The Novel 1984 by George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell portrays a dystopian society that is controlled by a totalitarian dictatorship. Through his book, Orwell describes many aspects of society that existed in the late 40’s when he was writing. He used his book to make statements about the serious problems that people were facing in countries that were living under actual totalitarian rule. Through the writing of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell clearly depicts the negative aspects of the post-war period and what totalitarianism would look like when taken to its absolute extreme.
The government system of Oceania is a totalitarian state. It is controlled by a group known as “The Party.” The Party claims to be headed by an entity known as “Big Brother,” though no one has ever seen him aside from in propaganda. The ideological basis of The Party is referred to as INGSOC. The three tenants of INGSOC are “WAR IS PEACE [.] FREEDOM IS SLAVERY [.] IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell, 6). The Party is split into two components, the Inner Party, and the Outer Party. The Inner Party - comprised of less than 2% of the population – is the upper ruling class that controls everything. The Outer Party functions as the middle class and works as lower level employees at the four Ministries of The Party. The majority of the population, known as the Proles (short for “proletariats”), are the poor working class.
The 4 ministries of the party are: The Ministry of Truth, The Ministry of Peace, The Ministry of Plenty and The Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Truth is responsible for constantly revising all forms of media. In this way, The Party and Big Brother become omnipotent as everything they say and are infallible. A major part of the work of the Ministry of Truth inc...

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...edom: Freedom of thought, action and information become dear and worth the fight to preserve. Orwell taught the world back in the early fifties and is still teaching the generations of today that it cannot allow a government to totally control the lives of its citizens, and that people must fight to preserve autonomy.

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