Nineteen Eighty-Four (Literature)/YMMV

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• Alternative Character Interpretation: Given that the Party's doctrine is that of Alternate Reality Interpretation, and that the viewpoint character is repeatedly mind raped in the end, it can be argued that we don't know what really happens post-Room 101. All that can be trusted is what Winston sees with his own eyes up until the cage snaps shut.
  • Also, since he doesn't leave Airstrip One, we have no clue as to the state of the world - is Oceania real? Is it the entire world? Is there a Brotherhood after all? Nothing can be taken for granted, even the Info Dump book that pops up halfway through (especially the book, given that one of the Inner Party members claims credit for its authorship, and hands out copies).
    • It's a little bit of a stretch but we can't be exactly sure if Party even controls entire British Isle Airstrip One. Could be half of it, just England or hell, maybe only London and its imminent surrounding. Which might explain whole "running out of resources" thing.
  • A common suggestion is that the 'scholarly' appendix on Newspeak is written in a manner that deliberately subverts this Downer Ending, given that it is written in the past tense....
    • It should be noted that when 1984 was to first be published in America, the publisher wished to remove the appendix, but Orwell refused to have it published without, saying that the book would have to be reworked if such a large chunk was to be cut out. This incident, along with a few hand-picked statements of Orwell around the time the book was written, form the basis for including the appendix into the work.
    • We explicitly never do learn if there's a Brotherhood or not. An alternate, admittedly optimistic interpretation would be that the Brotherhood did exist and that O'Brien was part of it, and that Winston and Julia's capture and death were in fact due to the latter's refusal to give up everything for the Brotherhood.
    • That's not optimistic at all. It just shows that the people rebelling against the government are just as bad as the government, and that the only thing that would change if they won was the size of Big Brother's moustache.
    • A more optimistic one would be that O'Brien was part of the Brotherhood, but deemed Winston and Julia to be unfit for it because they stated at the first meeting that they had no qualms with burning a child's face with acid and similar horrible things.
    • But if that were true, O'Brien would have no qualms about brutally torturing people, so why would he be good Brotherhood material and Winston and Julia wouldn't be? Splashing acid in a child's face is tame compared to what he does to Winston.
    • Also, they didn't prove themselves in Room 101 that they cannot be broken.
  • The Ministries may actually be true to their names from a certain point of view. and using The Party's way of thinking. The Ministry of Truth can be justified with doublethink, you may be able to consider the rations you are given by the Ministry of Plenty to be "plenty" from Big Brother's logic, the Ministry of Peace is justified through "WAR IS PEACE" and the Ministry of Love is where you learn to love Big Brother.
• Complete Monster: Ingsoc is the Complete Monster of political ideologies, encouraging you to become a power-hungry sociopathic mind rapist simply For the Evulz.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Fascist, yes, but stirring.
  • Sex crime!
• Fan Wank: Much has been made of the Newspeak appendix being written in the past tense. Many think it points to the eventual fall of The Party, but Orwell never confirmed or denied it.
• Genius Bonus: In the final scene when Winston is playing chess in the Chestnut Tree Café, he picks up a White knight from the board and contemplates a move. The arrangement of the pieces on the chess board suggests that he is considering the tactic of going around and hitting the opposing Black army from behind. Only minutes later, the telescreen announcer reports that the Oceanian forces had just defeated the Eurasian enemy in Africa by using the same tactic.
  • Also, Winston's ulcerated ankle is a metaphor for repressed sexual energy.
• Gannon Banned: Lots of people think this book depicts a society where you're under surveillance all the time. You aren't, not all of the time. You just don't know when you're being watched and when you aren't.
• Harsher in Hindsight: By 2007, Britain was home to more than 4.2 million CCTV cameras monitored by government or civil authorities. 32 of them are within 200 yards of Orwell's London flat, and at least four have a direct line-of-sight to his property, including direct views through the house's rear windows. These numbers have certainly increased since then.
  • The totalitarian society the book describes has been more or less realised by North Korea.
  • Also, O'Brien's speech to Winston and Julia in his apartment.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: It's briefly discussed that the Minitrue has a section dedicated to producing porn, which Julia works for. The porn is barely considered sexual or erotic, and is more So Bad It's Good than anything else. Then the internet happened.
• Ho Yay: Winston is pretty obsessed with O'Brien
  • To be fair, Winston was fairly certain O'Brien could get him out of Hell on Earth.
• It Was His Sled: Some editions even put the incredibly important final four words on the back of the book. For the record, they are: "He loved Big Brother."
  • The line is only important in context. A reader who read that line on the back of the book before reading may have instead assumed it came from the beginning of the book.
• Magnificent Bastard: O'Brien. He's an Affably Evil Genius Bruiser Chessmaster Manipulative Bastard who comes off as very charismatic even while he's torturing Winston and is running a Xanatos Gambit which ensures the Party's endless victories against all would-be rebels.
• Memetic Mutation/Fountain of Memes: Screw "The Cake Is a Lie", this is the work that informs modern life, with "Big Brother" and "Big Brother Is Watching You", "doublethink" "Unperson", "thought crime" and "thought police", and "Room101". While we're at it, there's the the war with Eastasia Eastasia is our ally. We were always at war with Eurasia. Really, the government in the novel pretty much communicates to the public almost entirely through memes.
  • Artefacts of the pre-Party times survive as memes too: "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clements..."
• Misaimed Fandom: If you think Orwell was solely attacking Dirty Communists (or, worse, liberals), you've missed the point. Fascist totalitarian regimes and religious theocracies can grow from other movements as well. The reverse is true, as well.
  • But it is interesting to see that out of all the different ideologies who can lead to totalitarism, the author chose communism...for all three of his dysotopias.
  • Of course there are those who believe the novel is an attack of socialism. Ignoring the fact that Orwell was a committed socialist
• Misaimed Marketing: The extremely famous 1984 Super Bowl Ad for Apple Computers.
• Music to Invade Poland To: Oceania, 'Tis of Thee from the 1984 film.
• Older Than They Think: Many of the themes from Nineteen Eighty-Four appear earlier in Orwell's work. The idea of "the truth" being whatever the ruling elite says (including the specific example of '2+2 = 5')? Chapter Four of Looking Back on the Spanish War. Political jargon constricting thought? Politics and the English Language, and before that, his As I Please column for March 17, 1944. The world being divided between a small number of super-states? He cribbed it from James Burnham. History being an endless cycle of the "Middle" deceiving the "Low" in order to depose the "High"? Ditto. Doublethink, 'the power of holding simultaneously two beliefs which cancel out'? In Front of Your Nose. The aversion of Evil Will Fail? Chapter Four of Looking Back on the Spanish War, again. The working class (proles) as the only hope against a totalitarian government, but also very stupid and shallow? Chapter Five of Looking Back on the Spanish War.
• Paranoia Fuel: Almost certainly, the worst part in 1984 is that it's plausible.
• Sci Fi Ghetto: Many literature professors will get very angry if you call this "Science Fiction," even though it's set in the future, with a level of surveillance impossible at the book's writing central to the plot and tone and the climax clearly relying on some sort of ultra-sophisticated psychological profiling.
  • Not to mention the otherworldly pyramid architecture of the Ministry buildings. While not necessarily containing an outright sci-fi element, their description evokes a futuristic, utopian feel.
• Tethercat Principle: See page image.
• The Woobie: Winston and Julia, especially in the movie.
• True Art Is Angsty: The book is considered one of the greatest ever written, and it's one of the most depressing ones you'll ever read.