Nineteen Eighty-Four (mostly written 1984) is a 1948 dystopian fiction written
by George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), about a society ruled by an oligarchical
dictatorship. The Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war,
pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control. Oceania is
ruled by a political party called simply The Party. The individual is always
subordinated to the state, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the
Party to manipulate and control humanity. In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist
Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party’s
propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and
always correct, yet his meager existence disillusions him to the point of
seeking rebellion against Big Brother.
Many people often draw parallels between our modern reality and Orwell’s vision.
