What Was The Purpose Of 1984 George Orwell

The Purpose of 1984 As Dystopian Literature

Dystopian literature has become increasingly popular in recent years, though while many books center on the topic of a collapsing and corrupt world, few are as popular and renowned as 1984 by George Orwell. The purpose of 1984 is to warn against the dangers of totalitarian governments, which Orwell achieves by showing the extreme consequences of such a society.
Orwell’s essay “Why I Write” is direct evidence of what motivated him to write the book as a warning against totalitarianism. He discusses the “great motives” of writing, including political purpose. He also describes how his own experiences affected his views, stating, “The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”

Hitler banned the Boy Scouts and replaced it with the Hitler Youth, an organization that prepared children to be a part of his armies. Children were indoctrinated and became ardent followers, even denouncing their parents when they were considered not to uphold Nazi values (Blakemore). Similarly, the Junior Spies also converted children into the most disturbingly patriotic of society. On page 24, Winston asserts that “...by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party”. With both parties, it served to weed out any opposition and create a devoted following. By referencing the Nazi regime, Orwell relates Oceania to real-life examples of totalitarian