Chapters 1-6 of 1984

Hello and welcome to my blog on George Orwell’s 1984!

Going into this book, all I knew about was the idea of “Big Brother,” an omnipresent being that observes your every move. I’ve heard Big Brother mentioned in the discussion of the PATRIOT Act in whether or not it should be legal for the government to have the ability to see everything on our phones. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa constantly listen to what we say, waiting for specific voice cues, and this too has been linked to Big Brother’s ever-listening “telescreens.” With technological improvements, privacy in our society has gotten scarcer and scarcer, and at any point, someone has the ability to listen in on our lives. 

This was Orwell’s prediction for the year 1984, and while he was off by three decades, the picture he paints is not just fiction.

1984 begins by painting a grim picture of London, overgrown and gritty excluding the four “glittering white” ministries on which the three slogans of the “Party” are written:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (7)

This immediately made me think of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the motto of the World State: “Community, Identity, Stability.” After reading Brave New World, this motto is clearly ironic as there is no sense of community because there are no emotional connections between any of the people; there is a false sense of identity because the identities people do have are conditioned into them from birth; and while the World State may appear stable, all of its members are so unhappy that they rely on drugs to avoid the reality of their situation.

In my opinion, Orwell is employing a similar strategy with his slogans in 1984. Each slogan directly contradicts what people typically think. War and peace are complete opposites, so how can war be peace? The Party uses “war is peace” in an attempt to brainwash society into thinking their constant wars with Eurasia and Eastasia are good. By telling people that a traditionally bad thing that is happening is a good thing, you make it easier for them to accept and feel comfortable with that bad thing. The same is true with “ignorance is strength.” Ignorance is usually not a great thing while strength is, so it makes the people feel better about knowing nothing about what is going on around them, even though this slogan directly contradicts the common saying “knowledge is power.” The second slogan confused me at first. I initially thought it should have been the other way around: slavery is freedom. That would follow the structure of the other two and make slavery look like a good thing. However, in this case, the Party isn’t trying to make slavery look good; they are trying to make freedom look bad. The Party wants to minimize independence of opinion, so making freedom appear horrible like slavery would ideally eliminate people’s desire for their 1st Amendment freedoms (speech, assembly, petition, press, and religion-- all of which are “thought crimes”).  

Orwell intentionally uses the irony in these direct contradictions because it makes the slogans seem like total nonsense and clearly illogical to the reader. However, these slogans are actually effective in this society, and the fact that sayings so ridiculous are effective emphasizes the incredible amount of fear created by Big Brother’s propaganda. 

While reading, I also compared the role of sex in the society of 1984 to that in the World State of Brave New World and Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale. Sex is generally frowned upon by the Party, although they see it as a necessity for making children. “Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema.” (65). This reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale where the handmaids were only supposed to have sex during the ceremony, which I would feel comfortable describing as a “disgusting minor operation.” There is definitely no passion or love, and at least for Offred, there was no physical attraction. The importance of having a child is also a common factor between these two books, although the reasons differ. Both Gilead and the Party strip sex of love and leave it simply as an action to produce children.

At first, the World State’s policies around sex appear vastly different from those of the Party. The World State encourages people to have sex all the time because the society functions on pleasure and momentary happiness. This seems to contrast the ideas of the Party; however, it really isn’t all that different. Because it is so casual and common, sex in the World State is almost meaningless. Lenina, a highly conditioned member of the World State, is very promiscuous and is willing to have sex with nearly anyone, including Bernard, to whom she has no attraction. In both Brave New World and 1984, no one has sex because they are passionately in love with someone. It is done for a purpose, whether it’s to distract from the emptiness of your shallow lifestyle or to have a kid.

I enjoyed reading the first 70 pages of 1984, and I’m excited to see what happens in the readings to come!

~ Georgia

Orwell, George. 1984. New York, Penguin Group, 1977.