On Emmanuel Goldstein

Alan Cai

May 31, 2024

George Orwell’s 1949 book Nineteen Eighty-Four (colloquially known as 1984) is often known and lauded for its deep analysis of the reach of totalitarianism and its effect on societies, as well as allusions to Marxism-Leninism and Fascism.However, an oft-overlooked yet arguably more important aspect of the book is the character and writings of opposition leader Emmanuel Goldstein.

1984 details the story of everyman and Ingsoc (English socialism) party member Winston Smith who challenges the status quo and questions to himself the legitimacy of a government whose sole purpose appears to be controlling the populace through propaganda, criminalizing certain thoughts, unforgiving punishment, demonizing enemies, and other methods.

In the story, Emmanuel Goldstein is a supposed former revolutionary who defected against the authoritarian regime of Oceania (the dictatorial state in which the story is set) and actively plots violence to cause instability in the realm. He is subject to the daily “Two Minutes Hate” activity where all party members both inner and outer (Winston’s group) are subjected to a propaganda film screening directing hate against Emmanuel Goldstein and his supposed followers and encouraging love and support for the leader of the state, Big Brother. Throughout the novel, there are strong hints of the possibility of Emmanuel Goldstein not actually existing but merely serving as a metaphorical punching bag or scapegoat by which the party could continue to justify its repressive practices and totalitarian behavior. There are also instances in which the existence of Big Brother himself is called into question: specifically a plausible circumstance of the individual being a mere puppet or figurehead for the populace to worship and obey, but whose real power is exercised by other individuals who wish to keep their identities more obscured.

Goldstein allegedly wrote the book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, an anti-revolutionary book where the dynamics of power and control are put under a microscope. O’Brien, an inner party member who initially appears benevolent to Winston’s cause but later reveals himself to be an enforcer of party ideology all along, hints to Winston that the book may have actually been a fabrication made by O’Brien himself along with other inner party members, although this claim is never corroborated or refuted as the question of Goldstein’s existence is yet to be solved.

Nevertheless, the excerpts of the book printed in 1984 are one of the most well-written literary works concerning the complex mechanisms of power ever written. They detail the reasons why a state would fail, the notion that power is an end craved for the sole and explicit purpose of retaining and growing itself and is not truly harnessed as a means to gain any greater goal. A quick retrospection of history demonstrates that such claims are invariably true: whether we look at the greed and corruption of pre-Sui China or the failure to live up to campaign promises of modern American political candidates, we can see that real policy which could help citizens of a state are only made out of a concern to keep the leader in power. Although some rare exceptions can apply, this fact is still an indisputable principle governing power dynamics past, present, and ostensibly future.