be fooled by the Party propaganda, and fools everyone else into thinking that the Party is good, the Party will never be overthrown. The Party exists on the idea that it is not important who carries the doctrine, but that it is carried on. This ensures the longetivity of the Party. History has shown that dynasties based on hereditary ascension never last long. For example, the Tudors lasted less than 120 years, but the Catholic Church has lasted for nearly 2000.

The calendar may make us think 1984 is a gruesome story, nothing more, about something that not only never happened, never will happen. The hype about this occurred in 1984 AD. Some people were sure that society would have been like the world of the novel, if George Orwell had not written to warn us. The conditions in the book are taken if the contemporary governmental practises projected into the future. Even though the book was written as a projection of English Socialism, the hype about 'the book is a warning' occurred mainly in the United States. The US has long been seen as truly 'free', and a completely egalitarian society. For this reason, some Americans see the future as having two possibilities: a perfect society with a perfect government, as they view the US as having now, or a 'bad' communist society where there is no freedom, everyone is kept under constant surveillance, children are turned against their parents, friendship and love no longer exist between people, (because they unite people together, and therefore may lead to overthrow), and countries have their traditional names reduced to such utilitarian labels like 'Airstrip One'.

When we view the 1984 - 1984 issue from 2000, we must not forget that in the Eighties, the cold war was in full swing. The public opinion at the time was that communism was extremely bad, and that people should give up their lives to preserve their democracy. People would also be outraged if such a system of surveillance was introduced today. A famous advertisement in the US proclaimed 'Is Big Brother watching? If you are tired of Government, tired of big business, tired of everyone telling you who you are and what you should be, then now is the time to speak out. Display your disgust and exhibit your independence, Wear a ""Big Brother Is Watching"" tee-shirt. $10, Canadians remit US dollars. Big Brother is Watching LTD. Neenah, WI.'

It is funny how people are selective in their privacies. Some people are totally against 'cookies,' internet packets that tell companies where you have been surfing, but noone seems to think about the fact that your credit card company records information about exactly what you have bought and when, and may sell your name to advertisers. People are perfectly happy to have private conversations on a mobile. But if they give out their details on the web, and suffer email advertisements for the rest of their lives, they get angry. Perhaps it is the constant surveillance, video and audio, that we most dislike about 1984.


The hype over the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four compared to the year 1984 even extended to a famous advertisement: The 1984 Apple ad. This was the most expensive commercial ever and was aired just once during the 1984 SuperBowl. The ad was made by Chiat/Day to advertise the Macintosh and it cost $600,000 to produce and $1,000,000 to show. It was directed by Ridley Scott, the director of Blade Runner. It had an extremely high viewer recall and for that reason experts regard it as the most cost effective commercial ever made.

The ad has features taken from both the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and the real world.
In the beginning we see dark monotone people in a dark monotone environment. This is ment to symbolise the computer world in reality, and the Outer Party at Two Minutes Hate in the novel. These people are all watching a man droning out a speech. In reality, this shows the mainstream computer world following the leader: all doing exactly the same thing. The man represents Big Brother from the novel.
A girl with bright clothes (standing out from the rest) comes in, and throws a sledgehammer towards the screen, smashing Big Brother's speech. The girl symbolises Julia in the novel, overthrowing the totalitarianism society of Oceania. In reality, it is the Macintosh computer freeing the masses.
There are men running after the girl to try and stop her: they are the thought police.

Big Brother in the ad is droning out a speech worthy of Big Brother. The speech is: ""Each of you is a single cell in the great body of the state. And today, that great body has purged itself of parasites. We have triumphed over the unprincipled dissemination of facts. The thugs and the wreckers have been cast out. Let each and every cell rejoice! For today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directive. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology where each worker may bloom secure from the pests conveying contradictory and confusing truths. Our unification of thought is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!""

In conclusion, the fact that books like 1984 have been written is actually good for society as some people were saying 16 years ago. These novels help humanity share their opinions and ideas around, and to enforce the continuation of democracy into the future. As long as there are ideas, opinions, and even more important, ideals, humankind will always aim for the better, and not devolve to the worse.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Research was done from works available at www.planetpapers.com in /Literature/1984/ Section.
1984: The Past is Prologue
1984
Comparison of the Year to the Book
Denial of Natural Rights
1984: A Grim Prediction of the Future