1984

A Review by Matt

"Big Brother is watching you." When George Orwell wrote this phrase in the '40s, he surely had no idea that it would become an allusion almost synonymous to oppressive governments and invasion of privacy. Little did he know that the world he created in 1984 would become the epitome of a political dystopia and lead to the birth of a new phrase, "Orwellian society," to describe oppressive and omnipotent governments. 1984 is practically required reading in our society due to the constant references made to Orwell's masterpiece.

1984 tells the story of Winston Smith, a man brought up in a socialist England called "Oceania." Smith has been raised as a member of the Party, a minority group that runs the government of this new world power. All members of the Party are firmly grounded in propaganda designed to limit the range of thought in order to breed unquestioning obedience to the Party and its causes. In order to ensure constant and unwavering control over its members, the Party makes use of two way telescreen, which broadcast Party propaganda while constantly recording their viewers. The Party has created a world in which rebellion is practically impossible.

This is where Winston Smith comes in. Smith begins to realize that the Party changes the past to glorify themselves and make their leader, Big Brother, seem omniscient. Since his job involves changing past newspapers to reflect the current state of the world, you would think that this would be obvious. However, holding a belief that the Party is wrong is supposed to be made impossible even to members of the Party itself with the use of doublethink, or the ability to hold two contradicting beliefs at the same time and to accept them both. Since Smith could only have arrived at his realization by not following the principles of doublethink, he has committed the most feared and most punished crime in Oceania, thoughtcrime.

When he realizes that he's already committed thoughtcrime, Winston knows that he might as well already be a dead man because nobody gets away with thoughtcrime. With this mindset, Winston is able to disobey the doctrines of the Party whenever possible. He begins a journal, which I might mention is illegal for a Party member to even have in his or her possession, in which he writes about the problems of the Party and his thoughts about its future. His journal entries make readers realize how strong-minded Smith is, especially for a man who was brought up to be the complete opposite. He soon falls in love with another Party member who also believes the Party is wrong. Together, they defy the Party simply through love, an emotion which is forbidden among all others by Party ideology. They eventually join an illegal Brotherhood whose purpose for existence is simply to fight and defy the Party. The story takes off from there.

Please note that this is just the beginning of the story and that this quick summary in no way does the book justice. The best parts of the book come at the most random times when Orwell begins to describe complex ideas such as making lies become truth and whether reality can in fact be unreal. A favorite quote of mine is "Sometimes [two and two] are five. Sometimes they are three. ... It is not easy to become sane." Such ideas make readers exercise their minds and question their own beliefs. This, to me, is truly a sign of a good book. 1984 is guaranteed to make you think the entire way through. It is by no means a light read, but in my opinion, this book is definitely worth a read or two by anybody who is interested to being exposed to new ideas about government control, totalitarianism, and even general concepts like truth, reality, and sanity. 1984 is easily the best book I've read in the last year or so, and I would highly recommend it to anybody wanting something more than just a casual read.

Age Group: Teens and up.
Author: George Orwell
Number of Pages: 297
Publication Date: 1949
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