The major theme of 1984

The major theme of 1984 is that psychological control of a large number of people by a totalitarian government will be possible soon or later. We should take Orwell’s theme as a warning, and be prepared that this terrible situation would not happen to us.

People in the book 1984 do not have their private life. All citizens are monitored -regardless of time and place - through microphones and telescreens. The telescreen is a kind of video cameras that can send scenes to the government in real-time. In fact, Thought Police are the people who monitors people through these telescreens to search for and arrest traitors, the people who committed a ‘thoughtcrime’. Thoughtcrime is mental revolt against the Party or detesting the leader, Big Brother – which most people in Korea enjoy to do with their President these days - even though emotion is neither openly expressed nor discussed with others. People who have committed thoughtcrime are arrested as soon as it is discovered and they will be executed or tortured until they obey and love Big Brother. For instance, Winston Smith, the main character, gets caught by Thought Police, and as a result of torture, threat, and psychological control in the Ministry of Love, he finally loves Big Brother earnestly at the end of the book. The power of the Party finally controlled the main character who appeared to be the last controllable person in the world.

Forging the past data is another method of controlling citizens in the novel. Majority of Outer Party members including Winston revise past data so that they exactly match the current state. For example, Big Brother usually predicts the state of wars currently happening in his announcements, which is recorded in the Times magazine, and they are mostly different from what really happens. Consequently, Ministry of Truth has to forge Big Brother’s announcements to show that Big Brother is always right. Since the past data is unreliable, people have nothing to compare their life with when the Party announces that there are more food, clothes, babies, houses, fuels and transportations. The Party slogan is “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Any reader would think that it seems impossible to resolve the dystopian society after completing the novel. However, there is a sentence occasionally mentioned by Winston Smith; “If there is hope, it lies in the proles” (60).Winston is convinced that proles, the lower class people who occupies 85 percent of the population and not monitored by telescreens, must be able to destroy the Party only if they recognize their strength. I remember a similar situation in the novel, ‘Chocolate War’ written by Robert Cormier, where Archie controls students psychologically, and the students just follow The Vigils reluctantly not knowing that they have the power to overthrow The Vigils. Therefore, I believe that solution is right here as far as we believe in our power.

It is generally agreed upon that most developed countries in the world nowadays are not totalitarian. Nevertheless, several phenomena, which we need to be aware of in the light of the theme of George Orwell’s 1984, can still be found in those countries.