OCEANIA (NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR)

'Oceania' is one of the three superstates in George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', and is the location of the novel's version of London, where Winston Smith, the main character, lives.
It is apparently composed of the two American continents, Great Britain and Ireland (collectively called ''Airstrip One'' in the novel), Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the southern half of Africa below the River Congo. It also controls - to different degrees, at various times during the course of its eternal war with Eurasia and Eastasia - the polar regions, India and the islands of the Pacific. It was described in Goldstein's book as resulting from the merging of the British Empire and the United States. Goldstein's book also states that Oceania's primary natural defence is the sea surrounding it. This may be the reason why the Party highlight the Floating Fortresses.
It occasionally conquers the rest of Africa, but is later driven back by Eurasia. Oceania doesn't have a single capital, although what could be seen as regional capitals such as London and apparently New York City are in place.
The ruling doctrine of Oceania is Ingsoc, loosely derived from English Socialism, which is ultimately devoted to the naked exercise of power. Its nominal leader is Big Brother, possibly a leader of the revolution who has now died or the way in which the Party chooses to express itself. The cult of leadership is maintained through Big Brother's function as a focal point for love, fear, and reverence, emotions which are more easily felt towards an individual than towards an organization.
The chief language of Oceania is English (officially Oldspeak) and a minimalist derivation of it, known as Newspeak. The restructuring of the language is intended to ultimately eliminate the possibility of non-Oceanic political thought.
The society of Oceania is sharply stratified into three groups, the small power-seeking Inner Party, the more numerous and highly indoctrinated Outer Party, and the large body of politically meaningless and mindless Proles. Except for certain rare exceptions like Hate Week, the proles remain essentially outside Oceania's political society.
It should be noted that almost all of the information about Oceania beyond London is given to the reader through government of Party sources, which by the very premise of the novel are unreliable. "Oceania," may control only Britain and Ireland, or it may be the sole unchallenged world government. The war, similarly, may be entirely, or in part, fiction. The whole Earth may well be controlled by one state, but which pretends to exist as three states, perpetually warring in order to maintain the atmosphere needed for totalitarian rule.
Oceania's national anthem is ''Oceania, Tis For Thee'', which in the film version of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', takes the form of a crescendo of organ music along with operatic lyrics. The lyrics are sung in English, and the song shares many similarities with Soviet anthems. The song also is reminiscent of ''God Save the Queen'' and its American cousin ''My Country Tis of Thee''.

Contents

External links

External links

★ Flags of Oceania and Eurasiaat Flags of the World