George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is the ultimate negative utopia. Written in 1949 as an apocalyptic vision of the future, it shows the cruelty and pure horror of living in an utterly totalitarian world where all traces of individualism are being abolished. This novel was composed to denounce Hitler?s Germany and Stalin?s Russia and to create a warning to the rest of the world. It takes the reader through a year in the life of Winston Smith as he transforms from a rebel to a fanatic of totalitarianism. The political party of Oceania is INGSOC, which is also known as English Socialism. The government monitors the lives of the citizens through technological means to insure loyalty through surveillance, propaganda and brainwashing. The Party, as the government is known, goes so far as to control the people's thoughts and ideas. They have even replaced English with Newspeak, the language of the party. By removing meaning and suggestion from the vocabulary, they hope to obliterate anti-social thinking before it has a chance to enter a person's mind.?Oceania's government is divided into four ministries: the Ministry of Truth, which concerns itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts; the Ministry of Peace, which deals with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintains law and order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which is responsible for economic affairs.? (Orwell, p. 6) Winston is an Outer Party member who works in the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth. It is his job to destroy and rewrite the archives of the London Times so that they are consistent with Ingsoc policy. When someone is vaporized, or when Ingsoc changes it's political alliance with either Eastasia or Eurasia, it is Winston's job to change the records? to change the past. The act of individual thought is called Thought Crime. No one can be trusted in fear that they might report to the Thought Police. This held true for families as well. Children a...
