32. Nineteen Eighty-Four

Book 32: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (A)

I read this book for my British Literature class, and it was the first book I have been assigned to read and actually enjoyed!!! What intelligence! What an ending! What an idea and system that completely boggles the mind!!

Nineteen Eighty-Four begins in presumably 1984, but not like the one we know (you actually never really know for certain what year it is). Oceania is one of three superstates that controls a portion of the world and is where main character Winston lives and works and exists. Life in this 1984 is both advanced yet not. There was no cars, no televisions, no modern technology of enjoyment. However, there is factory technology. Books are written by machines and history itself is altered so that Big Brother, the one who oversees Oceania, and the Inner Party are ALWAYS correct. Winston tries to figure out why the world is like this. Is capitalism really a thing of horror? Was the world worse than this dreadful place they live now? Why is Oceania constantly at war? Why do proles (the lower class) live without the constant watching cameras of the telescreen?
The story is far more complex than I can ever describe it in a single blog post. My class has spent three days alone discussing the novel and we're only halfway through it. All I can say is that it's unbelievably intelligent.
After reading, "The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced, but they need not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by constant warfare" (195), I paused and looked at my roommates. I then went on a rant about how amazing the book was and how ridiculously intelligent it was and that if it had a crappy ending I was going to scream and fuss and throw the book against the wall.
The ending was not how I had hoped it would end. Still, it was an amazing ending that was heartbreaking. Not in the Marley & Me heartbreaking way, but in a... "I would have done the same if I had been in that situation" guilty heartbreaking way.
Read it!

Works Cited:

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: 

First Plume Printing, 1983. Print.