essay on george orwell 1984

Doublethink Is Stronger Than Orwell Imagined

What 1984 means today

No novel of the past century has had more influence than George Orwell’s 1984 . The title, the adjectival form of the author’s last name, the vocabulary of the all-powerful Party that rules the superstate Oceania with the ideology of Ingsoc— doublethink , memory hole , unperson , thoughtcrime , Newspeak , Thought Police , Room 101 , Big Brother —they’ve all entered the English language as instantly recognizable signs of a nightmare future. It’s almost impossible to talk about propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without dropping a reference to 1984. Throughout the Cold War, the novel found avid underground readers behind the Iron Curtain who wondered, How did he know?

It was also assigned reading for several generations of American high-school students. I first encountered 1984 in 10th-grade English class. Orwell’s novel was paired with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , whose hedonistic and pharmaceutical dystopia seemed more relevant to a California teenager in the 1970s than did the bleak sadism of Oceania. I was too young and historically ignorant to understand where 1984 came from and exactly what it was warning against. Neither the book nor its author stuck with me. In my 20s, I discovered Orwell’s essays and nonfiction books and reread them so many times that my copies started to disintegrate, but I didn’t go back to 1984 . Since high school, I’d lived through another decade of the 20th century, including the calendar year of the title, and I assumed I already “knew” the book. It was too familiar to revisit.

Read: Teaching ‘1984’ in 2016

So when I recently read the novel again, I wasn’t prepared for its power. You have to clear away what you think you know, all the terminology and iconography and cultural spin-offs, to grasp the original genius and lasting greatness of 1984 . It is both a profound political essay and a shocking, heartbreaking work of art. And in the Trump era , it’s a best seller .

The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 , by the British music critic Dorian Lynskey, makes a rich and compelling case for the novel as the summation of Orwell’s entire body of work and a master key to understanding the modern world. The book was published in 1949, when Orwell was dying of tuberculosis , but Lynskey dates its biographical sources back more than a decade to Orwell’s months in Spain as a volunteer on the republican side of the country’s civil war. His introduction to totalitarianism came in Barcelona, when agents of the Soviet Union created an elaborate lie to discredit Trotskyists in the Spanish government as fascist spies.

Left-wing journalists readily accepted the fabrication, useful as it was to the cause of communism. Orwell didn’t, exposing the lie with eyewitness testimony in journalism that preceded his classic book Homage to Catalonia —and that made him a heretic on the left. He was stoical about the boredom and discomforts of trench warfare—he was shot in the neck and barely escaped Spain with his life—but he took the erasure of truth hard. It threatened his sense of what makes us sane, and life worth living. “History stopped in 1936,” he later told his friend Arthur Koestler, who knew exactly what Orwell meant. After Spain, just about everything he wrote and read led to the creation of his final masterpiece. “History stopped,” Lynskey writes, “and Nineteen Eighty-Four began.”

The biographical story of 1984 —the dying man’s race against time to finish his novel in a remote cottage on the Isle of Jura , off Scotland—will be familiar to many Orwell readers. One of Lynskey’s contributions is to destroy the notion that its terrifying vision can be attributed to, and in some way disregarded as, the death wish of a tuberculosis patient. In fact, terminal illness roused in Orwell a rage to live—he got remarried on his deathbed—just as the novel’s pessimism is relieved, until its last pages, by Winston Smith’s attachment to nature, antique objects, the smell of coffee, the sound of a proletarian woman singing, and above all his lover, Julia. 1984 is crushingly grim, but its clarity and rigor are stimulants to consciousness and resistance. According to Lynskey, “Nothing in Orwell’s life and work supports a diagnosis of despair.”

