A bowl of vinegar and olive oil.

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent."

"Never, for any reason on earth, could you wish for an increase of pain. Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes, no heroes..."

George Orwell, 1984

The concept of duality plays a primary role in Orwell's 1984. The citizens of his dystopia are deluded by factual mutability, pressured by society into adopting stances that conflict with their natural instincts, and trained to believe in contrasting ideals. The very fact that the society as a whole has embraced the word doublethink is one of these dualities.

But the idea of duality extends beyond Orwell's fictional society and thematic genius; it plays a key role in his mastery of prose. As illustrated by the above passages, Orwell weaves together icy social commentary with visceral ideas. On the surface, this contrast of styles seems to create confusion: is Orwell writing an essay to explain his world, or is he demonstrating the human experience that undergoes it? The reality is that the combination of the two styles serve an important purpose for the book as a whole: the social description delineates the laws of the world, while the train of instincts represents the consequences of breaking those laws. A reader should not be trapped into thinking of 1984 as the story of Winston Smith and the society around him; it is a story centered on the society, and Smith is a mere snapshot of it. 

The classical objective of the artist (visual, musical, literary, or otherwise) is to express some sort of view in tangible form. Many artists complete this objective by injecting their worldview into a composition, and it is up to the evaluator to ascertain it. Orwell tosses this method out the window by separating his social commentary from his characters' lives in the narrative itself, achieving a vinaigrette-like heterogeneity and enhancing both in the process. The contrast immediately hits readers, consequently making Orwell's ideas very approachable.

Orwell manages to act as both a brilliant thinker and a compelling storyteller because of his use of separation. His use of contrast both as a theme and as a literary device prominently throughout the book makes for an accessible social commentary that simultaneously functions as an entertaining story.