Did George Orwell satirize 1940s Britain in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'?

Answer 1

Obviously, the main target of this grim satire is totalitarianism. However, Nineteen Eighty-Four also contains some jokes (if that's the right word)about Britain in the 1940s. To people familiar with period, it's pretty clear that there are veiled attacks on Brendan Bracken, who was Minister of Information from 1942-1945. Brendan Bracken was a highly unconvential Irish Roman Catholic Conservative MP and a close associate of Churchill. (He had been Churchill's Private Parliamentary Secretary from 1939-1942). Bracken left his native Ireland in 1919 to seek his fortune in England and was immensely successful. By the mid-1930s he was highly regarded in financial circles, and from 1935 onwards was a leading opponent of Nazi Germany. When Bracken became Minister of Information in 1942 he set about his role with all the energy and determination of a self-made man. Orwell had been taken to task for his attacks on the Communist Party of India in his broadcasts and asked to tone them down. Orwell complained and utltimately got to see Bracken face-to-face. The latter insisted that Orwell should do nothing likely to cause trouble in India, then under British rule, and that he should refrain from sowing discord with the Soviet Union. There was a blazing row and Orwell emerged badly bruised from this encounter. Later in the war an order was issued banning Orwell's Animal Farm from publication till the end of the war in Europe. In the Ministry of Information Brendan Bracken was often referred to as BB and apparently sometimes Big Brother. (BB could of course also stand for Bully Boy). In Britain, many well informed commentators also think it's no coincidence that the 'Grand Inquisitor' in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' has an Irish name - O'Brien. To cap it all the number of BB's room in the Ministry of Information was Room 101, which in the novel is the ultimate torture-chamber!