Book Review

1984, by George Orwell

The book is in three parts.

Part 1

The setting is Salt Lake in 1984, shortly after Leonard Arrington left the Church History department (when it was given to BYU and re-named, and the year when polygraphs were introduced into the church university). The novel, first published in 1949, imagines 1984 as a post Millennium future where the church runs the world government and everything is micro-managed from above. The story opens with the central character, Winston Smith (great-grandson of Joseph Fielding Smith), returning to his apartment in Victory Mansions. Every wall has the Del Parsons Christ (with the eyes that seem to be looking over your shoulder) and the message "Jesus is your older brother. Older Brother is watching you." Inside his apartment, Winston watches General Conference on TV - the volume can be turned down, but it can never be turned off. Outside the landscape is grimy and bleak, resulting from the burning of non-tithe-payers and general purging of evil over the previous few years. As foretold in scripture, there are no longer mountains or oceans, the world is a sea of glass and fire. The fire is the remnants of the nuclear war predicted by Skousen. The glass is where the desert sand became unusually hot.

From his apartment, Winston can see the Ministry of Truth (formerly the Church Office Building) towering over the landscape, and the three engraved Church slogans:

"WAR AGAINST SIN IS PEACE

FREEDOM FROM THE CHURCH IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."

Winston can also see the three other huge Ministries - the Ministry of Spreading Peace (formerly the MTC), the Ministry of Plenty (formerly Welfare Square) and the terrifying Ministry of Courts of Love. He recalls that morning's Priesthood meeting, with the two-minute hate. Today it was Governor Ford again. Then everyone had recited the Fourth Section. He recalled one man in particular, O'Brien, a minor General Authority. Winston hated the chanting. He caught O'Brien's eye during the chants, and for a moment knew that O'Brien felt the same way. This incident shook him and renewed his hope that others might feel like he did, and that FARMS, a group he was told were rebel intellectuals, might actually exist.

Winston enjoys his job. He works for the church correlation committee, updating the manuals. His job was the historical sections, changing 'wives' to 'wife' and removing any reference to deification or obsolete temple doctrines. A tricky part today was updating an old article that included a quotation by Michael Quinn. Quinn was the Enemy of the People, and now an un-person. To fill the gap, Winston makes up a story in which the church praises a (fake) dead war hero who died in a foxhole after a career in major league baseball. Winston hopes one day to be promoted to the video section, and help to re-record conference talks.

"'Who controls the past', ran today's LDS-Gem, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" It was even better than the previous day's Gem. "I don't know if we teach that; don't worry about those little flicks of history."

Winston is falling in love with a Young Single Adult, Julia. ("Young" means she is less than sixty.) He hates her, because she arouses feelings in his trousers that he has been taught are evil. He wonders if she is sent by Satan. "Sexual intercourse was inferred to be slightly dirty, and his ex-wife, Katherine, hated it. The Church views marriage as a vehicle for producing children to serve the Church. Erotic desire is rebellion. Organizations like the Young Women Anti-Sex League are encouraged. Winston secretly visits the NOM board, even though this would be grounds for a court if discovered. He wrote "If there is hope, it lies in the less-actives." The less-actives form about 85% of the church, and are allowed to do whatever they want, but are still counted as active members every April. Winston writes, "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

Winston reads the Ensign, and reflects on the Church's claim to have improved everything, but there is a big difference between the world the church describes, "a holy nation, the most wonderful people on earth, with beautiful temples and strong families" and the world in which Winston resides, where Prozac and bankuptcy are the norm and everyone tries to 'endure to the end'. Winston feels alone in his thoughts, bordering on the insane. He realizes that the church if it wished, could turn a feeling into a belief and a belief into a fact. Winston again writes on the NOM board. As if speaking to O'Brien, he writes: "Freedom is the freedom to say that feelings are simply feelings. If that is granted, all else follows."

