Tuesday, July 29, 2008

1984 by George Orwell

In 1949, George Orwell had a vision of what he thought the world was coming to. That is the basis for his most famous book, 1984. The novel is set in London, but it's not London anymore, it's Airstrip One in the country of Oceania. Society is very different than it was in 1949 and how it is now. The government is a strict totalitarian regime. Big Brother, the head of government, is said to always be watching. Any dissent is forbidden and is controlled through the use of telescreens and the Thought Police. The book chronicles the life of Winston Smith, who is caught in the middle of the repression and needs to escape.

This books is pretty freaky because George Orwell thought the world would actually end up this way. The government is very controlling and oppressive and it even changes newspapers and books to make the regime all-knowing and correct all the time. It was interesting to see how the new society was fashioned, because I like reading about utopias, or rather dystopias. Hopefully, people will read this book and be enlightened to prevent anything like this from ever happening.


6 out of 10

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does sound interesting! I wonder if I would like a book like that...

Anonymous said...

Having just finished this book, I found it intriguing while at the same time very disturbing. I would recommend it as a thought-provoking novel to anyone looking for something more profound than the usual pop paperbacks.

Anonymous said...

You write very well.