FREE ESSAY ON 1984 AS AM ANTI UTOPIAN NOVEL

1984 AS AM ANTI UTOPIAN NOVEL

1984 as an Anti-Utopian Novel
A utopia is an ideal or perfect community. While some writers have created fictional
places that embody their ideals societies, other writers have written satires that
ridicule existing conditions of society, or anti-utopias, which show possible future
societies that are anything but ideal. In 1984 , George Orwell presents a terrifying
picture of future as life under the constant surveillance of "Big Brother." This book
1984 is an anti-utopian novel. 
The main character Winston Smith lives in the large political country Oceania, which is
eternally at war with one of two huge countries, Eurasia and Eastasia. At any moment all
existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied
with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia.
Winston knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant
correction of news. "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past," the party slogan reads. Basically, Winston takes real news and twists
it to what "Big Brother" wants the people to know.
In the grim city and terrifying country, where "Big Brother" is always watching you and
the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in great danger for
the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the party controls people by
feeding them lies and taking away their imaginations. The Party forbids thought, love,
and relationships. Drawn into a secret love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a
secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of
the Party. Together with his lover Julia, he puts his life on the line in a deadly match
against the powers of the Party.
George Orwell creates an anti-utopian society in the novel 1984 . The society involves
monitors called telescreens watching you every step you take, love is forbidden,
conformity, and your assigned to work at one of four ministries. In this society you
can't enjoy life or have any fun. After reading the novel you hope that the future wont
be dreadful. "When 1984 was new, and 1984 far in the future, the novel struck its most
responsive readers as an unprecedented torment, an extreme and intolerable vision that
stood out" (Miller 19). 
The book makes the reader put their head up and question if this is how our time will
end. Orwell creates a book where being different is illegal. "In 1984 Orwell is trying to
present the kind of world in which individuality has become obsolete and personality is a
crime" (Howe 322). Imagine living in a society where if you expressed your own opinions
or ideas you would be sent to a Ministry of Love where you would be tormented and
corrupted. Living in Oceania doesn't seem like an ideal lifestyle.
In 1984 you see the Party kill Winston Smith's individuality. "Winston Smith, the hero of
the novel, is shown arming himself with ideas against the Party and defying it by forming
a sexual relationship with Julia: but from the first we know that he will not escape the
secret police, and after he is caught we see him undergoing a dreadful metamorphosis
which burns out his human essence, leaving him a wreck who can go on living only by
becoming on of them" (Rahv 313). It is sad that Winston can't overcome the power of the
Party. It seems all faith in a pleasant future will be stopped by the Party.
1984 's anti-utopian society is a horrible one. If the future is as dark as George Orwell
portray, lets hope we have individuals that will fight for a better world. Anti-utopian
novels open up peoples eyes about life and existence. 
Bibliography
Works Cited
Howe, Irving "The fiction of Anti-Utopia"
1984 (New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc., 1982)
Miller, Mark "The Fate of 1984"
Irving Howe. 1984 Revisited (New York: Harper and Row, Inc.,1983)
Rahv, Phillip "The Unfuture of Utopia"
Irving Howe. 1984 Revisited (New York: Harper and Row, Inc.,1983)