Claim: Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel.

`` Orwellian '' is an adjective describing a situation , idea , or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society . It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by propaganda , surveillance , misinformation , denial of truth , and manipulation of the past , including the `` unperson '' -- a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory , practised by modern repressive governments . Often , this includes the circumstances depicted in his novels , particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four but political double-speak is criticized throughout his work , such as in Politics and the English Language .   Nineteen Eighty-Four uses themes from life in the Soviet Union and wartime life in Great Britain as sources for many of its motifs .