Over the years I have read 1984 maybe half a dozen times, always for class-related assignments when I was a student or when I was a teacher. It has probably been over 20 years since my last re-read, and I’m glad I picked it up again before reading Sandra Newman’s Julia, a take on 1984 from the point of view of Winston Smith’s lover. I have always found 1984 to be a challenging read; dystopian fiction is unsettling and the end of 1984 is tragic. Reading it these days, with fascism on the rise all over the world, is more disturbing than ever. I was curious to see how an author would take this classic of literature and imagine it from another point of view. On the whole, I think Newman did a great job and I recommend Julia as a companion read to 1984. One could say they represent two sides of the same coin.
1984 is the story of a man named Winston Smith who resides in an England that has been absorbed into an authoritarian world power called Oceania. Its ruler is a dictator known as Big Brother. The Party controls all aspects of life: government, the economy, culture, education, even personal and familial relationships. There is no such thing as privacy; all citizens are constantly under surveillance and the least “crime” can result in arrest and execution. Only the “proles,” that is, members of the poor working class, have any semblance of freedom, but their cooperation and complacency are easily bought with bread and circuses. Winston is a 39-year-old cog in the Party machine. His job at the Ministry of Truth is to doctor news stories and erase the past when it becomes inconvenient for certain facts to remain on the record. When yesterday’s hero or ally becomes an enemy of Big Brother, the history is changed to show that he/they have always been an enemy. By the same token, all progress in human history is attributed to Big Brother and the Party. The problem is that Winston remembers the truth; he knows that the Party and BB lie, and he knows that somehow, the powers that be are going to ultimately detect his subversion and kill him. Making things even worse, Winston acquires a diary and begins to secretly record his doubts about the system, his hatred for BB, and his belief that the future can only be saved by the “brotherhood” (the resistance) and the proles. Shortly after acquiring the diary, he begins to suspect that one of the bosses at the Ministry (O’Brien) is sympathetic to his subversive ideas, and he discovers that a young woman who works in the fiction department, Julia, is interested in him. They begin an affair (a punishable crime), hiding their activities by meeting in prole neighborhoods and trusting a few key people to help them. Of course, Winston and the reader know from the outset that this is all meant to end terribly in the Ministry of Love, where enemies are tortured and killed. The final part of the novel, dealing with the Ministry of Love and the aftermath, is famously creepy to read and depressing as hell.
In 1984, Julia is something of a minor character; she is not a well developed character at any rate. She is younger than Winston by about 12 years; she comes across as an active and faithful party member and a leader in the anti-Sex league, even though she thinks it is all ridiculous. When Winston talks about the past, the truth and political ideas, Julia sort of tunes out and cannot follow all he says, but she believes in him and is invested in their relationship. In Julia, Newman gives Julia a much richer and more interesting life that Winston knows nothing about. Julia’s childhood is tragic and key to turning her into the adult who gets involved with Winston. As the daughter of vaporized enemies, Julia could have been in a very difficult and deadly situation. The terrible action she takes to save herself is skillfully detailed and revealed in this novel. We know that adult Julia is esteemed by the other women in the dorm where she lives, and she is recognized as an excellent worker in the fiction department. She is a party member of good standing. Julia is also sexually active even though that is a crime. It is clear that she is not the only woman in the dorm who is, and it is also clear that pregnancy is something women should avoid at all costs. When Julia gets involved with Winston, it is because she is sexually attracted to him, even though personality-wise, he seems dull. When she sees him, she thinks of him as “Old Misery” due to the perpetual scowl on his face. We know from 1984 that Winston initially loathes Julia and imagines smashing in her head with a rock. Julia doesn’t really love Winston and when the affair starts to get stale for her, she tries to think of how she could break it off, only to find that someone with authority wants her to continue it. I thought this aspect of the novel was brilliant. I don’t want to spoil the story for those who might want to read it, but Julia’s personal history and her relationship to the party make her a much more interesting character than Winston. She is smart and ultimately sees what is going to happen to her, but she is also clever enough to try to develop a plan for it. The final part of Julia, like 1984, deals with the horrors of the Ministry of Love and its aftermath, and Julia’s ultimate fate is chilling in a weirdly satisfying way. I think Newman came up with a superb ending for this novel.
These two novels together would make for a lively discussion in a book group. While discussions of 1984 might revolve around political manipulation and governmental repression, Julia makes readers also consider issues such as moral responsibility, collaboration, retribution and justice. Perhaps this is a bit weighty for the end-of-the-year holiday season, but I recommend 1984 and Julia for those interested in dystopian fiction, history and moral dilemmas.