Winston starts to visit the home of a less-active member who knew nothing of church doctrine and is even slightly sympathetic to homosexuals. Winston knows this is a dangerous thing to do. The man gives Winston a coffee. Winston reacts with emotion: "It seemed to him that he knew exactly what it felt like to sit in a room like this, in an armchair beside a sports game on TV and a beer in the fridge: utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no guilt in your head, no home teachers at the door, just the friendly banter of the TV." On the way home, Winston is seen by his quorum president. He cannot come up with a possible explanation for his being here. Winston is struck by an acute sense of terror.

Part 2

This section begins with some chapters about Winston and Julia's physical relationship. Julia was 42 years old and lived in a large and crowded hostel for single sisters. Until the age of 41, she had devoted herself to extreme chastity and extended temple visits, in the hope of being rewarded with a husband. She had never dated. Then at age 42, something inside her finally snapped. Winston is her first ever boyfriend, and they go at it like rabbits. But according to letters that circulated to bishops in the 1980s, certain of the things they did were, in effect, de facto political acts.

Unlike Winston, Julia understands precisely why the church discourages sexual urges: "What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into spiritual fever and leader worship."

During this time, they both work extra hard to appear as good members, so as to avoid arousing suspicion. Eventually they rent a room in the house of the less-active member he visited earlier. Here they are free to talk. They smuggle in black-market goods such as caffeine coke. One of Winston's colleagues, Syme, is released from his calling and does not come to church again. Winston can only guess what has happened. It is the preparation for General Conference week, which means a lot of extra work. The children are chanting new verses to "follow the prophet" and the local members seem genuinely excited by this thrilling time of the year. Lessons focus on the evils of the world, the fear is greater than usual, and they plan demonstrations against Equal Rights legislation.

Winston and Julia know that this cannot last, but begin to become reckless. They make impossible plans about reforming the church form the inside. Winston tells Julia about O'Brien and FARMS, and the hope that this intellectual wind will bring new life into the church.

Julia is better able to cope with church history and doctrine than Winston is. "She only questioned the teachings of the church when they in some way touched upon her own life. Often she was ready to accept the official mythology, simply because the difference between truth and falsehood did not seem important to her."

One day at work, O'Brien congratulates Winston on his use of Newspeak (church jargon) in his recent works. O'Brien makes an indirect positive reference to Syme. This is "thought-crime" - Syme is obviously apostate and as such incapable of having any positive attributes. Winston realises that O'Brien must be on his side, a fellow NOM. Winston's cover is slipping. "He had the sensation of stepping into the dampness of a grave, and it was not much better because he had always known that the grave was there and waiting for him."

Winston often thinks about his mother. He remembers his mother as a noble person who lived according to her own private standards and remained true to what she saw with her own eyes. In doing so she put blind obedience second, and there was no room for that in the church. "The terrible thing that the Church had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were the only source of truth, while at the same time robbing you of all power to place your feelings before the feelings of the church." He realizes only the less-actives have remained human, by attaching importance to their own feelings.

Winston and Julia discuss the inevitability of their returning to church. Both understand they will eventually give in and become true believers again. But inside they will always be free. "It's the one thing they can't do. They can make you say anything - anything - but they can't make you believe it. They can't get inside you." Or so they thought.

Julia and Winston go to see O'Brien at his home. They are amazed by the difference in the way the G.A.s live. Small families, big houses, and members always willing to volunteer as unpaid help. O'Brien even has the power to turn off General Conference. He starts to break into a smile and asks, "Shall I say it, or will you?" Winston tells him of his doubts about the church. O'Brien calls in Martin, whom he says is one of them, and pours them all wine, which Winston and Julia have never seen before. He tells them that FARMS does exist. He asks them if they would be willing to engage in obfuscation, half truths and ad-hominem attacks in service of FARMS. They say yes. O'Brien warns them of the danger to their testimonies.

