Release Date: June 8, 1949
Page: 326
Rating:💜💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston befriends Julia, they begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Big Brother will not tolerate dissent - even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101...
It took me four long years to finally get past the first chapter of this book and complete 1984. To be quite honest I was considering DNF-ing this book when I started it but I persevered and finally finished it. And I'm so glad I did.
This book is unsettling and horrifying; the sort of story you pray would never come true. In this world there are no happy endings, no chances for hope and no places you can go to escape. But the scariest part of this story is how relevant it is, even now. This novel was written almost 70 years go yet it is still terrifying to readers today. There is still a chance that this world could become a reality, not in post-war Britain but in modern day Britain. And that is the most terrifying idea ever.
Many people complain about the characters and how bland they are but I think that adds to the story. None of the characters were very exciting or different; they were all just ordinary people who work a 9-5 job and live by the rules. Winston was one of the blandest characters I've ever read about but that blandness was what made him so special. It was the fact that there was no desire in him to change society, that there was nothing special about him which made for a very interesting protagonist.
None of the characters were fully evil or pure either, which was a nice change from some books these days. There was never a moment in the book where you could make a list of good and bad characters because they were all morally grey. Even our 'hero', Winston, is a little evil in the story and it was great to read about.
My only problem with this book, and the reason why it took me so long to pick it up, was the fact that George Orwell creates a new language for his characters to talk in and even uses it write some of the description. It was a little confusing trying to understand the 'Newspeak' as Orwell called it, but it didn't take too much away from the story.
I enjoyed this book, if enjoyed is the right word. It made me think about society nowadays, and how scary it is that I can see similarities between this dystopian world and our world today. I would recommend that everyone reads this book so that you can see just how scarily similar our world is to a dystopian world, and that maybe we should change something about society.