Lynskey traces the literary genesis of 1984 to the utopian fictions of the optimistic 19th century—Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888); the sci-fi novels of H. G. Wells, which Orwell read as a boy—and their dystopian successors in the 20th, including the Russian Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1924) and Huxley’s Brave New World (1932). The most interesting pages in The Ministry of Truth are Lynskey’s account of the novel’s afterlife. The struggle to claim 1984 began immediately upon publication, with a battle over its political meaning. Conservative American reviewers concluded that Orwell’s main target wasn’t just the Soviet Union but the left generally. Orwell, fading fast, waded in with a statement explaining that the novel was not an attack on any particular government but a satire of the totalitarian tendencies in Western society and intellectuals: “The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: Don’t let it happen. It depends on you .” But every work of art escapes the artist’s control—the more popular and complex, the greater the misunderstandings.

Lynskey’s account of the reach of 1984 is revelatory. The novel has inspired movies, television shows, plays, a ballet, an opera, a David Bowie album , imitations, parodies, sequels, rebuttals, Lee Harvey Oswald, the Black Panther Party, and the John Birch Society. It has acquired something of the smothering ubiquity of Big Brother himself: 1984 is watching you. With the arrival of the year 1984, the cultural appropriations rose to a deafening level. That January an ad for the Apple Macintosh was watched by 96 million people during the Super Bowl and became a marketing legend. The Mac, represented by a female athlete, hurls a sledgehammer at a giant telescreen and explodes the shouting face of a man—oppressive technology—to the astonishment of a crowd of gray zombies. The message: “You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’ ”

The argument recurs every decade or so: Orwell got it wrong. Things haven’t turned out that bad. The Soviet Union is history. Technology is liberating. But Orwell never intended his novel to be a prediction, only a warning. And it’s as a warning that 1984 keeps finding new relevance. The week of Donald Trump’s inauguration, when the president’s adviser Kellyanne Conway justified his false crowd estimate by using the phrase alternative facts , the novel returned to the best-seller lists. A theatrical adaptation was rushed to Broadway. The vocabulary of Newspeak went viral. An authoritarian president who stood the term fake news on its head, who once said, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” has given 1984 a whole new life.

What does the novel mean for us? Not Room 101 in the Ministry of Love, where Winston is interrogated and tortured until he loses everything he holds dear. We don’t live under anything like a totalitarian system. “By definition, a country in which you are free to read Nineteen Eighty-Four is not the country described in Nineteen Eighty-Four ,” Lynskey acknowledges. Instead, we pass our days under the nonstop surveillance of a telescreen that we bought at the Apple Store, carry with us everywhere, and tell everything to, without any coercion by the state. The Ministry of Truth is Facebook, Google, and cable news. We have met Big Brother and he is us.

Trump’s election brought a rush of cautionary books with titles like On Tyranny , Fascism: A Warning , and How Fascism Works . My local bookstore set up a totalitarian-themed table and placed the new books alongside 1984 . They pointed back to the 20th century—if it happened in Germany, it could happen here—and warned readers how easily democracies collapse. They were alarm bells against complacency and fatalism—“ the politics of inevitability ,” in the words of the historian Timothy Snyder, “a sense that the future is just more of the present, that the laws of progress are known, that there are no alternatives, and therefore nothing really to be done.” The warnings were justified, but their emphasis on the mechanisms of earlier dictatorships drew attention away from the heart of the malignancy—not the state, but the individual. The crucial issue was not that Trump might abolish democracy but that Americans had put him in a position to try. Unfreedom today is voluntary. It comes from the bottom up.

We are living with a new kind of regime that didn’t exist in Orwell’s time. It combines hard nationalism—the diversion of frustration and cynicism into xenophobia and hatred—with soft distraction and confusion: a blend of Orwell and Huxley, cruelty and entertainment. The state of mind that the Party enforces through terror in 1984 , where truth becomes so unstable that it ceases to exist, we now induce in ourselves. Totalitarian propaganda unifies control over all information, until reality is what the Party says it is—the goal of Newspeak is to impoverish language so that politically incorrect thoughts are no longer possible. Today the problem is too much information from too many sources, with a resulting plague of fragmentation and division—not excessive authority but its disappearance, which leaves ordinary people to work out the facts for themselves, at the mercy of their own prejudices and delusions.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, propagandists at a Russian troll farm used social media to disseminate a meme: “ ‘The People Will Believe What the Media Tells Them They Believe.’  — George Orwell.” But Orwell never said this. The moral authority of his name was stolen and turned into a lie toward that most Orwellian end: the destruction of belief in truth. The Russians needed partners in this effort and found them by the millions, especially among America’s non-elites. In 1984 , working-class people are called “proles,” and Winston believes they’re the only hope for the future. As Lynskey points out, Orwell didn’t foresee “that the common man and woman would embrace doublethink as enthusiastically as the intellectuals and, without the need for terror or torture, would choose to believe that two plus two was whatever they wanted it to be.”

