Discover who wrote 1984. Explore the background of George Orwell's dystopian novel, learn when it was written and published, and understand its legacy.
Updated: 11/21/2023
1984 by George Orwell | Historical Context & Background
Table of Contents
- What is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell?
- 1984 Book Summary
- Historical Context of 1984
- 1984 as a Social Commentary
- Legacy of 1984
- Lesson Summary
- FAQs
- Activities
Writing Activity for 1984
Essay Assignment
For this activity, you will respond to the following essay prompt about George Orwell's dystopian classic, 1984.
Prompt: How did the world events and the politics of the 1940s inspire the plot of 1984?
First, you may want to complete some additional research to add to the information in the lesson. As you research, jot down any new information that may want to include in your essay. Once you have done this, it is time to develop a thesis statement. Your thesis statement should express the main ideas that you wish to write about in your essay. Here is an example of a thesis statement that could be used for this assignment: Many of the events in George Orwell's popular novel reflect some of the political issues that were raging during the first years of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Once you have written your thesis statement, it is time to organize your ideas by filling out the outline below. After completing your outline, it is time to write your essay. Make sure to proofread and edit your work before turning-in or publishing.
I. Introduction
- Hook/Attention-Getter
- Brief introduction to 1984
- Thesis Statement
II. Body Paragraphs
- Main Point #1
- Explain your main point thoroughly.
- Provide evidence from the novel to support your idea.
- Main Point #2
- Explain your main point thoroughly.
- Provide evidence from the novel to support your idea.
- Main Point #3
- Explain your main point thoroughly.
- Provide evidence from the novel to support your idea.
III. Conclusion
- Summarize your main points.
- Re-state your thesis statement.
- Include a strong closing statement.
What was happening when 1984 was written?
George Orwell composed the majority of "1984" between 1946 and 1949. The war was over, Hitler was out of the picture, yet Europe remained the edge of a dangerous precipice as Josef Stalin and his totalitarian regime worked its way across Eastern Europe, intent on spreading Communism westward.
What was 1984 based on?
Orwell wrote "1984" in response to the increasing presence of dictatorial leaders within Europe who were attempting to spread their totalitarian ideologies across Europe. Of particular concern to Orwell were the Nazis and the Russian Communists under Stalin's leadership.
What is the main message of 1984?
George Orwell wrote "1984" as a satirical attack on totalitarianism and the oppressive, dismal society that it creates. The novel can be considered a warning message to the world that unchecked power in any system of leadership will ultimately corrupt those who hold the power.
Why is 1984 a banned book?
Over the decades, "1984" has been banned by different entities for various reasons. Russia banned the book in 1950 because it had anti-communist sentiment. A small school district in Florida banned it in 1981 or being pro-communist, and in 2017, an Idaho county banned "1984" due to its supposed use of violent, sexually charged language.
Table of Contents
- What is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell?
- 1984 Book Summary
- Historical Context of 1984
- 1984 as a Social Commentary
- Legacy of 1984
- Lesson Summary
Nineteen Eighty-Four (often transcribed and sometimes published as 1984) is a dystopian novel by British author George Orwell. First published in 1949, the novel is a warning against totalitarian government and addresses many complex topics such as propaganda, nationalism, censorship, surveillance, and inequality. George Orwell's 1984 is one of the most notable dystopian novels of its kind, with many of its concepts and much of its terminology having been adopted by popular culture across the world.
Who was George Orwell?
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George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903, was a British journalist and social commentator. Over the course of his career, he wore many hats, from a literary intellectual to a Burmese police officer to a popular satirical writer.
Although he wrote countless critical essays, his two greatest successes came when he used his biting criticism of Europe's political climate to write the novels Animal Farm and 1984. Although distinct, both were set in dystopian societies and addressed what Orwell saw as critical political issues of the day.
When was 1984 Written?
Orwell wrote 1984 in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Intensely disgusted by totalitarian leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, Orwell combined many elements of the real-life totalitarian societies of the era into the fictional ''Oceania'' of the book. In the 1946 essay Why I Write, he explained that he opposed totalitarianism and wrote to both oppose it and push the world in the direction of democratic socialism.
George Orwell's 1984 manuscript was sent to London publisher Secker and Warburg in 1948. The small publishing company had reluctantly published Animal Farm just a few years before, in addition to Homage to Catalonia, his memoirs from the time he spent in Spain during the country's civil war. Secker and Warburg published 1984 in June 1949.
