1st Thought: 1984

1984 is a highly intriguing novel from the very first page. As a reader I can’t help but find myself asking the obvious question “What happened and why is society so horrible?” However, this novel is, as many of George Orwell’s novels are, a piece of literature designed to speak out to the negative effects of totalitarianism and his blatant disapproval of the Soviet leader of Joseph Stalin. The signs of Orwell’s intentions in this novel are obvious in the first pages, especially on the first presentation of a poster of Big Brother, a man who is described to an imposing figure “with a heavy black mustache and rugged features”. Though this poster of a man fitting Stalin’s description is not the only hint toward his regime that I found within just the first chapter, the thought police are also a reference to Stalin’s secret police that carried out night raids similar to the rumored actions of the thought police that are mentioned by the narrator Winston Smith, those their actions are rumors for they make people disappear and be forgotten just like Stalin’s secret police did. There is also mention of forced labor camps and purges, which are also parallels to the Stalin regime.

All and all it is safe to assume that while this novel is very well written its purpose borders on that of being a propaganda piece written in the 1950’s during the beginning of the Cold War. Maybe Orwell hoped that by creating such a negative future in already uncertain world, the public would fear the effects of communism a little more.