1984 is a classic dystopian novel published in 1949 by George Orwell that has influenced generations of writers and thinkers. Within 1984 there are various recurring themes involving "homelessness", an "encounter with nothingness" and the "nostalgia for the absolute". Throughout this essay I will be dwelling into the various ways that Orwell depicts these concepts within his book 1984. 1984 is one of Orwell's best made novels, and it remains one of the most powerful warnings ever issued against the dangers of a totalitarian society. In Spain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, Orwell had witnessed the danger of absolute political authority in an age of advanced technology. He illustrated that peril harshly in 1984 in the hopes of bringing to light the dangerous aspects of a totalitarian society to prevent a possible rise in totalitarianism within western society. The world of 1984 also reflects various aspects of the social and political life of both the United Kingdom and the United States of America at the time of creation. Orwell is reported to have said that the book described what he viewed as the situation, both politically and socially, within the United Kingdom in 1948, when the British economy was poor, the British Empire was falling apart at the same time as newspapers were reporting its triumphs, and wartime allies such as the USSR were rapidly becoming peacetime foes which he uses as inspiration for the war between Oceania and Eurasia "Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia"(1.3.16).
"Homelessness" is a term coined by the Jewish philosopher and theologian Martin Buber to refer to what Buber believed was an "epoch of homelessness" where a civilization goes through a period where there are a sense of chaos and a lack of universal truth. Essentially, "homelessness" refers to a society not having a universal set of rules to follow, or a home to return to where everyone in that society participated.