For the next few weeks, Winston is too busy at General-Conference related meetings. But finally he has time to read "the book" - a copy of the latest Quinn volume that only FARMS members were allowed to read. It gives a detailed history of the church, the origins of its doctrines, and how it achieved its current position. According to Quinn, the reason behind spiritual warfare has changed completely. "The primary aim of modern spiritual warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the brethren) is to use up the time of the members without giving time to think." If people had time to think, there would be no need for a hierarchical society. Hence, for the privileged minority to maintain their position, they need to make sure that the masses keep busy. "The consciousness of being at spiritual war with Satan, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival." Scientific development under the church is virtually nonexistent; scientific breakthroughs require creative thought, a concept outlawed by the church. Scientific research is limited to finding new ways of spreading the message of the church.

Winston stops reading for a moment. The book fascinates him. "It was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already." Major mental training is required, starting in childhood, to ensure political orthodoxy. By dislocating the sense of reality, the church may well be able to hold onto its power forever.

As Winston finally understands, he is caught. He was betrayed by the less-active member. He realises that the less-active member was really a sixth generation cultural Mormon, the kind that may break every rule, but always be part of the church.

Part 3

Winston finds himself alone in a stake centre, ready for the court of love. He heard a stake executive secretary whisper something about a room in the stake centre, "Room 101." Winston's thoughts are of O'Brien. Winston wonders whether FARMS could find some way to defend him. He is surprised to see that one of his most faithful, believing friends is also there for a court of love.

Finally it is time for Winston. At first there is a series of accusations. Then finally he is asked for his side of the story. Under all those eyes, without any experience of group psychology, Winston begins to break, and confess to things that maybe he should not confess to.

O'Brien is there. He talks of the nature of reality. He tells how, if you think one thing and the church thinks another, obviously you are blinded by sin and need to repent. Clearly Winston is a sinner, but the church only wants to help. So the meeting continues. Eventually, Winston begins to cry like a baby. "The old feeling, that at bottom it did not matter whether O'Brien was a friend or an enemy, had come back. O'Brien was a person who could be talked to..." Winston clung onto O'Brien. O'Brien tells Winston why the church brings its enemies into the Ministry of Love. It is important not to destroy enemies, but to change them. He tells Winston he is here so that they can "cure" him and "make him whole." His mind must be purified and aligned to the ideals of the gospel before the final day of judgement.

O'Brien informs him of the why behind obedience to the church. The goal is pure power itself. The individual is mortal and can never have power alone, but when he destroys his own identity and relinquishes control to the god - the church - he will live and be powerful forever. The church represents god, the church is omnipotent. Even FARMS is a sham. It only exists in order to trap closet intellectuals, and bring them back into obedience.

"The vision of the future will be a missionary boot tracting out your street, forever."

Winston talks about the moral value of the individual. O'Brien mocks this, reminding him that the natural man is an enemy to God and that man is nothing. He compares the pathetic mistakes of individuals to the glorious beauty and strength of the church. Eventually Winston believes he has fully repented. The series of courts ends. Winston is a changed man, he tries to re-educate himself. To accept everything. He enrolls in Institute again. But deep down he knew that he still had doubts. He begins to panic. Winston knows he has been obeying the church with his mind, but still, in the depths of his heart, he doubts them. "For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself."

Eventually another court of love is convened, to assess the disfellowshipping. It is time for Room 101.

Winston is forced to face his greatest fear: the fear of losing his family. The technique works. Winston breaks. He will do or believe anything - absolutely anything - in order to save his family. Finally he has a broken heart and a contrite spirit. His self esteem has gone. His only desire is to obey.

Some weeks after being released, Winston is sitting at a church social. He hears someone talking about how the church is the fastest growing church in the world. Winston's heart is filled with gratitude. He spends most of his time at church activities now. When the speakers at General Conference speak of how wonderful the church is, Winston feels a great swell of pride and weeps for joy. Even when they warn of the evils of the world, he no longer fears. "It was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved the church."