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1984 takes place in Airstrip One, a province in what was once Great Britain. Part of the superstate Oceania, Airstrip One is commanded by a Totalitarian leader by the name of Big Brother, a rarely seen yet widely feared figure. Winston Smith, the novel's protagonist, works in the ironically named Ministry of Truth revising old news stories, in effect changing history to match what Big Brother wants to represent as truth.
The novel begins with a disillusioned Winston writing in a journal he bought from a second-hand store. Writing about personal needs and wants is punishable by death, but Winston finds himself increasingly willing to put himself in danger if only to challenge an oppressive and miserable existence.
One day Winston runs into a fellow worker, an attractive woman named Julia. Without warning, she hands him a note with a dangerous message: ''I love you.'' Over the coming weeks, Winston finds himself in a new world—of love, acceptance, and the potential to topple Oceania's oppressive regime. Of course, in a totalitarian regime paranoid about its survival, nothing is ever as it seems.
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1984 was inspired by both Orwell's own experiences during the Spanish Civil War and Europe's political climate during and after World War II. During the Spanish Civil War, Orwell had seen lies and propaganda from both sides and had watched the fascist dictator Franco and his Soviet nemesis Josef Stalin align as oppressive and genocidal dictators. By the end of the war in Spain, Franco and Stalin had been responsible for hundreds of thousands of murders. Additionally, Orwell himself was shot in the throat, necessitating rest and recuperation and an eventual escape from Spain.
All of this was difficult for Orwell to process, as he had originally supported Stalin's revolution. As World War II dawned, the writer witnessed the atrocious acts of power-hungry leaders like Hitler and Mussolini across Europe. He also watched as England's leaders took control of the country's economy to produce goods for the war, which culminated in widespread food shortages, rationing, and the loss of personal freedoms in what was supposed to be a ''free'' society.
In December of 1943, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin met in Tehran, Iran to discuss how the Allied forces would proceed together to end the war. This is reflected in 1984. At the beginning of the novel, he introduces us to Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, three equally matched superpowers that live in a constant state of conflict with one another. Because none of them can win, the three countries wage a war of propaganda and pointless banter, with one country being indistinguishable from the others.
Orwell's Thoughts on Totalitarianism
Orwell wrote not only 1984 but also numerous critical essays berating greedy and power-hungry dictators and even spoke up against influential leaders from Western countries, as he believed that absolute power corrupts regardless of its ideological source. His opposition to totalitarianism was well documented.
Orwell's political philosophy was a kind of democratic socialism. To Orwell, this represented democracy, liberty, and equality. It wasn't necessarily a promise of abundance but a promise that if one segment of the population was poor, other segments would be proportionately poor and thus equal with one another.
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Although George Orwell's 1984 was originally published in the 1940s, its commentary has resonated across decades. Orwell's political concerns, while inspired by the real-world events of the 1930s and 40s, are fictionalized in a way that has allowed readers of many generations to project their own concerns into the story.
Today, many commentators and politicians often use terminology from 1984 for their own political purposes. Often this usage is imprecise or incorrect, but it nonetheless demonstrates the enduring power of Orwell's famous novel as a social commentary.
1984 and Big Brother
The leader of the fictional Oceania, Big Brother is a prevalent, all-powerful character in 1984. Orwell describes him as dark-haired, with a mustache and ''big bushy eyebrows;'' this is meant to evoke images of Hitler or Stalin, two of the most significant totalitarian leaders of the World War II era.
Big Brother exerts control of Oceania's citizens via a centrally placed telescreen mounted within each home. The screen serves as a physical manifestation of Big Brother's pervasive presence, a constant reminder that ''Big Brother is Watching.'' The image that Oceania residents see on the telescreen each day is just real enough to invoke fear or adulation, yet not real enough to notice physical anomalies/flaws or establish an ethnicity or backstory. He could be anyone or no one at all.
Each morning, citizens must participate in a Two Minutes Hate session, led by Big Brother, requiring them to watch a video that depicts images of the Party's enemies and then express their rage and hatred towards them. This is a form of control by the Party that allows them to shift the blame for their citizens' discontent onto an outside entity.
The Two Minutes of Hate presented on Oceania's telescreen has often been compared to the propaganda machines prevalent on Russian television, particularly the tradition of degrading opposing party members and creating false reports meant to convince watchers that members of the opposition are terrible people.
The Thought Police in 1984
In Oceania, the Thought Police are the strong arms of the Party, the muscle that stands loyal to Big Brother, ready and able to do his dirty work, which often includes torturing and re-training those who have strayed from the Party in some way. Winston spends much of the novel in a state of paranoia that the Thought Police will find him out.
