1984 by George Orwell

 

1984 by George Orwell

Tiny Overview

Countries do not exist, only three superstates that fight over a small landmass near the equator. They are forever at war, and always have been. The citizens undergo mass surveillance, manipulation, propaganda and any sort of individualism is punished. Formally London, Winston Smith lives in Airstrip one where he works in the Ministry of Truth, where he changes the past to reflect the 'truth', and Winston starts questioning things. Not the best idea, when Big Brother is Always Watching You.

Themes:

• Psychological fiction
• Sci-Fi
• Class
• Classic
• Dystopia
• Identity
• Politics

Context

The history that inspired 1984 is tied to a variety of wars. He combined Stalinism with WW2, The Cold War, and Soviet Communism.

It was heavily influenced by Stalin's rule, as he rewrote history, buckled down on free speech, also thought. The saying '2+2=5' was also taken from Stalinism, where he was telling workers to complete a five year plan in four.

All of this information is from the website History Extra, where it goes into detail and more about the novel. I am way too underqualified to be able to explain and understand all of the historical significance of the novel.

My Waffling

This is the first classic book I have read by my own admission. I really heavily enjoyed the book. I was so submerged in the book that I wasn't thinking about it, all the twists got me. The torture horrified me, but the ending was even worse. I went into this book thinking that it was going to be a message about how if we band together, we can overcome fascism and become a better, loving world. In reality, it shows me that if you try and go against the machine, it will just try and crush you too. I think one of the most terrifying things for me was Oceania's official language, Newspeak. It combined words, creating new words from old ones. It's so prevalent and important in this book, that even the characters in the book recognise it. The main purpose of this is to reduce the citizens vocabulary, so that they do not have enough words and enough thought to be able to rebel against The Party. Out of everything in the book I think this is one of the things that got to me the most. The whole reason why I started reading again was that I could think more, and expand my vocabulary. 

This was the first book that really made me think about things and how literature can effect every day life. I would not recommend this book to people who do not already read. The writing style of the 1940's can be a bit jarring, and very difficult. I think this is one of the reasons why people do not like this book during school. I can see why this book is so pushed out during people's school years and part of the curriculum. But when I tried to talk to my friends who studied this book, they hated it. They viewed it as work because they had to do so much about it. I can understand why, but this saddened me. SO MANY important quotes were in here - and I'm glad that I could just appreciate the book instead of memorising it. 

Quotes that I liked:

"Until they become conscience, they will never reel, and until they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes. It was their final, most essential command."

"But if the object was not to stay alive, but to stay human, what difference did it ultimately make?"

"Perhaps one did not want to be loved as much as understood."

"Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own except you happen to be insane."

"In all the useful arts the world is either standing still or going backwards. The fields are cultivated with horse-ploughs while books are written by machinery."

4.5/5