The main protagonist is Winston Smith, a low ranking party member who works in a government department that is responsible for changing history to suite the whims of Big Brother. If an estimate for manufacturing is published one week, when the actual output is published and differs from the estimate, the estimate is changed so that word of Big Brother is always seen to be right.
The story is based in a futuristic London in 1984. London is part of a new country called Oceana and is constantly at war with one of the other two global societies: Eurasia or Eastasia. The opposition and allies change frequently and on each occasion the history books have to be changed so that the current enemy has always been that enemy.
Despite the aim of this society being to create an equal society there is still a clear class system in place with the inner circle of the Party acting as the upper classes, the rest of of the party acting as the Middle classes and the "proles" the working classes that are largely left to their own devises unless they display problematic differences with the Party.
Opposition to the party is clamped down on immediately with the guilty arrested, tortured and executed. Their existence is always wiped out as if they never were.
The atmosphere is very oppressive throughout the novel as Winston struggles with his dreams, his vague memories of his childhood in which his parents and sister disappeared, his issues with the party and a relationship with a fellow Party member called Julia.
The end of the novel is predictable and painful to read but I found I was able to read the novel in a couple of days. A definite recommendation.
No comments:
Post a Comment