Orwell's description of the Thought Police calls to mind its real-life equivalent, the NKVD of the Soviet Union, a secret police skilled in the art of interrogation, thought control, and intimidation who worked directly for Stalin, torturing and killing anyone who could prove threatening to the leader's reputation or future aspirations.
Newspeak in 1984
In Oceania, Newspeak is a carefully crafted language developed by Winston and his coworkers at the direction of the Party. Party leaders hope that by strategically reducing the availability of certain words and removing troublesome words altogether, citizens will find it too difficult to verbally express any discontent they might have.
Newspeak emphasizes Doublethink, where two conflicting ideas are expressed together, allowing residents to believe that both are simultaneously possible. An example is the phrase ''Ignorance is strength.''
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1984 received critical acclaim upon its original publication. In the years since it has been named on numerous lists of most influential novels globally and remains a classic of the dystopian genre. The influence of the novel is today so pervasive that many terms from 1984 have entered the English vernacular. For instance, the term ''Orwellian'' was coined in 1950 to describe any situation that is reminiscent of Orwell's writing, especially those that refer to a dystopian reality and the term Big Brother is often used to refer to an overbearing government.
While 1984 is critical of political ideologies that demand absolute obedience from its citizens, the novel's themes have sometimes generated controversy, particularly amongst conservative critics. Over the decades, the book has been banned by some school systems and organizations for being pro-communist, politically insensitive, sexually suggestive, and in one Texas city, anti-government.
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Nineteen Eighty-Four (often transcribed and sometimes published as 1984) is a 1949 dystopian novel by British author George Orwell. 1984 was written immediately following World War II and was intended as a warning against a totalitarian government that controls every aspect of citizens' lives. The novel takes place on Airstrip One, a province that was formerly Great Britain, in the superstate of Oceania. Oceania was written as an amalgamation of several totalitarian societies of the World War II era. The story follows Winston Smith as he comes into conflict with Big Brother, the oppressive leader of Oceania.
Much of 1984 was inspired by Orwell's own experiences in the 1930s and 40s, such as being shot during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was intensely opposed to totalitarianism and was himself a democratic socialist. In the story, the mustachioed Big Brother is meant to reflect prominent authoritarian leaders such as Hitler and Stalin. Elements of the plot, such as the Two Minutes of Hate that citizens are subjected to, Winston's job rewriting old newspaper articles, and the torture employed by the Ministry of Love, and the oppressive Thought Police, were inspired by the Soviet Union. 1984 has had a major cultural legacy that continues today. It has inspired terms such as ''Orwellian,'' which means reminiscent of the dystopian world of 1984, and remains an influential novel across the world.
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Video Transcript
1984 Background
Before we get into any history, let's first discuss some important information dealing with 1984, the novel (not 1984, the year). If you're looking for hair bands and The Terminator, this may not be the lesson for you.
George Orwell's novel 1984 was actually written in 1949. It's set in a dystopian future version of Great Britain, which is known by the very cold and personality-less name of Airstrip One in the novel. A dystopia refers to a fictional place that is characterized by the universally miserable conditions under which its citizens live, usually under the guise of utopia.
In most literature dealing with dystopia, it's usually caused by war, climate change, or a terrible government. In this case, both war and government are factors in the creation of this particular dystopia. Airstrip One is part of a superstate called Oceania, which exists in a state of constant war.
Oceania is ruled by a fictional dictator named Big Brother, who is used as a symbol to terrify the population into submission by those who are really in power. One of the many slogans used to subdue the populace in the novel is one we still know today: ''Big Brother Is Watching You.'' This refers to the constant surveillance the citizens of Airstrip One are under. Sounds pretty stressful, to say the least!
Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, works for the Ministry of Truth, and his job is to rewrite old newspaper articles in order to revise the past and to help further crush individual freedom. 1984 follows Winston's journey in his fight to gain individual freedom.
Not only is history constantly being rewritten by the government, but Orwell actually crafted a new language, called Newspeak, for use in this novel. Let's not get into the details now, but, basically, the government's purpose for using Newspeak is to suppress free thought.
The World in 1949
So now that you have some background on the actual novel itself, it's time to talk about what the world was like leading up to the year 1949, when the novel 1984 was written. For starters, World War II was kind of a huge deal. From 1939 to 1945, Europe was immersed in this bloody conflict, and by the end of the war, all countries involved were battered, drowning in rubble, and mourning the loss of tens of millions of citizens, both civilian and military.
