Kurtz 1 Sam Kurtz Mr. Ismail AP English Literature June 4 2021 Title: 1984 Author: George Orwell Genre: Dystopian Subgenre: Future Political Dystopia Historical Context: This book was written during WWII, a period of widespread totalitarianism. It was also during the rise of 20th century communism and socialism. However, Orwell himself was a socialist and anti-capitalist. 1984, which is often mistaken for a criticism of socialism, is more a commentary on the dangers of totalitarianism, misinformation, and a state of surveillance than it is one on any particular economic system. The enemy isn’t socialism in the book; It’s Big Brother. The food shortages and poverty are caused by never ending war and poor money management, not by socialism. Additionally, Orwell’s experience working as a police officer in a totalitarian british colony and living with the destitute in England directly inspired his writings in 1984. Kurtz 2 Protagonist: Winston is a member of the Inner Party, meaning he is a part of the political apparatus that keeps the entire country moving the way Big Brother wants it to. More specifically, Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he is responsible for translating texts into New Speak (the state devised language) and rewriting old news articles and other documents to fit the current narrative. He essentially helps write a false version of the past and present. This is used to control the entire context of the world the people live in, which makes it exceedingly easy to manipulate them. Antagonist: Big Brother is the face of the Party. He is the figurehead, plastered on telescreens everywhere and worshiped as the savior of Oceania. He is practically devine to his supporters. He also barely exists. He is nameless, other than as Big Brother, and is never seen in public. Plot Summary: Winston is disillusioned with life. He feels a sense of dissatisfaction and discomfort that for the longest time he cannot place. When it comes to him that this all stems from a hatred of Big Brother and the Party, he is fearful. After all, this is a crime punishable by death. He illegally purchases an empty notebook from a second hand store and stores it in a drawer in his house that cannot be seen by a telescreen. This too terrifies him, as the omnipresence of Big Brother and the telescreens makes any deviation from what’s accepted a dance with death. Winston finally comes to terms with his hatred for the party when he dumps his thoughts onto a blank page in the notebook while hidden from view of the telescreens. Winston is both freed by this act, and trapped by it. The catharsis is pleasing to him, but the crimes he commits in his head all day plague him with paranoia of getting caught. This is why when he catches a girl named Julia watching him closely he suspects her immediately to be Kurtz 3 a Party spy out to catch him for his thought crimes. He goes as far as to prepare himself to murder her before she hands him a note telling him that she loves him. They meet covertly, and have a secret affair, first in the woods outside of any Party surveillance, and then in a rented room in a Prole neighborhood that lacks telescreens. They discuss their hatred for the party, and are thrilled when they are invited by O'brien, a powerful Party member and suspected member of the resistance group the Brotherhood, to his apartment. Winston teaches the two about the Brotherhood and asks them to join. They both accept. However, it is not long before Winston and Julia are caught in their rented room by the Thought Police. The man that rented it out to them was working with the party the entire time, as was O’Brian. Both Winston and Julia are sent to the Ministry of Love, a facility that processes the thought criminals and insurgents that go against the party. Winston is tortured for months, but refuses to give in. He is sent to the infamous Room 101, where the most resilient thought criminals are to be broken. Here he is subjected to his worst fear, rats, who are prepared to eat away his face before Winston finally gives in. He asks his tormentors to punish Julia instead. Upon this, he is released, a broken man. In his new life, he has learned to love the party, and accepts big brother as his leader. He meets Julia once again, and she admits that she too turned on him in the Ministry of Love, and they feel nothing for each other and move on. Significant Literary Elements: The literary element that stood out most to me throughout the book was the use of imagery to describe both the world that Winston lives in and his feelings and reactions to it. Orwell describes the world as so drab as to elicit feelings of despair and overwhelming understimulation. This really helps the reader feel foreign in the world and understand Winston’s frustration. Additionally, Winston’s bouts of anger and frustration and Kurtz 4 disgust are described in wrenching detail. His despair is so accurately portrayed in part because of its link to the helplessness of his situation. He is not simply in a place he doest like, he is in a place he despises, with no way out but death, and no one else to share his thoughts with. He doesn’t even know if his feelings are warranted because he cannot trust his own recollection of history due to the Party’s manipulation of it. Overall this strongly contributes to the subtle feeling of nausea and anxiety that the book generates over the course of its story. Book Report #1 Book Report #2 Book Report #3 Book Report #4 Book Report #5 Book Report #6 Final Thoughts: Reading 1984 when I read it was an astonishing experience. Being one of the most popularly referenced (and misreferenced) books in the modern political sphere, it was very interesting to see what everyone was talking about. In reading it, I understood the reason why people quoted it so often and also that they were so often wrong in doing so. The dystopian Kurtz 5 themes in this book also felt far too close to home for my tastes. I understand why people so often feel compelled to reference 1984 and draw connections to modern day, but they often do it very poorly. Citations of the book in political discourse are often targeted at social regulations on what is and is not accepted speech. However, much more poignant comparisons can be drawn between 1984 and the rise of misinformation and proto-fascism in modern day American politics. Having come into reading this book with the notions that it was some big criticism of socialism, I was surprised to find out that it really is not a critique of the socialist part of the party, and that Orwell himself was a socialist. This book also made me realize further that, in a place as polarized as America, both groups of people see the same major issues, be it wealth inequality or misinformation or corrupt government. The biggest difference is that different groups of people attribute these problems to different causes. A working class person who supports Trump would likely have a lot of similar criticisms of this country as I do as a socialist. This is why we both see 1984 as an apt commentary on our current trajectory. The difference is where we place the blame. Overall I was very glad I chose the book that I did, as I often struggle to engage with long form books, especially when they don't strike me as particularly immersive. However, 1984 both played to my interests of politics and dystopia and engaged me with really artful immersion and worldbuilding.
