Nineteen Eighty-Four [1984]

Posted by: Sayed Khadri on: October 11, 2010

• In: Book Reviews
• 8 Comments

Being a fan of Matrix trilogy, I always wondered about the Room No 101 in which Neo stays and the Number 101 also appears in The Matrix Reloaded when Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity first go meet the Merovingian.

So what is the significance of the Room No 101 in Matrix, why it so important?
I Googled “Room no 101 matrix” I found no of references to the “George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four”. So I bought this book a month back and start reading it last week.

This book (1984) is George Orwell’s classic science fiction novel which tells us about the future world, this book is written in 1948. The things which we have today for example, CCTV cameras every where we go, Mobile phones being taped, Hidden Micro Phones all these things which are remotely impossible in the year 1948 is described very well in this book.

You might have heard about the “Big Brother” , you might have wondered from where the word “Big Brother” and the concept of “Big Brother” came from, the word and the idea of the show came from this vivid and incredible book.

(Image Source : Wikipedia)

Nineteen Eighty-Four sets in Oceania, the book takes place in “Airstrip One”, the Oceania province which once called “England or Britain”. Through out the city there are posters of Big Brother bearing the caption BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. There were Telescreen (transceiving television) ubiquitously monitors the private and public lives of the population. The telescreen where installed in every home and every street, there is no place you can find without a telescreen. Every move and every word uttered is monitored and recorded by the Party.

The population of the Oceania is divided in to three groups namely :
1. Inner Party also known as Upper Class.
2. Outer Party also known as Middle Class.
3. Proles also know as Lower Class (who make up 85% of the population and represent the working classes).

The government ministries are divided into four parts, namely :
1. Ministry of Peace.
2. Ministry of Plenty.
3. Ministry of Love.
4. Ministry of Truth.

The story of Wintson Smith who is an literate thinker and a member of Outer party begins in the year 1984. He works as an editor responsible for the historical revisionism of the  Wintson Smith works involves correcting the prophecies of Big Brother, if say BB had said that tomorrow xyz companies shares will be profitable and if it won’t happens then he need to collect all the news papers of previous day and correct the prophecies and redistribute them and the old news papers will be sent to memory hole (a garbage collector).

The biggest crime in Oceania is Thoughtcrime, The Thought Police are the secret police whose sole job is to detect the Thoughtcrime and eliminate the members who is involved in the Thoughtcrime. If you think that BB is wrong and whatever he is doing is bullshit then you have committed a Thoughtcrime and punishment for it is death.

Wintson Smith is in grave danger because his memory still function and he maintains a secret diary which tells the actual event occurred in the past whose record are destroyed by the Party. He also joins a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood. Emmanuel Goldstein started the organization “The Brotherhood”, he is once top member of the ruling “Party”. The main aim of the “The Brotherhood” is the destruction of Party.

One day Thought Police arrests him for Thoughtcrime, for maintaining the Diary and joining the “The Brotherhood”. He is brought to Room 101 which is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which a prisoner is subjected to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia.

What happens in Room 101 changes the whole life and every thought of Wintson Smith. Even he believes that 2 + 2 = 5.
The main motive shown in this book is “If you control the thought of the person, then you can control him, according to the Party every thing exists in human thought, the universe, the stars and the Past.”

If you control the present the you can control the past because past exists only in written document.

I highly recommend this book for all the Sci-Fi fans and also for those who love classics.

Rating : 4.5/5.

Tags: 1984, Airstrip One, Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein, George Orwell, memory hole, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Oceania, Room 101, telescreen, The Brotherhood, the Party, Thought Police, Thoughtcrime, Wintson Smith