MAMA SAID EAT YOUR VEGETABLES

There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad. A yellow beam from the sinking sun slanted in through the window and fell across the pillow. He shut his eyes. The sun on his face and the girl's smooth body touching his own gave him a strong, sleepy, confident feeling. He was safe, everything was all right. He fell asleep murmuring "Sanity is not stastical," with the feeling that this remark contained in it profound wisdom.

1984 is my favorite book and Orwell my favorite author. Many times I have thought to myself, "What is 1984 all about"? Well now I have the answer.

Yes, 1984 is a cautionary tale about the evils of totalitarianism -- especially totalitarianism enhanced by modern techonolgy. But, you know what, by the time 1984 was written, this was old news. Nazi Germany was in full swing, Mussolini had the trains running like clockwork, and Stalin's mustache was filled in. Tojo & Co. were kamikaze-ing all over the Pacific. So, yeah, 1984 is about totalitarianism and fear of the future (especially the atomic bomb) the same way Of Mice and Men is about two guys and Catcher in the Rye is about teen angst (oh wait, that is all Catcher in the Rye is about).

1984 is really about the inability of reason -- or intellectualism if you prefer -- to effectively confront political irrationality. Winston's job, as you recall, is at the Ministry of Truth, where the primary occupation is the re-writing of history. Documents are destroyed, leaving human memory as the only evidence that something ever really happened. The party takes great effort to control thought as well, through the use of telescreens, propaganda, mass demonstrations, and the deletion of words from the language.

Winston realizes that he cannot outwardly oppose the state -- either another party member or one of the omnipresent telescreens would give him away. So he is forced to retreat into his own mind. At first he believes that his own thoughts are beyond the parties reach. By increments he becomes more and more brazen, ultimately taking the dangerous step of putting his hatred onto paper and of beginning a relationship with Julia. Winston and Julia's relationship highlights another important theme in 1984 and all of Orwell's novels, sex as a political act.

Eventually Winston is put in touch with the Brotherhood, an underground resistance group. He is given Emmanuel Goldstein's book, which outlines the inner workings of Ingsoc. By reading this book, Winston feels optimistic for the first time that the party can be defeated.

However, it all comes crashing down when it is revealed that he has always been under survelliance, that his affair with Julia has not gone undetected, and Goldstein's book was in fact written by the party to lure people like him in. There is no Brotherhood. His dreams are at once utterly destroyed.

Once inside the Ministry of Love, Winston further discovers that even his thoughts are not beyond the party's reach. The party uses torture, technology, and Winston's deepest fears against him. In the end he embraces Big Brother and betrays Julia. Winston is even convinced that the party controls mathematical truths -- he is made to believe that 2 and 2 equals, and has always equaled, five.

So there it is.

Factoid -- 1984 was orignally titled, "The Last Man in Europe"


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