1984

FREEDOM IS FREEDOM TO SAY 2 + 2 = 4

  1984 was written by George Orwell,  who was a socialist and mentioned problems of capitalist World and position of human in the system in 1948.  Also this book is a distopian book which contains allegory. George Orwell reveals the truth about surveillance, war and governments in this book. He created the “Big Brother” notion which still keeps its common usage to express ideas about surveillance. 1984 has a very important position in Distopian Literature.

  The plot of the book is based on contradiction and George Orwell  makes a referance to systems that controls people in this way. If we look at the first page of the book, we will see slogan of Big Brother:

“War is peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is strength”

   Oceania is always in a struggle with other two countries. A war exists between these community structures and always will be. In that case, something which is called “Peace” has never existed and also prosperity of society is provided by persistance of the war. Then, “War is Peace” .

   There is two classes under the dominance of Big Brother: Proles and Members of Party. Members of Party, serve Big Brother under the umbrella of ministries and also government. The items that they buy, places that they live, their marriages are specified. They are under the observation of telescreen.  If we look at proles, we will see that in spite of living under the pressure of Big Brother and poverty, thy are convinced that the system was worse before the revolution.  People are considered as “free” within these rules. With only a movement that contrast with Big Brother, people are sent to prison, agonise and be “healed”. All in all, you are free if you accept acting like a slave.”Freedom is Slavery”.

   As I pointed out above, Every person that chose to obey the rules that Big Brother has formed, is free.  Historical Revisionism, which is the one of methods that government uses in order to control people and dominate the community  keeps people’s minds far from the truth about the revolution, the war, and the socialism notion that has garbled by Big Brother and IngSos. I people don’t try to reveal historicity, they become stronger and safe. “Ignorance is Strenght”.

   Winston Smith is an intellectual member of Outer Party who lives in ruined London, in a flat, was born in the atmosphere of II World War England. He has telescreens in his house like every other people in Oceania. These are some sentences that can be seen in his journal:

“Thought crime does not entail death.

Thoughtcrime is death.”

   Winston meets with a girl called Julia, who is a member of Junior Anti-Sex League. Winston hates this girl, he always thinks about killing this girl but one day, he recieves a note from Julia. After that, he reads the message: I LOVE YOU. Then they start to see each other more, they love each other. Both of them are against the Big Brother.

   Winston has a friend from the Inner Party, called O’Brian. Inner Party is composed of ministries which are the vital parts of the government. Inner Party members are kind of gentry that completely izolated and mysterious.

  Though O’Brian is a member of Inner Party, he is against  Big Brother and a martyr of organisation that tries to break the government. The leader of the movement is Emmannuel Goldstein who is the writer of the book Practice of Olligarchical Collectivism, which is the manifest of the organisation. At least Winston thinks so.

   Winston and Julia become a part of this organisationand decide to work against the goverment. Oneday, while they are speaking in front of telescreen, ThoughtPolice arrests them. They put Winston in Room 101, which is the most notorious torture chamber in Ocenia. Winston learns that O’Brian is the man who follows him until the beginning. There are no men called Emmanuel Goldstein and no books  called Practice of Olligarchical Collectivism. It is nothing but a professional theatre.

  O’Brian tortures Winston mercilessly and says that:

“Why do we create martyrs of revolution and let people carry their virtuous memories instead of healing them? “

He keeps turning on the pain until Winston  believes that 2 + 2 really equals five.

When Winston is released, he suddenly understands everything, pieces falls into places and he starts to run under the rain, he loves Big Brother.

This book explains everyhing about the existant system uses to prevail the World. In my opinion, the most effective part is the Practice of Olligarchical Collectivism which really helps us to understand how the World rules. Also I think so:

Freedom is the freedom to say 2 +2 = 4.



Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four