We stagger under the daily load of doublethink pouring from Trump, his enablers in the Inner Party, his mouthpieces in the Ministry of Truth, and his fanatical supporters among the proles. Spotting doublethink in ourselves is much harder. “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,” Orwell wrote . In front of my nose, in the world of enlightened and progressive people where I live and work, a different sort of doublethink has become pervasive. It’s not the claim that true is fake or that two plus two makes five. Progressive doublethink—which has grown worse in reaction to the right-wing kind—creates a more insidious unreality because it operates in the name of all that is good. Its key word is justice —a word no one should want to live without. But today the demand for justice forces you to accept contradictions that are the essence of doublethink.

For example, many on the left now share an unacknowledged but common assumption that a good work of art is made of good politics and that good politics is a matter of identity. The progressive view of a book or play depends on its political stance, and its stance—even its subject matter—is scrutinized in light of the group affiliation of the artist: Personal identity plus political position equals aesthetic value. This confusion of categories guides judgments all across the worlds of media, the arts, and education, from movie reviews to grant committees. Some people who register the assumption as doublethink might be privately troubled, but they don’t say so publicly. Then self-censorship turns into self-deception, until the recognition itself disappears—a lie you accept becomes a lie you forget. In this way, intelligent people do the work of eliminating their own unorthodoxy without the Thought Police.

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Orthodoxy is also enforced by social pressure, nowhere more intensely than on Twitter, where the specter of being shamed or “canceled” produces conformity as much as the prospect of adding to your tribe of followers does. This pressure can be more powerful than a party or state, because it speaks in the name of the people and in the language of moral outrage, against which there is, in a way, no defense. Certain commissars with large followings patrol the precincts of social media and punish thought criminals, but most progressives assent without difficulty to the stifling consensus of the moment and the intolerance it breeds—not out of fear, but because they want to be counted on the side of justice.

This willing constriction of intellectual freedom will do lasting damage. It corrupts the ability to think clearly, and it undermines both culture and progress. Good art doesn’t come from wokeness, and social problems starved of debate can’t find real solutions. “Nothing is gained by teaching a parrot a new word,” Orwell wrote in 1946. “What is needed is the right to print what one believes to be true, without having to fear bullying or blackmail from any side.” Not much has changed since the 1940s. The will to power still passes through hatred on the right and virtue on the left.

1984 will always be an essential book, regardless of changes in ideologies, for its portrayal of one person struggling to hold on to what is real and valuable. “Sanity is not statistical,” Winston thinks one night as he slips off to sleep. Truth, it turns out, is the most fragile thing in the world. The central drama of politics is the one inside your skull.

This article appears in the July 2019 print edition with the headline “George Orwell’s Unheeded Warning.”

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

George Orwell’s Novel 1984 Essay

Summary of the book, main characters, themes of the book, personal opinion.

1984 is a novel about totalitarianism and the life of a man who tried to escape from an oppressive political regime. The famous British writer George Orwell wrote his book in 1948. Events take place in London, a province’s capital of the state of Oceania in 1984. The world is involved in an endless war, and the political regime called Ingsoc and headed by a mystical Big Brother permanently looks for ways to control the citizens’ minds and private lives. The key figure of the book is Winston Smith, an editor in the Ministry of Truth responsible for propaganda. Winston does not approve imposed norms and rules and hates the authorities, the main aim of which is to punish people who think differently from the official propaganda. Consequently, Winston is arrested, and, under torture, he betrays everything he loved and believed in. This book shows complicated relationships between the main characters and displays several crucial issues, such as propaganda, totalitarianism, and loss of independence.

