George Orwell and the Legacy of Nineteen Eighty-Four

The Creation of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Here he began work on his novel "1984", which became one of the most famous anti-utopias of the 20th century. According to many scholars, Orwell reversed the digits of the year while writing the novel—transforming 1948 into 1984. In June 1949, the novel "1984" was published in England and America, and six months later, on January 21, 1950, George Orwell died of tuberculosis.

Global Recognition and Literary Contributions

The novel "1984" has been translated into 62 languages, and the year 1984 was named by UNESCO the "Year of George Orwell." Besides these major works, the writer published a variety of novels, articles, press clippings, and reviews (and even today, George Orwell is considered one of the best publicists and reviewers of the 20th century). At the age of seventeen, Orwell gained experience in "amateur vagrancy" in Plymouth. This bleak vision of the world, divided into three oppressive nations, stirred up controversy among reviewers who found this fictional future too despairing. In the novel, Orwell gave readers a glimpse into what would happen if the government controlled every detail of a person's life, down to their own private thoughts.

Themes and Stylistic Elements

Nineteen Eighty-Four proved to be another huge success for the author, but he had little time to enjoy it. It should be borne in mind that Orwell wrote the novel during his illness, and many of its elements are drawn from his previous works. We can find some important elements which depict his "Thirties Novels":

• Poverty, frustrated love, and a flight to the countryside for solitude and sex;
• A satire of England’s postwar era and a dystopian political future;
• The creation of a new language (Newspeak);
• The use of torture and pain in order to suppress political freedom.

The Disintegration of Language

The rejection of meaningless abstraction is due to the simplification of vocabulary, which is closer to proletarian literature. Orwell not only displays neologisms—such as Big Brother, unperson, vaporized, and doublethink—but also the disintegration of language. In addition, several euphemisms hide reality, including terms for prison, torture, war, and disease.

The Final Days and Lasting Legacy

By this time, Orwell was in the late stages of his battle with tuberculosis. He died on January 21, 1950, in a London hospital. He may have passed away all too soon, but his ideas and opinions have lived on through his work. Both Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four have been turned into films and have enjoyed tremendous popularity over the years.