A presentation on Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. This presentation is not to be used or reproduced for monetary gain, and is strictly for educational purposes. Make sure to attribute the presentation to Alan M. Valle Monagas, even when making derivations based on this presentation. For more information, go to icaroson.wordpress.com or write to me at alan.valle@upr.edu.

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1984)
by George Orwell
Presentation for English literature course by Alan M. Valle
Monagas (2018), icaroson.wordpress.com.

2. Eric Blair
• Wrote under the name George Orwell;
• Born in India (1903);
• Died one year after publishing 1984 (1950);
• Was a policeman, writer, reporter and a
soldier;
• “Democratic socialist.”

3. Eric Blair
• Fought in the Spanish Civil War with the
anarchists against Franco’s Nationalist forces.
• Worked in England’s Ministry of Information.
Forced to censor information like Winston.
• Studied under Aldous Huxley, the writer of
Brave New World, when he was a teenager.
• During his last years, Orwell worked for a
secret British propaganda department (IRD),
where he was tasked to identify potential
communist spies (Ash, “Orwell’s list”).

4. Orwell’s Work

6. Setting
•Urban decay. Infrastructure
crumbling. Bombs fall on
Airstrip One randomly.
•Julia claims these bombs are
launched by the government
itself (false flags).
“Long live the great Stalin!” (1938)

7. Setting
•A world where people
cannot write, gather,
have sex, or collect
memorabilia without
risking imprisonment.

8. Setting: The Party
1. The Inner Party (Bourgeois, 2%)
Live lavish lives in great neighborhoods. Have
servants. All kinds of consumables are available
to them. Own private vehicles.
2. The Outer Party (Petty Bourgeoisie, 13%)
Considered to be the worst off. Do most of the
work and under constant surveillance. Can only
drink and smoke cheap products.
3. Proles (Proletariats, 85%)
Receive little education and work in manual labor
jobs. Live in poverty but have privacy and
anonymity. Permitted to practice religion.

9. Setting: The
Brotherhood
•Independent cells of
3-4 which report to a
greater cause.
•Used as a lure to
catch potential
thought criminals.

10. Setting: Ministries
1. Ministry of Truth modifies history
and statistics.
2. Ministry of Love instills hatred in the
populace and tortures dissidents.
3. Ministry of Peace deals with war.
4. Ministry of Plenty maintains
poverty, distributes false lotteries.
5. Brotherhood
6. Joycamp
These Ministries work for the Party.

11. Concepts:
Doublethink
“the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept
contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time,
especially as a result of political indoctrination.”

12. Newspeak
The true goal of Newspeak is to take away the
ability to adequately conceptualize revolution,
or even dissent, by removing words that could
be used to that end. Since the thought police had
yet to develop a method of reading people’s
minds to catch dissent, Newspeak was created
so that it wasn’t even possible to think a
dissenting thought.
• Conspiracies are framed as fringe and laughable
concepts, despite the fact that conspiracies are
incredibly common in history. [1]
• Francisco Franco tried to eliminate the Catalan
language from Spain as part of his campaign of
repression (1936-1939).

13. 2+2=5
•Example of a False Dogma we
must believe.
•If everybody believes it, does that
make it true?
•Examples:
1. The law is always right.
2. The Earth is flat.
3. Donald Trump won the 2020
election. Yakov Guminer, “Arithmetic of
a counter-plan” (1931)

14. 1984 and
Religion
• Salem Witch Trials and Inquisition;
• Forced confessions;
• Ingsoc = State Religion;
• Father = Big Brother;
• Demotivates rebellion;
• Winston as a martyred saint;
• O’Brien states, “We are the priests of
power.”