After the end of the Second World War, a civil war began in the United Kingdom. The crisis led to its occupation by a new superpower – Oceania. Many changes have occurred on the political map worldwide. However, some citizens disagree with the existing regime. One is the protagonist, Winston Smith, who works as an editor in the Ministry of Truth. At the same time, he fully understands that he cannot share his opinion with anyone. Orwell (2018) tells readers that “thus he buys an illegal diary in which he pens down his thoughts” (p. 3), which is as dangerous as public disapproval of the ruling political regime. Smith gets acquainted with Julia, and, at first, he thinks that she is following him and wants to reveal his crime. However, after a while, the woman confesses her love for Winston, and they begin to meet secretly. Smith knows that this love story will not end happily as Illegal relations between men and women are strictly forbidden in Oceania.

Smith and Julia turn to an official O’Brien to accept them into “Brotherhood” as they consider him to be one of the members of this opposition movement. However, later, lovers get arrested, and Winston realizes that he was mistaken in O’Brien. Winston is subjected to mental and physical torments, and he is forced to renounce himself and all his beliefs, namely, his love for Julia. Eventually, Smith understands that all this time he was wrong, that now he believes only in the Big Brother and the Party and is loyal to them. This ending demonstrates how the system and totalitarian state can break a person and completely control his or her mind.

Winston Smith

He is the main character of the novel, and the author shows readers the whole story through his eyes. Smith is a rational and innermost man with his principles and beliefs. In the beginning, though he hates the authorities, he works at the Ministry of Truth. His primary responsibility is to distort information in the media, according to the demands of Big Brother. Winston starts writing a diary, filling it with his thoughts and memories, but by doing that, he is committing a crime. Illegal relationships between Smith and Julia eventually lead to his imprisonment and irreversible changes in his values and views.

Like Winston, Julia is against the Party and Big Brother. Nevertheless, she differs from him by her pragmatism and cares mostly about the present. She does not think about global problems and tries to harm the Party by committing small crimes. Julia is an active member of the Ministry of Truth. Another difference from Winston is that her rebellion is more intuitive and direct.

This character is a mysterious person as he has super-intelligence and can guess words and sentences before they are said. O’Brien can be regarded as the symbol of dictatorship and totalitarianism and the loyal regime’s servant. He ingratiates himself with Winston, but later, he betrays and arrests him and Julia. After that, O’Brien sends them to jail where inflicts tortures against Smith and destroys his personality.

Big Brother

It is an image of an omnipresent dictator and one of the founders of the Party. However, nobody has seen him, and all the information about this person is hidden (Gilbert & Pitfield, 2019, p. 96). Citizens of Oceania worship him and satisfy all his demands, though they see him only on posters and telescreen, but everyone is sure that “Big Brother Is Watching You” (Sahoo, 2019, p. 447). In fact, Big Brother insists that people love him more than anyone else, even their families.

Totalitarianism

One of the major issues of 1984 is totalitarianism, which presents the type of government where even the head of state is concealed from people. The Party and Big Brother establish total control over people’s relationships, feelings, and even thoughts. The typical patterns of such regime are the overall monitoring and surveillance of citizens through media and specialized institutions as well as spreading mottos, such as “War is Peace” and “Freedom is Slavery.”

Propaganda is a weapon of the totalitarian political regime, the officials of which use it to impose appropriate values and views on Oceania’s citizens through the Ministry of Truth. The main character, Winston Smith, is also engaged in this activity, as his job responsibilities are to oust historical facts by distorted information. The propaganda also invents new concepts, such as ‘Two Minutes Hate,’ ‘Big Brother is watching,’ and other mottos.

Loss of Identity and Independence

Totalitarian regimes often adopt strategies that make people lose their identities and independence. In 1984, the imposed conformism and uniformity in food, clothes, and thoughts demonstrated that the Party and its head, Big Brother, are aimed at suppressing citizens and limiting their freedom. The ruling regime uses all legal and illegal means, such as propaganda, suppression, and tortures, to achieve its goals and subject people to its will.

