John Gallagher's story about 1984

George Orwell’s '1984' was the book that changed my life. I’ve never stopped relating to it and realising its significance in my relationship with myself and the world. It is a timeless masterpiece! Winston, the central character and anti-hero of the novel, lives in an unfeeling world where emotional response to life has been numbed through intellectual rationalization. Culture is manufactured through ‘The Ministry of Truth’, where language is being manipulated to the end of subverting human consciousness, leaving people at the mercy of the police state to inform them of their outer reality.

Winston has a feeling that life is not supposed to be like this and this feeling awakening within him attracts the attention of Julia – his redeemer. She is the quickening for Winston’s feminine side and also represents hope for mankind, as modern society has left us all with an underdeveloped capacity for feeling. Big Brother, the leader of this oppressive state, is worshipped in the place of the Godhead. Power, in 1984, is sought after in the absence of love, which is the existential crisis affecting all of us. Our lives are devoid of meaning. Materialism has taken us away from our natural state, misdirecting us from our true purpose in life – to mature through love and realise who we are. As it stands, we are a heartless people looking out for ourselves from our fear of each other.

As Winston falls in love with Julia, he is drawn closer to his own feminine side – the feeling function within himself. If Winston becomes aware of himself as a feeling person, he will undergo a major transformation in consciousness and awareness. This process is interrupted by the Thought Police showing the significance of the change occurring within Winston. If Winston fully awakened he would become aware of being directed from within and would no longer be at the mercy of the police state to make sense of reality. In other words, he would be uncontrollable to the state and a threat to their power.

Winston is a person who wasn’t loved and it is love that will solve his existential crisis and restore him to his natural psychic equilibrium. If Winston’s awakening continued he would have found the Godhead within himself and would have initiated a movement to restore people to sanity, looking within themselves to find the truth. I engaged with the book through the isolation experienced by Winston. He is awakening within a world of repressive ideology designed to crush the human spirit.

The real horror of '1984' is that it is an accurate description of the world we live in today. You cannot place '1984' back in the bookcase and feel the relief of your own life. '1984' awakens you to the horror of your own existential crisis! We are all Winston, trying to make sense of our existence in a world controlled by ideology. But our capacity to love is the redeemer which will free us from the illusions of our external world – the Maya.