The object of power is power

British writer George Orwell (1904 - 1950) had his debut with ‘Burmese Days’ in 1935, but years later wrote his most famous books ‘Animal Farm’ (1943) and ‘1984 (nineteen eighty-four)’ (1949) and died of tuberculosis.

‘1984’ is set in London in, probably, the year 1984 as the protagonist Winston Smith doesn’t know the exact year, as no one knows for sure for the past has been altered many times over. Big Brother rules over what is now called Oceania, a dictator being at war with Eurasia or Eastasia, and letting people disappear who fall in disgrace by saying the wrong things or don’t act as he wants them to. Everywhere, except for some places, there are telescreens to spread his propaganda, but also to spy on the people. There are hanging posters of the face of Big Brother with the slogan ‘Big Brother is watching you’, and a lot of products have a prefix ‘Victory’. It is forbidden to show any emotion out of the fixed moments called Two Minutes Hate, towards Goldstein who is said to be an escaped ‘criminal’, for those of the Party. Only proles are left free, as they are the lowest people and no threat to the Party. Winston starts to have thoughts, forbidden thoughts, and begins a dairy. That is the start of rebelling against Big Brother, while he still does his job, which is altering the past by rewriting articles. But there is also this mysterious dark-haired woman having Winston's attention even when he doesn’t want to, and someone called O’Brien.

“When they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” - Winston wrote in his diary.

Being written more than 70 years ago, George Orwell predicted a future that is more accurate now and probably getting more so in the near future. It is disturbing to read what Orwell imagined and to think about it in the current year, the warning he gave then and seeing it slowly happen or already happening in some countries. Also that this future could have been reality if events in the past had gone differently.

“The object of power is power” - O’Brien says to Winston.

George Orwell doesn’t write about the fear and unease of the people living in London that are being part of the Party, he lets you feel it by describing the scenery. After a while the telescreens become creepy, but Orwell also writes about the beauty that is still to be found, e.g. a moment where a bird sings. Orwell also makes you scared for children, who are the ‘spies’ of Big Brother, and can betray even their own parents. Orwell makes marriage - love and affection is forbidden - a duty, not to be able to divorce only to separate, and the only task for it is to have children. Orwell’s future is dark, grim even. Also the whole story starts to creep, gets under your skin, and makes you weary of screens. This mostly during part one of the book, while part two was more lean back until the end, it was just a break for what comes in the third part. Only issue while reading was the small font on writing the diary and later on when Winston is reading something. A classic, however a bit dated, but still with a strong message and warning of what can happen when the greed for power becomes too much. Mostly if one person becomes too powerful.