Nineteen Eighty-Four, the novel that described dystopia

 The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) was written by English writer George Orwell in 1948.

Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia, which means a society in which nobody likes to live.

It makes us imagine poor, dangerous, devastated societies.

Orwell has predicted the dystopia would come in 1984 in his work.


The stage of this novel is the world after WWIII.

The world had divided mainly into three parts, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, and they are all ruled by dictatorship politically.

Oceania includes North and South America, the UK, and Australia.  

Eurasia is Russia (Soviet Union) and Europe, the territories of Eastasia are the regions east of the Caspian Sea including China, Korea and Japan.

These countries have been fighting with each other.

The main character is Winston Smith who is working for The Ministry of Truth in Oceania, and this country is ruled by the dictator called Big Brother.





Winston’s job is rewriting every document to adjust the statements of the government.

He has anxiety about his life without certain reasons because there are many spies in the community.

They are surveying the residents, and it is an ordinary event that someone disappears suddenly, and people thought they had been caught by the secret police. 

Winston has been feeling something wrong with the world he lives in, but he doesn’t know anything about the world outside Oceania.

That’s why he couldn’t understand what makes him uncomfortable.

One day, Winston falls in love with his colleague Julia, and he decided to join the group of Emmanuel Goldstein, who is the antagonist of Big Brother.

He wants to change the society of Oceania because he really wanted to be happy with Julia.

However, they are arrested and jailed for reeducation.

He claims his thought is right, but finally he failed and is brainwashed to love the government and Big Brother.

The ending of this novel is depressing.






When this novel was published, critics and readers thought the models for Oceania were communist countries.

They knew the communist governments controlled their citizens strictly, and they were also afraid of the WWIII between USA and USSR.

However it didn’t happen as a result because many dictatorships have collapsed at the end of the 20th century. 

It is said this novel is getting popular nowadays.

That's because critics and readers are pointing out the similarity of the real situation of the world under COVID-19 and the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Dystopia like in this novel hasn't yet appeared in front of us.

The perspective of this novel would give us some ideas to think about the world we live in now and what will happen in the future.


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