Jonathan Utopia/Dystopia Blog

Although 1984 was written more than 70 years ago, its legacy still remains influential today even as communist regimes have much less power in world affairs than they did in Orwell's time. The term "Orwellian" is commonly used (and misused) to describe various forms of authoritarian rule present in the world today, most often with countries like North Korea which have repressive communist governments.  North Korea was founded just one year before Orwell wrote 1984, in the aftermath of World War II as the Soviet Union started spreading its influence in war-torn Asia and Europe and planted single-party communist regimes. I guess one way to avoid an authoritarian government taking power in the United States would be to prevent war and upheaval from occurring here, because such conflict would create a power vacuum that would allow extreme ideologies to take control.  In addition, a system of checks and balances in the government is essential, because if a president were to ma...

The ending of 1984 is quiet, with Winston living his life as a loyal party member who realizes that he can no longer love Julia. It sees the triumph of repression and totalitarianism over rebellion, and it sums up Orwell's message about the dangers of authoritarian rule because of how anybody can be broken into believing anything that they are told. In many ways, this is similar to the ending of Brave New World, where John's rebellion against the state withers away as he is exiled, then succumbs to the temptation to join the orgy and tragically takes his own life.  However, I felt that the books kind of took opposite paths in how they got to that sort of ending. In Brave New World, we are introduced to a society that seems almost perfect and where everybody is happy. Rebellion or brewing sedition in the society is impossible because everybody is conditioned to be happy with their place in life, and John is virtually all alone as the only person from the Savage Reservation who c...

In these chapters, we see Winston's "re-education" briefly relapse after the torture lessens, causing him to suddenly proclaim his love for Julia and that he hates Big Brother. Even though Winston knows that saying these things will surely get him sent to Room 101 or executed, once the physical torture subsides, he chooses to voice his true thoughts to O'Brien and let the party know what he really thinks about them.  It seems that throughout the entire novel, Winston has had a fatalistic mentality and engages in sedition knowing that he will be killed by the party sooner or later. The scene in Room 101 is something of an anticlimax, as the rats cause Winston to completely lose all sense of himself and what he truly believes in. It seems that after this point, Winston has become a truly brainwashed subject of the state, with no will to resist and content with his place in society despite once having seditious desires.  This ending seems to contrast to the one of Brave ...

In the first two chapters of Book Three, we see Winston get tortured by O'Brien and his captors at the Ministry of Love. Winston is subjected to immense physical pain, and he eventually succumbs to the feelings of powerlessness in the face of the trauma he experiences. After many rounds of torture, Winston believes anything that O'Brien tells him, even if it is false, because nothing is worse than experiencing even more pain.  One interesting thought is that O'Brien hints that he himself was once imprisoned, tortured and subject to re-education. However, O'Brien takes pleasure in the psychological control he has through his use of brutal torture to manipulate Winston. O'Brien says that torture is the perfect system because it brainwashes people into being happy under the rule of the party, ensuring stability. In addition, O'Brien loves torturing prisoners because the party's aim is to gain absolute power over the people. The torture victims, including Winsto...