1984, By George Orwell: The Dangers Of A Totalitarian Government

“1984” is a fictional book written by George Orwell in 1949 with the underlying purpose of warning against the dangers of a totalitarian government. Totalitarian governments are governed by dictators, and assert complete control over the lives, actions, and thoughts of their citizens. Orwell wrote this book during World War II after watching dictators like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler rise to power in real time. He feared that if countries like the Soviet Union and Germany were able to fall to totalitarian control, then other countries such as the United States and Great Britain could as well. The book, appropriately named “1984,” takes place many years after Orwell initially wrote it. The book tells the story of a man named Winston Smith

He manages this through his use of worldbuilding throughout the story. The book begins with the quote, “It was a cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Right off the bat, Orwell introduces the world as one where reality is skewed, and normal rules are not present. Details like this help to represent how the party and Big Brother are capable of controlling the lives of the citizens through their manipulation of the truth. This presents the world they are living in as dystopian, and cues the reader into the dangers of a totalitarian government. The setting of “1984” also contributes to the message of the story. By having the book take place in the future of London, Orwell is able to make it more relatable to the reader. Oceania, the totalitarian state in the book, consists of Great Britain, the Americas, and Australia. At the time this book was written these were some of the largest powers in the world that hadn’t yet falled to a dictator. Orwell invokes fear in the readers by telling the horrific story of “1984” in a place where many of the readers live. This helps him achieve his purpose of warning readers against the dangers of a totalitarian government, by showing them the potential effects it could have on them in the future. Furthermore, Orwell also contributes to the world

Normally, in dystopian books, the author adds enough depth to the main characters to make you want to root for them. The characters are meant to have developed personalities, goals, and motivations that help the reader relate to them and sympathize with them. However, with this book I found that I did not care if the characters succeeded or not. All of the characters, particularly the main character, Winston, were unlikeable and undeveloped. Winston’s personal motivations only served the purpose of helping Orwell advance his exploration of the themes present in the book. Essentially, the only reason Winston had for questioning anything that the party did was so that Orwell could include long reflections that detailed the different aspects of totalitarian government that he found most undesirable. Orwell would have been better off writing a book about his ideas regarding totalitarianism, than creating a whole fictional world to project his thoughts onto a dry character. Furthermore, another character that I did not like in the book was Julia. Julia also had a very shallow and underdeveloped character. Her character was also very characteristic of the way that writers, particularly males, of the time period portrayed women in books. She was essentially a walking stereotype. Orwell, or Winston, describes her as a rebel, but only when it suited her physical wants.