Even though George Orwell wrote 1984 more than 70 years ago, it remains incredibly relevant in the 21 st century. That is why it impresses readers and makes people think about some crucial issues. Orwell foresaw a society in which the authorities would broadcast propaganda to distract citizens from urgent challenges. Nowadays, people seldom notice the existence of total control. Governments and corporations use the Internet and television to limit personal freedom and impose pressing values. Orwell’s 1984 is an earnest and thought-provoking dystopian novel.

Gilbert, F. & Pitfield, M. (2019). Teaching 1984 in the surveillance culture of schools. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 18 (1), 85–99.

Orwell, G. (2018). 1984. Pittsburgh, PA: General Press.

Sahoo, B. (2019). George Orwell and his relevance to the twenty-first century. Language in India, 19 (2), 440–455.

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George Orwells 1984 - Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell that explores the dangers of totalitarianism and surveillance. Essays on this topic could delve into the themes of surveillance, truth, and totalitarianism in the novel, discuss its relevance to contemporary societal issues, or compare Orwell’s dystopian vision to other dystopian or utopian literary works. A substantial compilation of free essay instances related to George Orwell’s 1984 you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Winston against the Party in the Novel 1984

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How To Write an Essay About George Orwell's 1984

Understanding the context and themes of 1984.

When setting out to write an essay about George Orwell's "1984," it's crucial to first grasp the novel's historical and literary context. Published in 1949, "1984" is a dystopian novel that paints a chilling picture of a totalitarian regime. In your introduction, outline the key themes of the novel: the dangers of totalitarianism, the manipulation of truth, and the erosion of individuality. It's important to contextualize these themes within the post-World War II era during which Orwell was writing, as well as considering their continued relevance in today's society. This foundational understanding will inform your exploration of the novel's complex narrative and thematic structure.

Analyzing Orwell's Characters and Narrative Techniques

The body of your essay should delve into a detailed analysis of the novel's characters and narrative techniques. Focus on the protagonist, Winston Smith, and his journey of rebellion and subsequent downfall. Examine Orwell's portrayal of the Party, particularly the character of Big Brother, and the ways in which it exercises control over individuals. Discuss the novel's key symbols, such as telescreens, Newspeak, and the concept of doublethink, and how they contribute to its overall message. Analyze Orwell's use of language and narrative style, considering how these elements enhance the novel's themes and its impact on readers. Use specific examples and quotes from the text to support your analysis, ensuring each paragraph contributes to a comprehensive understanding of Orwell's vision.

Contextualizing 1984 in the Broader Literary Landscape

In this section, place "1984" within the broader context of dystopian literature and its historical background. Discuss how the novel reflects the anxieties of its time, including fears of fascism and communism, and how these concerns are woven into the fabric of the narrative. Consider the influences on Orwell's writing, such as his experiences during the Spanish Civil War and his observations of Stalinist Russia. Additionally, reflect on the novel's impact on later literature and culture, including its influence on the genre of dystopian fiction and its relevance in contemporary discussions about surveillance, privacy, and political power.

Concluding Reflections on 1984

Conclude your essay by summarizing the key points of your analysis, emphasizing the enduring significance of "1984" in both literary and socio-political contexts. Reflect on the novel's warning about the dangers of totalitarianism and the importance of preserving individual freedoms. Consider the novel's relevance in today's world, particularly in light of current technological and political developments. A strong conclusion will not only provide closure to your essay but also underscore the novel's ongoing relevance, encouraging readers to continue contemplating Orwell's warnings and insights in relation to contemporary society.

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The Reflection of George Orwell Crystal Epps

"On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran." (Orwell 4 "Nineteen").

