1984
A Novel
Kit - 1983
* Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read *
" The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. "
Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can't escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...
A startling and haunting novel, 1984 creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions--a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
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Quotes
Add a QuoteAnd even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for diminution of human liberty. In all the useful arts the world’s either standing still or going backwards.
He felt as though he were wandering the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human now living was on his side? (page 23)
"He remembered how once he had been walking down a crowded street when a tremendous shout of hundreds of voices women's voices--had burst from a side-street a little way ahead. It was a great formidable cry of anger and despair, a deep, loud 'Oh-o-o-o-oh!' that went humming on like the reverberation of a bell. His heart had leapt. It's started! he had thought. A riot! The proles are breaking loose at last! When he had reached the spot it was to see a mob of two or three hundred women crowding round the stalls of a street market, with faces as tragic as though they had been the doomed passengers on a sinking ship. But at this moment the general despair broke down into a multitude of individual quarrels. It appeared that one of the stalls had been selling tin saucepans."
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
Age
Add Age SuitabilityWireless_chandelier thinks this title is suitable for 13 years and over
itsapurplegiraffe thinks this title is suitable for 14 years and over
Summary
Add a SummaryOrwell’s 1984 features a country where citizen’s are constantly surveilled by the government in the country of Oceania. People opposing the government and the party constantly disappear and their existence is erased to make sure citizens know what their fate will be if they try to speak out or create change. The novel criticizes authoritarian governments that were forming when the book was written, such as Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi germany. Orwell uses the surveillance and suppression of the authoritarian government to stress how important free speech and thought is for maintaining a free society where popular sovereignty, a government run by the people is, is maintained.
In future written in a time long past, but ahead of its time, George Orwell speculates on a time where the government owns media, information, and you. This novel is a chilling exploration of themes and politics we face today. Imagine the government changing history to benefit their narrative. We don't need to, it's happening. Imagine if the government observed your web browsing, texts, phone conversations, etc. They technically do right now. Imagine if the government controlled media and hyped themselves over other nations, while excluding "the grass is greener on the other side" stories. Any time a politician denounces the media for reporting the truth, while trying to pass their narrative as the only truth speaks to this idea. Propaganda is rampant in our media.
Sure we don't have posters advertising that "Big Brother" is watching us, but this novel is on point regarding the complacency a society can have to the stripping of their freedoms as long as they our brain washed.
Orwell had a daunting task: creating a future nearly half a century away from the time period in which he was writing. This future had to be its own complex, independent society, but it also had to be the natural end result of the totalitarianism Orwell witnessed in the communist and socialist regimes of World War II. That's part of the horror of 1984: this future is a recognizable one, even in the 21st century. It's easy to see how those in control can, through manipulation and propaganda, maintain that control simply for the sake of sating their own power hunger. It's easy to say "no one could ever tell me what to think or what to do," but the Party's use of Big Brother, the Thought Police, the Two-Minute Hate, and Doublethink make it easy to see how a person's ability to think independently and discern fiction from reality can be eroded when there is no touchstone to fact. Revising and rewriting the past to make certain that Big Brother and the Party are always correct has effectively eliminated historical accuracy. How can one think and reason in a society where everything is a fabrication?
Winston, a member of the straight forward, controlled society we now live in 1984, begins to question Big Brother, along with a collegue of his. The two of them get information and try to take down Big Brother themselves, however with the help of a betrayel Big Brother catches on to their plans. Using the dark methods of Double think and the haunting room 101, both Winston and his collegue are 'barinwashed' as the rest of society is, and taken over by Big Brother
Nineteen Eighty-four is about a Utopian society set in that year. In this society the government controls everything, including the past, the present, the future, privacy and language. Citizens are controlled by fear and brainwashing, and are always under direct supervision by telescreens, allowing little to no privacy. The novel revolves around a member of the society by the name of Winston. Winston is a relatively average member who, throughout the course of the novel, begins to secretly rebel against his government.
Notices
Add NoticesSexual Content: Contains sex throughout. However, it is not particularly graphic. But it is throughout. There are some sex scenes, references, prostitutes (Man has a dream about going to a 60 year old prostitute: Disturbing) Sex talk throughout.
