Dystopian novels are written to reflect a population's fears of their government and they succeed because they capture that fear and show what which can happen if ignored. George Orwell wrote 1984 with this fear of government in mind and used it to quietly describe his opinion of the current government. Besides fear, dystopian novels have many other elements that make them characteristic of their genre. The dystopian society of Orwell's novel became successful because he used a large devastated city, a broken family system, a life in fear, a theme of oppression and a lonely hero. Orwell's novel begins with a horrific description of the living conditions of its main character. character, Winston. He explains that “the hallway smelled of boiled cabbage and old mats” (Orwell 19), which immediately strikes the senses and repels the reader. Upon closer examination, this part of the story is intended to generate feelings of disgust in the reader in order to make them think about why Winston is in this situation rather than improving his conditions. As the reader continues through the novel, they discover that Winston has no options to improve the environment he lives in and that the strict government he is controlled by is to blame. The deterioration of Winston's house is just one example of the degeneration of his surroundings. His hometown, London, is in ruins with "crazy garden walls collapsing in every direction" (Orwell 23) and "rotten 19th-century houses" (Orwell 23). An article analyzing 1984 by Sean Lynch best describes Winston's view of London as "dark and isolating". This devastated city creates a bewildering feeling among its people because no one finds the beauty of the place where they live or even a trace of...... middle of paper ......peak-us/>. de la Garza, Alexandre. “From utopia to dystopia: technology, society and what we can do about it.” OpenSecurity, December 20, 2013. Web. May 1, 2014. “Dystopian Elements and Characteristics – Basic Elements of Dystopia.” Dystopian elements and basic features. Utopia and dystopia, nd Web. May 1, 2014. Lynch, Sean. “1984: An alternative analysis of the classic dystopian novel.” Understand weakness. WordPress.com, September 9, 2012. Web. May 1, 2014. .Orwell, George. Nineteen eighty-four. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. Print.