George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Its Warning about Totalitarianism

‘1984’ delves into a world where the all-powerful party, Ingsoc, governs the state of Oceania. The party limits free-thought and individualism with the power of newspeak, double-think, and the existence of Big Brother. The worldbuilding and general tone of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ allow darkness and pessimism to burgeon using several motifs and symbolism to paint a bleak, gray, and dystopian future comparable to today’s real world totalitarian regimes in order to warn readers about their dangers and prevalence.

In ‘1984’, one of the main motifs in the novel is the powerful misuse of media as an instrument of propaganda. Media in itself holds a powerful influence over people with its ability to reshape thoughts and beliefs over a wide variety of topics. Nicole Smith states, “The primary consequences about which Orwell worried because of media manipulation were individuals’ loss of a critical thinking faculty and the diminished capacity for self-expression”. The first example of this in the novel is when the author explains rectifications of the newspapers. If the face of the Party, Big Brother, incorrectly predicted that that the South Indian front would remain quiet, but a Eurasian offensive is launched in North Africa, then the newspapers would rewrite his speech in a way where Big Brother made the correct prediction against the Party’s enemy (Orwell, 50). Although the novel was published in 1949, the prevalence of journalistic abuse in authoritarian regimes is all too real. For example, Freedom House states that all reporting in North Korea that is not sanctioned by the government is subject to severe restrictions in practice. Furthermore, listening to any unauthorized foreign broadcasts or media not approved by the state carries severe punishments such as hard labor or even death. The North Korean government has even gone to the extremes of media control by convicting and sentencing two South Korean journalists with the death penalty, having been accused of insulting their country (‘North Korea Sentences Two South Korean Journalists to Death in Absentia’).

In the novel, Ingsoc also partakes in the indoctrination of the youth, presumably through media and other means. This is shown in the story when two children playfully target Winston in their games: “‘You’re a traitor!’, yelled the boy. ‘You’re a thought-criminal! You’re a Eurasian spy! I’ll shoot you, I’ll vaporize you, I’ll send you to the salt mines!’” (Orwell, 29). The novel also mentions the instance of an institution named the ‘Spies and the Youth League’ (Orwell, 86). Such things allude to the Nazi party’s indoctrination of Germany’s youth: “These messages emphasized that the Party was a movement of youth: dynamic, resilient, forward-looking, and hopeful. Millions of German young people were won over to Nazism in the classroom and through extracurricular activities” (‘Shaping the Future: Indoctrinating Youth’). Much like the Party, Nazi Germany held a tight grasp over the youth of their country, and North Korea holds a lockdown on journalism in order to control the people and keep them from defecting from the country.

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One of the biggest symbols in the novel is the figurehead of the party, Big Brother. Big Brother is seen as a powerful and ever-observing man over the citizens of Oceania via telescreens throughout the entire novel. Although “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (Orwell, 3) ominously scrolls under the telescreens, he is also worshipped. “... A tremulous murmur that sounded like ‘My Saviour!’ she extended her arms towards the screen” (Orwell, 21). Ingsoc managed to personify an ideal; a figurehead powerful enough to be seen as someone who intimidates the people of Oceania and its enemies in place of the government, but also be seen as something majestic and wise, providing a shining example of something that again can be compared to the real-world concept of Juche, North Korea’s state ideology: “Some critics call Juche a successful, but vaguely defined, piece of propaganda that allows North Korea to energize its citizens with a nationalistic rallying cry amid a barrage of sanctions, while also dodging responsibility over claims of economic mismanagement. For calamity after calamity — the collapse of the Soviet Union, the North’s major aid backer, in the 1990s; a devastating famine that same decade; relentless economic sanctions — there is always an answer and a solace: Juche” (Klug). Klug continues to state that North Korea uses Juche liberally, using the name to accompany karaoke songs, weapons, and even passing years. Juche is comparable not only to Big Brother in terms of using the ideology as a facade to empower the citizens, but the usage of Newspeak in Oceania as well. Juche conveys a secondary aspect of Newspeak through corrupting public thought. “[Juche is] splashed across countless propaganda signs, seeded through dozens of state media reports at the beating heart of emotional pop songs and on the lips of the earnest guides who show off the grand monuments built in its honor” (Klug). Juche, just like Big Brother, has a large presence in its respective society, spewing propaganda and helping the government save face using nationalism.

Psychological manipulation is a present idea within novels and regimes alike, but unique to ‘1984’ is the concept of doublethink and its inspiration that leads up to the worldbuilding of the novel. Doublethink is the act of accepting two contradictory statements as fact. Much like Newspeak’s primary function, doublethink limits free thinking by triggering cognitive dissonance. The first example of doublethink in the novel is the slogan of the party, “WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell, 6). Orwell drew inspiration of this concept from the speech of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin: “We are for the withering away of the state, and at the same time we stand for the strengthening of the dictatorship, which represents the most powerful and mighty of all forms of the state which have existed up to the present day. The highest development of the power of the state, with the object of preparing the conditions of the withering away of the state: that is the Marxist formula. Is it 'contradictory'? Yes, it is 'contradictory'. But this contradiction is a living thing and wholly reflects the Marxist dialectic” (Stalin, Joseph, ‘Address to the 16th Congress of the Russian Communist Party’, 1930). Stalin is known to be one of the most brutal tyrants in history, and Orwell was opposed Stalinist regimes as well as fascist regimes since they were not compatible with his ideals as a democratic socialist (Zellinger, 13). Before the publication of ‘1984’, Orwell wrote a political fable satirizing Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution, creating an allegorical novel that criticized the communist movement in Russia. Digressing from ‘Animal Farm’, Orwell was highly critical of both fascist and communist, drawing the worst from both of them in order to paint the world that is ‘1984’. Doublespeak is not an exception.

Orwell’s message to the world about totalitarian regimes was not ignored. ‘1984’ is one of the most recognized dystopian fiction novels in the world for its harrowing glimpse into a reality where totalitarianism is left unchecked. However, the world is not rid of these regimes, as they still exist in countries like North Korea or Eritrea, but as long as individuals stay informed about the presence of media abuse, journalistic stifling, the facades of propaganda, and the roots of modern totalitarianism, then the symbolism of ‘1984’, whether or not an individual has read it, will not fall on deaf ears.

Works Cited

1. Klug, Foster. “Juche Rules North Korean Propaganda, But What Does It Mean?”. Apnews.Com, 30 Sept. 2019, http://apnews.com/d63d00ce9de042dc88b9df2c40be53ee
2. “North Korea”. https://freedomhouse.org, Freedom House, 2016, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2016/north-korea
3. “North Korea Sentences Two South Korean Journalists to Death in Absentia”. Committee to Protect Journalists, http://cpj.org/2017/09/north-korea-sentences-two-south-korean-journalists.php
4. “Shaping the Future: Indoctrinating Youth”. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, http://ushmm.org/propaganda/themes/indoctrinating-youth/
5. Smith, Nicole. “The Role of Media in Society in ‘1984’ by George Orwell”. Article Myriad, 25 Apr. 2018, http://articlemyriad.com/role-media-society-1984-george-orwell/
6. Stalin, Joseph. “Address to the 16th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, 1930.
7. Zellinger, Tim. “The Battle for the Mind of Europe: The Ideological Warfare of Orwell, Stalin and Mussolini”. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu, 3 Dec. 2012, http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=histsp