Is George Orwell Receiving the Orwellian Treatment?

In January, the Daily Mail reported the University of Northampton had placed a trigger warning on Orwell’s political dystopian novel ‘1984.’ As another hallmark in literature and iconic author joins the likes of J.K. Rowling, Suzanne Collins and Phillip Pullman, the conversation of censorship resurfaces.

Trigger warnings have become not a regularity in contemporary readings, but something often enough that eyebrows are not as much raised. However, the rich irony behind George Orwell’s 1984 being branded with a warning, coincides with the exact message of the book Orwell warns his readership about. Is this a case of the thought police attempting to restrict viewpoints before one even reads the book?

The answer is a simple no. 

Staff at the University of Northampton have warned their students of the “explicit material” in the novel and all cited content students may find “offensive and upsetting.” There is no luring of political or social affiliations nor is there policing of thoughts.

It also must be acknowledged the novel contains enormous themes of violence, war, graphic torture and suppression, something that many would agree on constitutes a content warning. Warnings of this nature are common amongst many Universities, with Newcastle giving content warnings on their more intense novels such as Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” and many of Ovid’s stories from “Metamorphoses.” In these alone cannibalism, kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder are all strong themes, therefore is it only fair a student gets a warning of what content they’re in for?

While the Daily Mail have rushed to the concluding headline “wokery beyond parody” the real issue with the Orwell novel isn’t about censorship, and clearly by their article a much smaller section of a culture war. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen further fanned the flames: “there's a certain irony that students are now being issued trigger warnings before reading 1984. Our university campuses are fast becoming dystopian Big Brother zones.” It’s fascinating to wonder how a warning in a book that includes the protagonist being tortured and threatened with a cage of frenzied rats, has become viewed as such a regressive step for some.

The MP of North West Leicestershire enjoys the narrative of the “liberal elite” forcing people to “conform to a homogenised society” however the reality of the situation just is not true. Content warnings are for the student who may have had a family member die recently and is not ready to critically analyse a piece of that nature; the student who was sexually assaulted and does not want to relive that through a novel or even just the student who is made vastly uncomfortable by books that go beyond violence and include explicit torture. 

My perspective is rather clear, and fortunately, a dramatized Daily Mail article and the words of a Tory MP attempting to strike ‘wokeism’ fear will not halter the course of trigger warnings. While trigger warnings should be observed case by case in the chance something inappropriate is said, a sweeping generalization statement of them being Orwellian is unfair to the students who rely on them. Students preferring to be informed of the graphic themes of a novel is not a part of the ‘woke’ culture war.