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Book Home  Books Information Emmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein is a key character
in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In the novel Goldstein is rumored to be a former top member of the
ruling (and sole) Party who had broken away early in the movement
and started an organization known as "The Brotherhood",
dedicated to the fall of The Party. However, in the course of the
novel, we learn that we will never know whether either "The Brotherhood"
or Goldstein himself actually ever existed, even though we are led
to believe that neither Goldstein, the "Brotherhood" nor
"BB" exist outside of suggestion.
Each member of "The Brotherhood" is required
to read a book supposedly written by Goldstein, The Theory and Practice
of Oligarchical Collectivism (see: Goldstein's book). Each person
is said to have 3 or 4 contacts at one time which are replaced as
people disappear, so that if a member is captured, he can only give
up 3 or 4 others. Goldstein is always the subject of the "Two
Minutes Hate," a daily, 2-minute period beginning at 11:00 am
at which some image of Goldstein is shown on the telescreen (a one-channel
television with surveillance devices in it). It is thought that the
opposition to Big Brother – namely, Goldstein – was simply
a construction, which ensured that support and devotion towards Big
Brother was continuous. It is never revealed whether this is true.
The character of Goldstein is considered to be modeled
after Leon Trotsky (pen name of Lvov Davidovich Bronstein), who had
similar ideas regarding the regime of Joseph Stalin, whose banishment
from the Soviet Union had a similar timeline, and whose appearance
was similar to the description of the image of Goldstein in the novel.
Far more significantly, however, Goldstein represents the bogeyman
used by all regimes to represent the "them" who are against
"us". The character's name could be a reference to religion,
which is banned in the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four; "Emmanuel"
being a name used for Jesus, and "Goldstein" being a typically
Jewish surname. Alternatively, it could be derived from the name of
Emma Goldman, a libertarian socialist whom Orwell greatly admired.
Emmanuel Goldstein is also the pseudonym of Eric Corley,
editor-in-chief of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and director of Freedom
Downtime.
There is also a character in the movie Hackers by the
name Emmanuel Goldstein (a.k.a. Cereal Killer). Eric Corley served
as a creative advisor for this movie.
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