Controversial Classics: 1984

After falling in love with the dark, gritty realism behind the seemingly fictional allegorical world of Orwellian novels such as Animal Farm in middle school, I soon sought out the equally popular counterpart: 1984.

As typical of George Orwell's novels, 1984 is a dystopian novel that explores themes of corruption, surveillance, and censorship. The novel follows Winston Smith, a government employee within Oceania, a blend of 3 continents. He finds himself rebelling against the totalitarian regime ruled by "Big Brother".

The novel's anti-government messages that may convince others to see the flaws in their own governments and rebel against them have caused it to be banned in many parts of the world.

Epistemology is a very prevalent philosophical inquiry present in the novel as a reoccuring theme. This blends the nature of truth versus reality. The Party, Big Brother, controls the citizens' memories and language not through magic, but through manipulation, brainwashing, gaslighting, and propaganda through things like the press. This showcases the epistemological stance that truth does not exist in the way we percieve. All truths have been given to us by a higher-up, and without those truths, society collapses.