From everything I heard about the novel “1984”, nothing prepared me for actually reading it. The only phrase I knew from the book was, "Big Brother is watching you". So I figured, ok this is just a book about a society where your always being watched. However, it turned out to be much more than that.
George Orwell did an outstanding job making you feel how the main character, Winston did, and I found myself picturing living in a society like that of Oceania. I thought about the run-down apartment Winston lived in and how dark and cold it must have felt to him. I was very disgusted when I read about Winston's job of rewriting history so it said what the Party wanted it to say. It must be horrible to live in a society where you second guess every thought you have and are never sure of which memories are real and which ones are fake. To me this almost seems impossible as I don’t think I could ever betray the memories I have, especially when I know they were real.
One part of the book I found to particularly gruesome was when they had captured Winston. Obrien turned out to be a spy and turned him in. The torture methods he used on Winston sounded horrifying and I don't think anyone could hold out when you are threatened by someone who will let rats eat your face off if you do.
From this I got a sense of how horrible the government of the Party really was. Thinking about how such a party could become in power boggled my mind. I think one thing this book shows is that we as people need to remain educated and informed of the consequences of allowing a government to possess too much power. I think there are some instances in our current life that connect to the "watching" in "1984". Because of the amount of technology today, it is hard to do something without there being some record of it. However, I don't think we as human beings will allow a party like the one in "1984" to ever take control.
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14 years ago
I have to agree with you the author did a great job of making me picture exactly Winston must have felt in his apartment. The whole idea of changing history to make it what the party wanted was just crazy to me. I don't know how you could do that and expect people to remember the way you wanted them to and not the way it actually happened.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the author did a really great job describing Winston's emotions throughout the book and made you feel like you were living in this society. I was also disgusted with Winston's job of rewriting history, because it would make you rethink everything you went through in your life and have you wondering if events happened this way or that way. That sounds very scary and confusing.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you Christiano. I think that i would be able to withstand rats eating my face. Aside from that i completely agree with you in the respect that this was a really well thought out book. You have a positive take on this story as i did. I also agree with you on how Kalle Lasn made Winston a believable and interact able character. I also agree with this statements
ReplyDelete"I don't think we as human beings will allow a party like the one in "1984" to ever take control."
Overall a great book that sparked my interest