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four presents a negative utopian picture, a society ruled by rigid totalitarianism. The government which Orwell creates in his novel is ruled by an entity known as Big Brother and consists of four branches. The Ministry of Truth, overseeing the distribution of propaganda and other printed materials, the Ministry of Peace (dealing with war), the Ministry of Plenty, handling economic affairs, and the Ministry of Love, the law enforcement division, make up the government. The main character, Winston Smith, does not completely accept the ideology that is fed to him by the government, through the concept of Big Brother. When one examines George Orwell's life, it can be clearly seen that he personifies his political perceptions, social and aesthetic characteristics, and self-examination of his own writing, through Winston Smith, in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell's political perceptions, especially his...

GradeSaver provides access to 2312 study guide PDFs and quizzes, 10989 literature essays, 2751 sample college application essays, 911 lesson plans, and ad-free surfing in this premium content, “Members Only” section of the site! Membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders.

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1984 by George Orwell audiobook review – a starry cast drive this powerful dramatisation

Tom Hardy, Cynthia Erivo and Andrew Scott conjure menace and melodrama in this 75th-anniversary remake of Orwell’s classic

A udible has been pushing the boat out lately with its dramatisations of literary classics, and this adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, marking 75 years since it was published, is a dark delight. Andrew Garfield leads a starry cast as Winston Smith, a worker at the Ministry of Truth trying to keep a lid on his frustrations with the Party, the ruling power that controls everything in the state of Oceania including what its citizens do, say and think. The omniscient Big Brother, voiced by Tom Hardy, keeps tabs on everyone via telescreens and brutally punishes dissenters, though this doesn’t stop Winston from purchasing a notebook to write down his illegal thoughts.

Cynthia Erivo plays Julia, who persuades Winston to take a trip out of the city and to the countryside where they indulge in some noisy alfresco fun that is best heard via the privacy of your own headphones. Meanwhile, Andrew Scott is quietly terrifying as O’Brien, an Inner Party member who tricks Winston into believing he is part of a revolutionary group called the Brotherhood. After exposing his wrongdoing, O’Brien spends months brainwashing Winston through acts of torture based on his private nightmares.

There are some good supporting turns from Romesh Ranganathan as Parsons, described as “a man of paralysing stupidity”, and Chukwudi Iwuji as the duplicitous Charrington, who rents out the room where Winston and Julia conduct their secret trysts. The score comes courtesy of Muse frontman Matt Bellamy and composer Ilan Eshkeri, and brims with melodrama and menace.

1984 is available via Audible, 3hr 27min

Further listening

Pageboy Elliot Page, Penguin Audio, 8hr 23 min This episodic memoir by the Juno actor documents his early life, his meteoric rise as an actor and the acute gender dysphoria he experienced from the age of four. Read by the author.

The Twyford Code Janice Hallett, Profile Audio, 11hr 28min Thomas Judd narrates this unusual crime novel made up of the transcribed audio files found on the phone of a missing ex-convict named Steven Smith.

• George Orwell
• Audiobook of the week
• Andrew Scott

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — 1984 — Novel Summary: 1984 by George Orwell

Novel Summary: 1984 by George Orwell

• Categories: 1984 George Orwell

About this sample

Words: 471 |

Published: Nov 19, 2018

Words: 471 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

George Orwell's "1984" serves as a stark warning about the potential horrors of a totalitarian regime that seeks to obliterate human emotion, individuality, and freedom of expression, ultimately distorting the very essence of the human experience. Throughout the novel, Orwell emphasizes the power of storytelling to both predict and shape the future. He envisions a world where the government controls not only the present but also the past, rewriting history to suit its needs and manipulating the narrative to maintain its grip on power.

As we conclude our journey through the dystopian landscape of "1984," Orwell's parting words resonate with a haunting urgency. When he implores us with the simple yet profound message, "Don't let it happen – it depends on you," he underscores the profound responsibility we hold in safeguarding our freedoms and preserving the core elements of humanity. Orwell's cautionary tale compels us to remain vigilant against the encroachments on individual rights and the erosion of truth in our own society.

Orwell's words challenge us to question authority, defend our liberties, and ensure that the nightmare he envisioned remains confined to the realm of fiction, rather than becoming a bleak reality.

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