Historical Context
Orwell was writing this novel in an age of totalitarianism, mainly in
Spain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The
publication year also coincided with the establishment of the Communist Party in
China in 1949. These governments
had “iron curtains” around their populations, suppressing their freedoms and
strictly controlling their actions. That
is why the novel is overrun with ideas of hunger, forced labor, mass torture and
imprisonment, and perpetual monitoring by the authorities.
Orwell had spent time in Spain during the peak of their Fascist regime as
a correspondent for the BBC, and he was very disappointed with how that
administration (which he initially had a great deal of faith in to assist the
country) turned against its citizens. He
felt their media was nothing more than a propaganda machine, hiding the truth
and inflating half-truths to disillusion the masses.
This is likely to be the reason why Winston Smith, the main character in 1984,
also works for a media agency, since it is through his actions that the reader
knows how deeply the Party affects and controls any public expression.
It is also Winston’s exasperation with this manipulation which spurs on
his rebellion to the Party. Orwell
must have seen and strongly disproved of this manipulation in his own
experiences.
The novel is also set in a state of perpetual war, since Orwell was
writing right after World War II, coming off the tails of World War I. (It is interesting how Orwell uses the slogan “War is
peace” to describe the motives of the Party. – see summary for Part Two,
Chapter Nine) Orwell was able, in
his travels, to see the experiences of the masses in Spain, Germany, and the
Soviet Union, on which he bases the condition of the proles in the novel and the
suffering expressed in Winston’s childhood.
Orwell creates a “dystopia” in the novel, which is the opposite of a
“utopia,” thereby establishing a model of what the world should NOT become.
He is therefore suggesting the qualities of a utopia, which would be the
opposite of the conditions found in Oceania, like ample food, freedom of
expression, and self-determination.
