GEORGE ORWELL: 1984″

This work was written in 1948 by George Orwell, and is for this reason that he gave the title “1984. Is  an anti-utopian novel because the author doesn’t want to predict future, but he wants to warn people about it. In fact he has a pessimistic and negative vision of future because he imagines it governed by a totalitarian society, in which everything is controlled by the high classes, and theres no freedom to express your own ideas.

The plot is divided in three parts: part one describes the society and the main character, Winston Smith; the second is about his relationship with his girlfriend Jiulia; the last part describes the torture of the Thought police to Winston for his rebellion against the society.

In this kind of society we find three party: INNER party that represents the aristocracy (Big Brother) and has the complete control of everything; OUTER party represents the middle class that works for the Big Brother; finally the PROLES who are the poor people, exploited but unconscious of their condition of submission.

The protagonist of the novel is a strange figure, because (as in his name) is a common person but in the same time unique. He works at the Ministry of Truth, where he has to change events of Hystory that were against the ideas of  Inner party (for example they cancel all revolutionary events). In fact in this society not only facts are controlled by some Telescreen placed in every house, but also thoughts and minds of ordinary people. The Party controls communication and propaganda, language and history, and the thoughts crime of rebellion are punished with prison or death. But Winston is aware of this condition of submission and for this reason tries to rebel against Big Brother, first or all writing in a secret diary all things that he had to change in order to remember Thruth. Larer he begins a secret relationship with Jiulia, who joins his movement of opposition to the State, and he becomes a  thought criminal because of his ideas. In the last part of the novel Winston meets OBrian (a member of the Inner party) who pretends to be a rebellion who asks the protagonist to join the secret society against Big Brother. But this society doesn’t exist, and Winston is imprisoned by the Thought police.

He is not killed because the Police makes him a brainwashing, so that he forgets all the Truth that he understood and begins thinking as the other people sub missed.

The novel ends with the final defeat of the protagonist, showing the pessimistic tone and negative vision of the author. Moreover Orwell expresses his sympathy with the victims of totalitarian society, that we can find also in the other work Animal Farm”, because of his socialist ideas based on equality and freedom.

Is important to underline that also language was controlled: they censured all words that expressed ideas of freedom or rebellion from the vocabulary, so that people could not make certain thoughts.