Resumo de 1984 - George Orwell

Exchanging the last two digits of the year when Orwell wrote his novel, he presents us a title for his utopia that nowadays is more connected with Ronald Reagan, Gorbachov, or the good old times in general: 1984. Where Orwell saw totalitarian governments we seek for spies, where he put the personification of politics, big brother, we see autonomous markets and globalized economies.

Can we still enjoy reading 1984, though?

Orwell offers us to look over Winston?s shoulder, to see how he goes in and comes out of the office building, manipulating the medial history. As an utopian journalist Winston shows us how his job requires him to change the past, present, and future history of the world day by day. Behind him, the ever present observer. Big Brother lives on the screen, in every street, in every corner, in every household. He is never really seen or heard, although his voice is in every ear and his image a constant reminder of his never stopping observation.

Winston is unfortunate enough to have an hidden spot in his room to write a diary. Only this way he builds himself up a consistency as counterpoint to the ever-changing world of daily truths. It follows that he has to question his surroundings. He ends up in a love affair that culminates in a forbidden sexual relationship. But they get caught.

By times the torturer appears Winston to be a good friend on the long way to paradise. We testify how Winston?s reality gradually collapses, and with her our last bit of hope. Winston lies to get rid of the pain, he confesses everything, but they won?t let him die. As pretending to love Big Brother is not enough, Winston ends up in an authentic love relationship, and so does the book.

Whereas Huxley experiments with drugs on a neural basis, Orwell centres on communication networks. And thereon bases our remaining interest in 1984. In the light of telly?s Big-Brother exhibition, global interconnectedness, and restricted personal rights, due to terrorism threats, 1984 appears even more actual than it did in the year 1984. Therefore we can attest Orwell a wider scope than he would have.

Certainly, we are glad that in nowadays' complexity a decentralized organisation seems to be the only way of structuring social life. Nevertheless, to be potentially observed by many still is to be observed. But let?s be frank: The good old conspiracy theories are still able to charm us. Their simplicity invites us to fixate the bad site of the underlying dichotomy. They allow us to use the impersonal ?they? to explain our circumstances. Politics viewed from this angle take on the form of rhetorical battles over the preferred space in the disjunction between good and bad.

But at least they are still battling. That alleviates the paranoia created by Orwell?s seizing style. Even though Winston uses a very particular vocabulary to explain things, we still see his ordinary being behind the words. Orwell is a maestro of the ordinary. He places it in a atypical context and fills it up with an emotional tone that catches the reader immediately. The same kind of tone I discovered reading ?Coming up for air?. One has to balance between hope and desperation to follow the food steps of Orwell?s protagonists.

But strangely, we come up from the lecture of Orwell?s novels and do not feel scared or depressed. On the contrary: He shows us that our own lives can?t be that bad and are still worth living. After 1984 the world remains the same, but we are more conscious of it.

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