IS 1984 ABOUT COMMUNISM?By: Emily Miller Blk. 7

Overview of 1984

1984 is about a man named Winston Smithwho lives in a socialist country under the

control of Big Brother. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth where he corrects news articles, speeches, and textbooks in order to make them coincide with what the party says. Winston decides that to get back at the oppressive “party” that is ruling his country he will have an affair with one of the women at the Ministry of Truth, and join the Brotherhood, a secret, anti-party, organization founded by a party defector.

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Review of Communism

Communists hope to establish a classless society based on state ownership of means of production (Forman 5).

Communism has been split into many different branches, the most poignant to 1984 are Trotskyism and Stalinism (Forman 13-

24).

Orwell and Communism

In December 1936 Orwell went to Spain and witnessed the Spanish Civil War first hand. Orwell was unimpressed by the fact that the Communists in Spain were using tactics similar to those of the Fascists (Heje, sec. 1).

Political Realignment after WWII In 1984 there are three major powers:

Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia (Orwell 51; bk. 1, ch. 5). This is similar to the alignments of

countries following WWII. Specifically, the fact that the Soviet Union controlled nearly all of Eastern Europe. (“George Orwell: Nineteen

Eighty-Four,” sec. 3).

Trotsky

When Vladimir Lenin, the force behind the Russian

Revolution, died in 1924 it was thought that his successor would be Leon Trotsky. However Trotsky had begun splitting from the Communist party. In 1927 Trotsky was beaten in a congressional election by Joseph Stalin and then banished from the country (“George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four”, sec. 4).

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Goldstein

Goldstein was one of the first leaders of the Revolution in which the Party took over. Big Brother then took power and began “the great purges” where he killed or banished many of the original leaders of the Revolution, including Goldstein (15; bk. 1,

ch. 1). During the great purge, many of the original

leaders vanished for a while and then came back and incriminated themselves in public trials.

As often happened they vanished for a year or more, so that one did not know whether they were alive or dead, and then suddenly had been brought forth to incriminate themselves in the usual way (65; bk. 1;ch. 6).

Trotsky v. Goldstein

Both started out with the party then split due to growing concern for the ideas behind the revolutions.

Both Trotsky and Goldstein got on the wrong side of the rulers of their countries.

Both were persecuted by their enemies.

Life post WWII

Life following WWII was terrible, there were rations on food and industrial products.

Even though life for Winston in 1984 seems terrible, it is a fairly accurate representation of life after WWII (“George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four,” sec. 6).

“In any time that he could accurately remember, there had never been quite enough to eat, one had never had socks or underclothes that were not full of holes, furniture had always been battered and rickety, rooms under heated, tube trains crowded, houses falling to pieces, bread dark-colored, tea a rarity, coffee filthy-tasting, cigarettes insufficient…”(52; bk. 1, ch. 5)

Propaganda

In 1984 Winston’s job in the Ministry of Truth is to alter documents that contain information that is contradictory to the party. Winston routinely changes speeches, news articles, and political briefings, he changes dates, numbers, and names to make them coincide with what Big Brother says or does.

“It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened” (35; bk. 1, ch. 4).

In Soviet Russia Stalin had Vladimir Lenin’s name erased from history books and his image obliterated from historical photos (“George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four”, sec. 2).

Vaporization and the Great Terror of Stalin In December of 1934 Stalin began to execute party

members who he felt were out of control. Over the next four years Stalin killed millions of party members, officials, and ordinary citizens. Some scholars believe that Stalin created the terror in order to frighten the public into buying into his modernization program (“Russian Purges,” ch. 2).

In 1984 a similar thing happens to party members who commit crimes such as thoughtcrime or facecrime. People are said to be “vaporized,” their families aren’t notified and they are never seen again (Pashapour, sec. 10).

“One day Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people.”(47; bk. 1; ch. 5).

Conclusion

1984 isn’t a condemnation of Communism. Orwell meant the novel to be a warning to Western civilizations that Communism can easily turn into tyranny.

Questions

Who is the main character in 1984?

Who is Goldstein supposed to represent?

Name one branch of communism.

Where does Winston work in 1984?

Name one of the three major powers in 1984

Works Cited List

Forman, James D. Communism: From Marx’s Manifesto to 20th Century Reality. New York: Franklin Watts Inc.,1972. Print.

“George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Infotrac. Ed. Joyce Moss, George Wilson. Web. 20 April 2007.

Heje, Johan. “George Orwell.”Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 255: British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers, 1918-1960. Ed. Darren Harris –Fain.2002. Infotrac. Shawnee Mission West Library. Web. 20 April 2007.

Works Cited List Continued

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1984. Print.

Pashapour, Nusha. “Orwell’s 1984 – Language of Totalitarianism.” Language in India. Ed. M.S. Thirumalai. 2 February 2006. Web. 23 April 2007.

“The Purges” Russia. Web.20 April 2007.