About The Book:
In 1984 Orwell creates a Dystopia; a fictional technologically advanced world, where life is so unbearable and extremely bad because of oppression, fear and terror. Oceania, a formal political union of USA and the countries of the British Commonwealth, is where the story happens, where people have no control whatsoever over their lives, thoughts and beliefs. They live under a cruel dictatorship ruled by “The Party”, where even their thoughts are detected by the thought police and they get punished for their political unorthodoxy.
“INGSOC” is the English Socialist Party, which is the political ideology of the totalitarian government of Oceania.
His aim was to draw an image of a world he didn’t want people to go after, being aware of the consequences of what the world could turn into after WWII. He actually in a way or another was right when he imagined a miserable world like that and assumed it would be around the 80s.
Summary:
Winston Smith is a citizen in Oceania, he works in the Records Department in The Ministry Of Truth, where all the information, documents, news, entertainment, education, and fine arts are being issued and controlled. His job was to rewrite, change and destroy history.
He is unhappy with the whole system of “The Party”, and unable to express his disappointment and anger to others, because there is no body to trust and no real friends to lean on, therefore he starts writing what he thinks in his diary, while knowing the penalty of doing this can be death. People in Oceania are being observed by Telescreens that are installed everywhere possible, so that people don’t get any privacy.
Oceania is always at war either with Eastasia or Eurasia, the party controls facts and changes history, which is called “Reality Control”,none of the citizens remembers the past.
During the “Two Minutes Of Hate” Winston notices an inner party member, named O’Brien, and assumes he is an alley, while at the same time he notices a girl with dark hair, Julia, and assumes she is a foe from the “Thought Police” and assumes that she is there to observe him. This time the “Two Minutes Of Hate” is focusing on the treachery of Goldstein, a previous “Brotherhood” member who was as important as “Big Brother” himself, but tried to revolt against “The Brotherhood”.
A few days later Julia hands him a paper confessing her love to him, they manage to later meet alone, and later they both fall in love with one another, and believe that their loyalty to one another can never be changed or destroyed. Julia also is unorthodox, and doesn’t believe in the system. Winston manages to find a room to rent for both of them to spend romantic time alone as often as they can. The room belonged to Mr. Charrington, who didn’t mind to let it for some money.
Winston and Julia meet O’Brien and confess to him their hatred towards the party, believing O’Brien is a member of “The Brotherhood”, an underground organization that’s aimed to bring the party down. O’Brien welcomes them to “The Brotherhood” and promises to deliver “The Book” to them to read, the underground’s treasonous book written by Goldstein.
Winston starts reading “The Book” in their rented room, while Julia is napping next to him, and they suddenly hear some noise coming from the wall, and find out that behind the painting on the wall there is a Telescreen. They get caught and separated. Winston notices that Mr. Charrington suddenly looked younger and realizes that he belongs to the “Thought Police”.
Winston finds himself locked for days in “The Ministry Of Love”, which is responsible for law and order, in a room without windows and no one to trust and talked to. Finally O’Brien comes in and Winston thinks he also got caught, but he realizes that O’Brien is there to torture him, make him confess and break his spirit. O’Brien has been watching Winston for the last 7 years and the Party is made aware of all his crimes.
O’Brien continues to torture Winston for months, trying to change his ways of thinking, and forcing “Doublethink” into his brain, which is the ability of holding two opposing ideas in one’s mind and believing in them both, it was impossible to achieve until O’Brien takes Winston to “Room 101”, the room where people are made to face their worst fears, and Winston’s is rats, O’Brien threatens Winston to open the cage of rats and let them attack his face. Winston loses control over himself and screams “do it to Julia” which shows a complete loss of dignity and principles.
At the end Winston is changed, he is not the man he used to be, he spends time at the “Chestnut Tree Cafe”, watching news on daily basis there through the Telescreen. He meets Julia by accident, they talk briefly, she has also changed, she is not as charming as before, she confesses to him that she betrayed him during the torture. Winston has changed so much that he finally comes to love “Big Brother”.
Review:
The idea of the books is awesome, it’s a great fantasy and a very well put dystopia. It’s very alive and real that the reader can feel the characters, they seem real and natural. The way things end is kind of predictable, but the amount of sorrow and the feel of sorry is unpredictable.
I didn’t like the fact that Orwell put a lot of unnecessary details into the book, it made the book a little too long and just a little boring sometimes; there are lots of details that could be unmentioned and the story would still feel and look great.
I wouldn’t say that it’s an easy read, sometimes the reader would need to read things twice to understand and connect things together. I would recommend people who read this for the first time to read different summaries and reviews to see the idea and the point of the book clearly!
Enjoy reading 1984,
Katia