Comment
Add a CommentThe novel 1984 by William Orwell portrays how the protagonist, Winston Smith, goes against and tries to rebel against the Party and its authoritarian rule. The Party is led by big Brother and uses propaganda and doublethink to control the minds of the people. The party instills fear and uses forms of torture to get rebels, and party members with “extremist beliefs” to make them understand and follow Big Brother’s agenda. Winston is closely monitored by Big Brother, and forced to hide his actions from everyone else in society, and ultimately joins a secret organization that wants to overthrow the party, called the Brotherhood. However, when he is caught and convicted of thoughtcrime, Winston will have to face his worst fears. I would recommend this book to anyone, as it has a lot of ideas and themes that can be analyzed and be applied to various situations. It portrays the significance of free thought and speech in our society, and ultimately shows a dark future where both of those are limited.
Age: 15+
1984 is a renowned novel written by the celebrated author George Orwell, and is about an extremist world and how Winston, an ordinary member of society, navigates his way through truths and lies, and realities and misconceptions. Winston lives in a society controlled by a group called the Party, led by Big Brother, who watches over citizens and manipulates everything they do down to their thoughts, suppressing all forms of emotion by implementing a simple language devoid of connotation. The novel traces Winston’s journey of radical thinking, and is an enjoyable read for those mature enough for it. Anyone in high school or above can read and appreciate this novel and how it portrays extreme dictatorships, and some can even relate this to the real-world events going on with censorship in North Korea, or the Uighur Muslim camps in China.
I think Orwell does an excellent job in depicting the horrors that citizens of modern day authoritarian regimes go through. For example, in China and North Korea, free speech, the internet, and anything that denounces the government is completely censored, so there is no one to hold dictators accountable. Orwell’s critique of this sort of regime is expressed in a way that is humorous but horrifying at the same time, which makes this book a truly unique read for anyone who wants to semi-experience a life with no freedom of expression.
I always wondered why people who had a totalitarian government didn't rebel and this book showed me why. 1984 will make you see things from a different perspective, worth the read!
Don't let the title of the book fool you. There are a lot of relevant topics relating to today's world presented in this work of fiction.
1984 by George Orwell introduces a dystopian society - one in which the government, or the tyrant “Big Brother” has complete authority. There are monitors in every room that record one’s actions and speakers to record what they are saying so the government can identify any rebel or revolutionary in society. The main character, Winston Smith, transforms from a person that is in accord with the government to one of these rebels, and we experience his journey throughout his transformation. Orwell wants to convey the dangers of an all-powerful government in this novel, and successfully does so by describing how Big Brother, the ruler of society, maintains his power by keeping others in ignorance. I believe that this work is very relevant to today’s world, where we have the autonomy and authority to vote for our leaders. 1984 is a warning to embrace our free will and never let anyone take our autonomy from us. I recommend this novel as not only a fiction book, but a possible reality that we must prevent.
When you read books from authors that are making predictions about the future, government corruption and complete control it makes one stop and think... what would they say about our current society, since they were very aware of the corruption they foresaw?
I no longer want a hold on this book, 1984.
1984 by George Orwell is a futuristic novel about the main character
Winston, who lives under a totalitarian regime. The citizens are always being
watched and monitored through telescreens in their homes, and Winston does not
like this and thus tries to secretly rebel by writing in a diary. The totalitarian regime
in 1984 is actually based on the communist regime under Stalin in the Soviet Union.
This novel is very captivating and interesting to read, because of Orwell’s unique use
of language. I really liked the plot and the different twists in this book, and would
definitely recommend it for others to read.
"1984" is a book about a man named Winston and his struggles with falling in love under a government that allows its members no privacy. The government of Oceania, where Winston lives, is controlled by the Ingsoc party and they brainwash their people into supporting them. Big Brother, or the government, uses tools such as Newspeak and Doublethink, but Winston secretly doesn't believe in the party. He believes that everyone except him is brainwashed by the government until he meets a woman named Julia who said she had fallen in love with him. They both want to meet up but must do so secretly as if the government would imprison and torture them if they found out. "1984" is a personal favorite because I love how it confines us to the mind of Winston. We don't know what anyone else is thinking and whether or not they truly support the government or have the same inner thoughts as Winston. It really shows us what Winston experiences by letting us experience the same thing.