Novel: Dystopian Portrayal of a Totalitarian Society

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Dystopian societies have long been existing since time immemorial. The previous societies have already demonstrated significant injustice to their people. However, historical people failed to realize the impact of the injustice secondary to the massive differences in social statuses amongst the people. Some authors were able to visualize what was happening before and manifest this as a futuristic point of view. One of these authors is George Orwell, and his world-renowned dystopian novel was entitled “1984.” Orwell demonstrated the impact of totalitarianism in future societies, resulting in the decline of the hierarchical state and the dictators of those times. Orwell’s style of writing and philosophy was carried out up to the present, especially among the young adult novel authors. His recognition of the events of the past and application of these to future societies led to the birth of many dystopian novels and films written in different settings. Overall, these novels only illustrate one central theme—social injustice. However, some of the social injustices that he depicted are well-seen at present, especially amid the pandemic. This paper shall enlighten the reader on the parallelism of Orwell’s 1984 with some of the recent dystopian novels, how it reflects today’s society, and how his philosophies influenced the recent dystopian writers.
Orwell’s 1984 was set thirty-five years from the time the novel was written. It describes a totalitarian society, where there is a complete, if not almost, dictatorship from the government, resulting in the submissiveness of the public. The consequences of the state’s dominance lead to massive political oppression, preventing the public, especially the poorest of the poor, from availing basic human rights. Moreover, the leaders’ craving for immense power betrays the public’s trust, crushing their dreams and identities. It is like being someone who you are not as you only function as a tool that is owned by a higher power. Orwell even stated that “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull (Orwell, 1949, p. 21).” This shows how corruption and repression are man’s innate qualities and the actions of the people secondary to their gain resulted in a great pessimism and the inability of the society to cope up with global disasters (Orwell, 1949).
The author’s views were directed to destroying the image of the future government, and it shows how powerful some people can be when they are placed at the topmost position in society. Furthermore, Orwell showed the readers how inequality could be slowly built from little things, as the story’s protagonist tries to discover what happened in the past that made the present society in the story. The little inequalities gradually become big until these become dominant in the society, resulting in immense marginalization, not just between the rich and the poor, but also between the powerful and the weak.
In his book, Orwell stated that,
Here in London, the great mass of the people never had enough to eat from birth to death. Half of them hadn't even boots on t...