Statement 5.

Nineteen Eighty Four.

George Orwell.

The dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell was written in the year 1949. This story is a prediction of how Orwell believes the year 1984 will look like with a corrupt government at the wheel of the nation. At the time this novel was written at the beginning of the Cold War, the nuclear conflict between Soviet Russia and the United States of America. Everyone was living in fear that even their closest friends could be the enemy. This same atmosphere can also be seen in the setting of his novel being the city of London, to help give purpose of the warnings he sets in place for us as the readers.

The novel Nineteen Eighty Four is set in the city of London. London is not a pleasant place to live in Nineteen Eighty Four, with bombs going off at random throughout the city, citizens never having enough food and always being told that there is a war going on. The city is controlled by a government. The government uses the idea of ‘Big Brother’ to represent themselves and strike fear into the city. In the city of London, everything is controlled by Big Brother and the Inner party. All those who oppose them will be vaporised instantly. The city constantly lives in fear of Big brother. “Big Brother is watching you.” This slogan is used by the government and the inner party as a way to remind the city of London that they are always under surveillance. This setting that George Orwell creates is extremely powerful, as it makes the reader feel what it would be like to be living in the city of London during this novel. With no freedom whatsoever, the main character Winston is forced to hide who he truly is, for living in constant fear that he will be found out by the government. We later find out in the novel that all the government wants is to have complete and utter control over the population and everything they believe in. This is to the point where the government wants to be able to say “2+2 =5” and the city will believe it. This creates a very anxious and frightened setting. The citizens of London will follow every rule and show no emotion whatsoever as they do not want to suffer the consequences if done otherwise. Orwell uses setting as the city of London to portray his warning, as London is how he feels the future will look like. 

Another example of the  setting of Nineteen Eighty Four reflecting Orwell’s warning is Winston’s own apartment. The apartment he lives in is colorless, depressing and smells of cabbage. This can also be a representation of the city of London as well. From reading the novel, you can feel the sadness and lifeless place London would be at that point. In Winston’s apartment, just like every other apartment in the City of London, is a telescreen. A telescreen is a security camera type device given by the government and is placed in every household. It cannot be switched off therefore the government can see and hear everything that is occuring. “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer though, as he well knew even a back could be revealing.” This quote tells us that not even in his own home could Winston be himself, giving us an image that the setting Winston lives in is fearful and he is constantly afraid of showing something. While writing this, Orwell was living in the time of the Cold War. During this time people were constantly afraid to be who they truly were around other people as no one could be trusted. This is reflected in his novel with the idea that the setting the novel is in, is the same terrified atmosphere that Orwell is living in at the time of him writing. One of George Orwells warnings through his novel of Nineteen Eighty Four was the lack of freedom of speech. He shows this by creating the setting in the city of London, with the help of telescreens, to have an anxious setting to it where citizens are afraid to speak their minds.

1949 was a rough time in world’s history. Europe had just been through two world wars and was now trying to reconstruct themselves, and the USA and Soviet Union were moments away from creating World War Three. George Orwell had seen the rise and fall of Nazi Germany lead by Aldof Hitler and he was now watching the rise of the Soviet Union. Both of these nations had given control of all the power to a few if not one of their leaders. Their citizens were living in fear and were always constantly struggling to survive. This is a very similar setting to the way that London was in the novel Nineteen Eighty Four. I believe that Orwell created the novel Nineteen Eighty Four as a reflection of how he saw these two power crazy nations that had fallen. He used Nineteen Eighty Four to give a warning that giving power to only a handful of people only ends in failure and a terrified country. He was afraid that the setting of 1984 is what the future would hold for England if it were to fall into a dictatorship type country.

George Orwell creates Nineteen Eighty Four to have a terror stricken setting. With people living in fear and always being afraid, it is a warning of how he feels the year ‘1984’ will really look like. Setting is used in this novel to portray this warning through the city of London itself during the novel, Winstons own apartment and the use of telescreens, and even the setting that Orwell writes in this very novel represents the warnings that Orwell is trying to get across in his book.