Book report on ´1984´ by George Orwell,

First expectations

I didn´t really know what book I should read, but somebody told me that ´1984´ was a good book, but quite difficult to read. That last thing did not bother me because I got though ´Robinson Crusoe´ as well. The only thing I really knew about the book was that the story was about ´Big Brother´, well, that wasn't entirely true, but the figure ´Big Brother´ plays an important role in the book, without even being a real character. I always find it difficult to get started with a book, but as a matter of fact it went quite easy this time. I found the book very fascinating to read, but the way in which Winstons thoughts flash by now and then can be a little confusing. I rather like the book as far as I have read it at this moment. The only thing I would like is some more life, some more action, and some more characters.

Summary


1984. Winston isn't completely sure of the date. He works at the Ministry of Truth, where his work consists of erasing facts or names of people that have been published, but turn out not to fit in the predictions the Party or Big Brother made.

Because he isn't pleased with the way the Party rules Oceania Winston starts a diary, which he bought illegally. Every time he wants to write in it he has to sit in a part of his room where he can't be seen by the telescreen. He knows that by starting a diary he is risking his life, for it is a thought crime.

Every Party member has to be present at the Two Minutes Hate. After that Big Brother comes at the telescreen with the three mottoes of the Party; War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. During that Winston sees a man named O´Brien and when their eyes met he thought he saw something they shared. Winston thinks that O´Brien also sees through the lies of the Party.

Winston seems to be the only person who knows that all documents about the real past have been destroyed or altered. So he has to get all the information from his own memory. But that isn't easy to do because he cannot get any confirmation about his findings or memories.

Winston thinks the only information about the past is with the Proles, so there is also the hope for the future. The Proles live in a separate part of the city where every house doesn't havea telescreen, where there is much less control. Winston sometimes goes there to buy goods on the black market, such as the diary. One day when he is in that part of the city where the Proles live he goes into a pub. There he talks to an old man about the time before the Revolution. But the man is too senile to give him relevant information, so he leaves. On his way home he goes by Mr. Carrington's shop, where he already bought some things. This time Mr. Carrington shows him the floor above the shop, which makes Winston think of old times. As he continues his way home (it is late already), he sees the girl who he earlier saw at the Two Minutes Hate. He thinks she is a spy of the Thought police who is following him and he thinks of killing her, but he leaves that the same moment.

A few days later the girl, whose name is Julia, slips a note into his hands with the words: “I love you.”. Because Winston has to get rid off the evidence he burns the paper. During the next following days he goes looking for her, but she is never at the canteen or the Two Minutes Hate when he is. About a week later they arrange a meeting in a crowded square. There Julia gives Winston precise instructions to get out off London to a place somewhere in the woods. He meets her there and after they went home he went to Mr. Carrington to rent the room above the shop. He and Julia meet there. Winston feels safe there, for there is no telescreen to watch them. They can do anything they want.

Later O´Brien approaches Winston and talks to him about the tenth edition of the Newspeak dictionary. He also invites Winston to his appartment. After some time Winston and Julia go to visit him. O´Brien wasn´t very happy to see her with Winston and ignores her most of the evening. Although he is officially a member of the Inner Party, O´Brien makes Winston and Julia believe he is a member of the Brotherhood. They thrust him and give him the address of their ´hide-out´. O´Brien promised Winston to get a copy of ´The Book´ (written by the leader of the Brotherhood) for him.

A week later Winston receives ´The Book´ and reads it in the room above the shop. The book explains the three mottoes of the Party. He waits until Julia arrives and reads a part of it to her aloud. She falls asleep and he does too. When they wake up and get dressed hear a loud voice behind them. The Thought police enter the room and beats up Julia. Then Winston and Julia are both taken to separate locations.

Winston thinks that he has been taken to the Ministry of Love, where he has been locked up in a cell. A telescreen on the wall yells at him as soon as he moves. Other prisoners are taken in and out the cell. Most of the prisoners are taken to room 101, of which they are terribly afraid and which apparently is a place where the prisoners are tortured. From time to time he sits alone in the cell. After a while Winston doesn´t know what time or day it is. O´Brien enters the cell. Winston thinks O´Brien is arrested too, but he tells Winston that he is a member of the Thought police.


From the time he was brought to the Ministry of Love Winston he has often been beaten and tortured, mainly by O´Brien himself. O´Brien sometimes acts like he is Winston's friend and the next moment like he is his greatest enemy. The only consolation is that he has not betrayed Julia. Some while later O´Brien forces Winston to look into a mirror. Winston sees himself. He is much thinner and grimier than he ever was. After that Winston is treated better. He gets three meals a day and he gets the opportunity to take a bath every once and a while. Everything goes quite well until he cries out Julia's name in his sleep. After that the guards come in and take him to room 101. There a cage full of rats is being held in front of his face (Winston fears rats more than anything). That's when he betrays Julia by crying out: “ Do it to Julia!”.

The Party lets him go and he spends most of his time drinking gin in a café. One day he runs into Julia when he is walking in the park. They admit they have betrayed each other and go their seperate ways. As Winston sits in a bar and he looks up to a poster of Big Brother, … he realises that he loves him.