During the war, Orwell, a British citizen, believed the democracy of Great Britain would not survive the war. He wrote a good deal on communism, an economic system in which, theoretically, land and wealth is divided equally among the community. The foundational saying of communism, attributed to Karl Marx, the founder of the ideas of communism, is ''From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.''
Though Orwell wrote often about communism and socialism, he realized the system, when put into practice, had difficulty succeeding because the people in power were generally greedy. Orwell was for socialism and against totalitarianism, which is a form of government that has absolute control over its citizens.
After World War II, Europe was trying to piece itself back together. Meanwhile, the United States and the Soviet Union were beginning their Cold War with one another. The Cold War was a period of time that lasted from roughly the end of World War II through 1991, during which the Soviets and Americans engaged in very tense standoffs stemming mostly from ideological and geopolitical differences. When 1984 was written, the Soviet Union and the United States were very much in the news and the normalcy of the Cold War was starting to truly set in.
World Events and 1984
George Orwell was very outspoken about his belief that socialism was a direct counter to totalitarianism, and many of his most famous works reflect his beliefs about the dangers of totalitarianism. Both 1984 and another Orwell novel, Animal Farm, blast totalitarian regimes and the control they seek over their citizens to basically turn them into herds of sheep.
Not only this, but Orwell was very critical of what can be called ''the revolution betrayed,'' or the revolution that promises one thing but actually delivers another. This could also be called ''a wolf in sheep's clothing'' or simply ''politics.''
In 1984, the government of Oceania actually started as a revolution that wanted to bring about change for the people, mirroring the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, during which time the leaders of the Bolshevik revolution were purged from history. But once the bigwigs took power, they had those who were involved in the revolution before them erased from history, much like Stalin did with his predecessors.
In fact, much of Oceania in 1984 is based on the Soviet Union under Stalin. The hero worship extended to Stalin, regardless of the fact that he caused the deaths of millions of civilians, is mirrored in the adulation directed toward Big Brother, a mustachioed gentleman with big bushy eyebrows. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
In the novel, citizens also perform the ''Two Minutes Hate,'' a demonstration done each day for two minutes in which individuals direct all of their hate and anger at so-called ''enemies of the state.'' This correlates with Stalin's demonization of his own enemies of the state (real or imagined).
In addition, Newspeak, the language specifically invented for this book, is a mixture of Russian and English grammar rules and manners of speaking. Specifically, Orwell used the way the Soviet government enjoyed combining words for government programs or departments, like politburo. In the novel, the Ministry of Peace becomes 'Minipax', and the Ministry of Love becomes 'Miniluv'.
For the world of 1984, Orwell also drew inspiration from the horrors of World War II, such as the extreme wartime propaganda and nationalism on all sides, and the concentration camps. He used wartime secret police, like the Soviet NKVD, as his inspiration for the Thought Police, who arrest those who attempt free thought or blaspheme Big Brother. He also drew from the NKVD's brutal methods of obtaining confessions and imprisoning political dissenters for his Ministry of Love's torture techniques.
Lasting Repercussions
In 1984, George Orwell crafted a sharp social commentary that still finds itself at home in our discussions to this day. When something is referred to as ''Orwellian,'' it's reminiscent of the horrific society presented in his novel. Something Orwellian is something vaguely or overtly totalitarian, and something that goes against free thought. Big Brother is often used to describe a government official or a government itself that's trying to watch citizens too closely or invade their privacy.
Newspeak has also found a home in our vocabulary. The word ''doublethink,'' or accepting contradictory beliefs as true at the same time, has spawned such words as ''doublespeak.'' It goes without saying, then, that 1984 is still very much alive today.
Lesson Summary
George Orwell's 1949 novel 1984 was written in the aftermath of World War II, during tense and shifting political climates. He was already well aware of the tension created by the rise of communism, which is essentially an economic system in which, theoretically, land and wealth is divided equally among the community.
The novel depicts a dystopian future in which the citizens of Oceania live in misery, under constant surveillance, with a dystopia referring to a fictional place that's characterized by the universally miserable conditions under which its citizens live, usually under the guise of utopia. It takes place in the totalitarian society, or one in which the government controls literally any and all aspects of its citizens' lives.
In writing the book, Orwell drew a great deal of inspiration from his own political beliefs as well as from the horrors of World War II. The novel mirrors the rule of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and even depicts the book's dictator, Big Brother as a Stalin look-alike.
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