15. 1984 and
Our World

17. Historical Context:
Postmodernism
Winston considers the Party’s
exploitation of its fearful
subjects as a means to
suppress the intellectual
notion of objective reality.
(“1984”)
•A world without an objective
reality leads to decaying
values and aesthetics.
Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917)

18. Historical Context:
Stalin’s Russia
• Bolshevik rebellion had the ‘people’ take power from the
Russian monarchy (Capitalists).
• After Lenin died, the leaders betrayed each other for
greater power.
• Politiburo – The Party
• The Great Purge (1936-1938) – Torture and forced
confessions of dissidents.
• Great Terror – Incarceration for being acquaintances with
dissidents.
• Gulag – Room 101
• Young Pioneers, Hitler Youth and the Boy Scouts inspired
Orwell’s Junior Spies.

19. Historical Context:
Stalin
• Trotsky is the inspiration for Emmanuel Goldstein.
• Trotsky’s book The Revolution Betrayed is even
portrayed in 1984 as Goldstein’s book, “Theory and
Practice of Oligarchichal Collectivism” from Chapter
II.9.
• Leon Trotsky was later assassinated by Joseph Stalin,
and this excerpt from Stalin’s book was eliminated in
1949.
All practical work in connection with the
organization of the uprising was done under the
immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, . . .the
Party is indebted primarily and principally to
Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the
garrison to the side of the Soviet. (Stalin)

20. Historical Context: Stalinism
• Stalin’s political opponents and former
allies were captured by the NKVD
(Thought Police), forced to confess to
crimes they did not commit, and were
later assassinated.
• Like Goldstein, Trotsky had helped
Bolsheviks seize power to revolt against
the monarchy, and was later betrayed by
Stalin (Big Brother), Zinoviev and
Kamenev.
• Trotsky played a role in their
assassinations, because he publicized
these meetings between factions
opposing Stalin through his publications.
(i.e. the Brotherhood)

21. 1984 The Real World
Omniscient state
Modern cellphones have cameras, microphones and GPS
tracking systems
Newspeak Politically correct language and euphemisms
Assassination of citizens without due process
Telescreen Smart TV [1]
Desensitization to real violence Desensitization to violence [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
The Brotherhood and the Thought Police
Government entrapment, Mr. Big, sting operation, agent
provocateur,
Doublethink Cognitive dissonance
Joycamp Prison labor

22. Real Newspeak
Euphemism(s) or Soft Words Real Word or Real Meaning
Alternative facts Lies
Free Inmate Labor Slavery
Enhanced interrogationtechniques Torture
Ethnic cleansing Genocide
Defense contractors Mercenaries
Sunshine units Radioactive contamination
Collateral damage Killing innocent civilians
Job creators Oligarchs
Conspiracy theorist Critical thinker (not always)
Mass surveillance Government spying
Income inequality Class warfare
Orthodox Unconscious

23. Real Newspeak
Euphemism(s) or Soft Words Real Word or Real Meaning
Suspended with pay Vacation
Post-traumatic stress disorder Shell shock

24. 2 Minutes of Hate
Enemy of the State:
• Muslims in America
during the War on Terror
• Jews in Nazi Germany

25. 2 Minutes of Hate
• Euro-American politics have
historically utilized demonization as
a political tactic;
• This involves blacklisting and harassment campaigns.
• More recent manifestations are:
• The Stasi in East Germany;
• McCarthyism in America;
• COINTELPRO in America.

26. Wall of the West’s Enemies

28. Historical Context: The
World
•Shifting power
dynamics.
•Infinite Cold War over
disputed territories.
•Allies one day,
enemies the next.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, with English Monarchy. (2015)

30. Works Cited
“1984.” SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/themes.html
Ash, Timothy Garton. “Orwell’s list.” 25 Sep. 2003, New York Review
of Books,
https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071504/http://www.nybook
s.com/articles/2003/09/25/orwells-list/.
“Psychological warfare.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
“Propaganda Posters.” The methods of Propaganda,
www.mtholyoke.edu/~heale20k/Propaganda/Soviet_Propaganda
_Posters.html
Semmel, Bernard. Imperialism and Social Reform: English Social-
Imperial Thought 1895–1914, New York: Anchor, 1968.
Stalin, Joseph. The October Revolution, 1934.