Technical analysis

Space and time
The world is divided into three parts: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, which are all at war with eachother. The story is told in London, which is in Oceania. The country is being watched twenty-four hours a day by the government trough the telescreens. Those are devices which see anything you do and hear any sound you make. Everything is controlled or forbidden, sex for example. It is brought back to only something dirty you to do when you want children, but in no way is for pleasure. If the Thought police thinks you are taking actions or thinking about taking actions against the Party they make you disappear-you become an 'unperson'.

The story is told in a continuous chronological order, apart from some memories or examples, which refer to the past. In the first few chapters foreshadowing is employed when Winston sees O´Brien. From a simple glance from O´Brien, Winston interprets that he has seen him commit thought crimes through the telescreen, and that he seeks contact with him. From a different kind of glance from Julia Winston believes she works for the Thought police. He is wrong in both cases. The time lapse is one year, the year 1984.

Characters
Winston Smith: he is a middle-aged man, 39, and slow in his ways. But he is also extremely dynamic in trying to change the Party. He is the main person in the book, and his character is important for the understanding of the whole book. Winston was born before the Second World War. Although there was a lack of food, he took nearly all the food that was allocated to the family while his little sister was starving to death. In 1984 he often dreams of this time and I think he somehow regrets his selfish behaviour. Winston sees a link between his behaviour and those of the children educated by the Party too. These children pursue their own parents, like the Parsons. In the end he realises his and the Party´s guilt.

On the other hand Winston is some kind of heroic figure because he is aware of the dangers he encounters. For example he knew from the beginning that his diary would be found. As the story develops you can see the things written in the diary are used against him (like: “Freedom is to say two and two makes four”). He also knew that the Thought police would disclose his illegal love affair, which was an act of rebellion. But nevertheless he is a bit naïve, for example in opening his mind to O´Brien before he knew sure that he was against the Party too.


Julia: she is a woman around 25 and she works at a special department of the Ministry of Truth, producing cheap pornography for the Proles. She has already had a couple of illegal love affairs. Unlike Winston, she is basically a woman who loves her man and uses sex for fun as well as for rebellion. She is perfectly willing to accept anything the Party says. If the Party says two and two makes five, fine. If Big Brother says black is white, it´ll do for her.

Orwell draws Winston's love object lovingly. She falls asleep over Winston reading from the book by Goldstein. Julia is all woman-sharp and funny and attractive, but she may also be an image from Orwell's somewhat limited view of women.

O´Brien: O’Brien is a member of the Inner Party. Probably the most interesting thing about O’Brien is that we only have Winston's opinion of him. This sophisticated leader of the Inner Party is pretending to be the leader of the secret Brotherhood dedicated to the overthrow the Party. He haunts Winston day and night until the very end of this novel. Another interesting thing about O’Brien is that the reader doesn’t really know whether he is a friend or an enemy of Winston. Even Winston himself does not know exactly.

I think O’Brien, the powerful Party leader, is some kind of father for Winston. Before his capture O’Brien ‘helps’ Winston to make contact with the Brotherhood and teaches him the about the ideology of this organisation. After the capture O’Brien gives Winston the feeling that he somehow protecting him. This relation is a typical father-child relation. But I think O’Brien is only playing his role to reintegrate Winston into the system.

Big Brother: Big Brother is not a real person, but he plays a prominent roll throughout the book. All-present as he is, all-powerful and always watching, he is only seen on the telescreen and on huge posters, which shout: “Big Brother is watching you!!”. But no one has ever seen him in person. Maybe he is only a figure made up by the Party to scare the people and someone from whom they get their ‘authorisation’ for doing whatever they want. For Winston Big Brother is an inspiration, he hates Big Brother and on the other hand he is drawn to him. It is pretty much like some kind of love-hate relation, that eventually leads to Winston's downfall.
I think Orwell thought of the ultimate dictator when creating Big Brother. Big Brother stands for all dictators in the world.

Narrator and point of view

The book is completely written in the third person view. The reader sees the story through Winston's eyes. The reader also knows his thoughts.

Theme

The book is written in 1949, during the Cold War, so I think that Orwell is stating a warning against totalitarian state. Hitler's try for total world domination just failed and now Stalin takes a shot. Orwell shows that the threats to freedom are real and that the democracy could be destroyed.
He also trying to show how a single individual goes down due to a system, and there is no way to prevent that from happening.


Symbolism

A symbolic part is the paperweight Winston buys in Mr. Carringtons shop. It is rounded on top and flat at the bottom and there is a peace of coral inside the glass. It symbolises safety for Winston, as does the room above the shop he and Julia have. But it is all an illusion and in the end the safety turns out to be as fragile as glass and just as easily broken.

Personal opinion

I found the story extremely realistic, sometimes that was a bit cruel, but that is the real world. The events in the book follow up each other in a logical order, there aren't any real improbabilities. That makes the story really convincing, although it is fiction of course.

The characters are quite brought to life I think, especially Winston, the main character. Sometimes his thoughts are very funny and another time they are sad to the bone. I could understand his feelings and frustrations well, Orwell did a good job there. I don't think I would take all the risks he takes in the book. I am not a dumb person like Mr. Parson, but I think I would have followed the Party more than Winston does. Maybe I would have a more pleasant life, but I don´t know for sure.
Thanks to the chronological order the book was not difficult to read, although I sometimes lost myself in the monologues between Winston and himself. The language usage wasn´t too difficult either, but sometimes it was a little bit hard.

I pretty much agree with the statement made on the back of the book: “If you haven´t read ´1984´, you haven´t lived.