1984

Rating:
Summary: FRIGHTENING, HORRIFYING, and so IMPORTANT!!!
Review: This is truly a great and important Novel! The story that dared the world to behold its possible future during a time when the future was terrifyingly uncertain, still today holds its grip on the reader!
Orwell could have been a tennis player, because he serves you up so perfectly with the heroic struggle of a man and woman against the omnipotent, ever-watchful State, and then smashes you into oblivion with the absolute destruction of any hope for a good ending or bright future.
This book warns you as obnoxiously as the whistle of an approaching train of the dangers of absolute government that has technology at its disposal and ignorance its only adversary! Many people believe that 1984 never happened because '1984' happened....I would be inclined to agree. Read the powerful book! It will Stun you, I promise!

Rating:
Summary: Hmmm...eerily accurate
Review: I am a 15 y/o male who had to read this book for my high schools summer reading program. Orwells crafty tale of a new all powerfull society and rebels trying to bring it down is an intense depiction of what life could be like. Join Winston Smith throughout his journey of rebellion and a forbidden love affair (for you chick-flick lovers) as he fights "Big Brother" and the "Party.". I think this is one of the best books I have ever read. Very entertaining and well, good. The fact that I am an Anarchist and have the same dreams as Winston of overthrowing the government only increases my admiration for Orwell, who was not afraid to craft a character most people would look down upon. Great book.

Rating:
Summary: More than just entertaining...
Review: There are many works where the story is the content. These books are usually for entertainment. This book uses the story to deliver its content. It uses the story to illustrate some awsome philosophical ideas. By presenting the ideas in a story they are easier to understand and they are more entertaining.

I could not put the book down as I got towards the end. This is the only book I have ever read that has given me the shakes.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing book about what could have been.
Review: Possibly Orwell's greatest work, this was published in 1949 and served (and still serves) as a great warning for what might happen if we aren't careful enough.

The year is 1984 and the setting is in London, which is part of Airstrip One, which is part of one of the three world superpowers, Oceania. Oceania was formed on the principles of Ingsoc (English Socialism) and is governed by a group of wealthy people and the imaginary "Big Brother" who is a figure designed by the Party for the people to look up to as their protector. Oceania, and London is particular, is not an ideal place to live at all. Only the Inner Party, which make up a small percent of the population, have enough food to eat and live in considerable luxury. The Outer Party, which are a group of people that hold many of the jobs that keep the Party going, are forced to live under the microscope of the Party and live in relative poverty. While they have it better off than the low class (Proles) they do not have the freedom that the Proles have, and they spend all their time either working or attending Party functions. It is not considered good for a Party member to be doing anything alone besides sleeping and things of that sort.

Part 1 gives us the basics of the book. It describes Outer Party member Winston Smith, who is the main character of the book. In Part One, Smith finds himself and realizes how much he hates the Party.

In Part 2, Winston meets another Outer Party member named Julia. Julia shares Winston's hatred of the Party and the two both consider themselves to be criminals and they know that they will eventually be destroyed by the Party. However, they agree to dodge the Party as long as possible. At the end of Part 2, Winston is captured by the Party.

Part 3 is about the Party's efforts to change Winston by means of torture and make him a loyal servant. I won't go into deep detail because I don't want to ruin the book :)

1984 is a great novel. Maybe harder to understand and more complex than Animal Farm, but you probably get a little more out of it. If you want a complex tale about what we could be headed for, read 1984. If you want something simpler, more lighthearted, and less time consuming read Animal Farm. Both books are great in their own right.

Rating:
Summary: Important message, but weak storytelling
Review: This book is obviously not written by a natural storyteller. The scenes feel all too detailed and the paragraphs all too long. Although the character development is great, it also feels mechanical, like the author wants you to know every little nitty detail. And during the sometimes repetative paragraphs on the government (especially during the end) the patience is drawn very thin, making for some very boring chapters. The main message is important, but it is too drawn out and repetative.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful classic...
Review: Orwell takes you into a world that is not unlike that of Communistic countries in our own time. He was a prophet of the dictatorial harshness in countries where freedom of thought, speech, religion and education is suppressed. No one knew in 1949 that this book would speak volumes about society and the "global community" where truth is nearly always suffocated and lives are extinguished uselessly in the name of "Big Brother". This book will change your mind about politics forever and cause a deeper appreciation of the freedoms Western nations enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: it set the standard
Review: Orwell's 1984 wasn't the first utopia/dystopia written, but it pretty much set the standard for all those that followed, and even for those that came first. Orwell wrote a novel warning us of what could happen if political power went unchecked, and his warning was especially to his contemporaries living in the post-war England. Orwell does a brilliant job of capturing the despair and dinginess of life in his 1984. In fact he does it so well that if the reader is not careful the general mood of the novel could invavde the reader's life (it did mine). This book has been called one of the few masterpieces of modern literature. The third section especially so. Rarely have I read anything as great or powerful as part three of 1984. The dangers that Orwell warns us of leap forth in this section--the loss of free will and the total breaking of the human spirit, which we all would like to believe always survives. But it doesn't.

Rating:
Summary: Introspective
Review: "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four."

In the world depicted in this powerful novel, the use of logic is prohibited. Citizens are required to follow the Party's ideas, believe the Party's lies, hate the Party's enemies, rejoice at the Party's victories. If the Party contradicts itself (which is common), the members are forbidden to ask questions, but to follow blindly, as sheep led to slaughter. Big Brother perfected what the Communists only dreamed of -- absolute obedience, total loyalty to a cruel master. Even simple human emotions are discouraged.

What a perfect setting for a love story! Of course, there is romance entwined into the precise fibers of 1984, but the novel is not a love story. It's a society story, a political story. A story of human existence, if you will. This is a story about an eternal food chain. Though Winston's story is not the message, one grows to love him for endeavors to understand his twisted world.

I read this book after hearing about it for many years. People will hear of it for many years to come, no doubt. The main message of the novel leaves the reader reeling, suddenly needing some time to reflect. Questions arise in the reader's mind: What holds our society together? What keeps Communism from working in reality? Could this ever happen?

As a citizen of the US for all of my 17 years, I have come to value my freedom more after reading 1984. I'm thankful to live here where I can do pretty much anything I please, instead of Orwell's imaginary Oceania, where imagining committing a crime could land you several months of torture at "The Ministry of Love".

I can say for certain that this book isn't in my high school's literature curriculum. It should be. If we could learn to appreciate our liberty while we are young, the US would be a much better place.

Rating:
Summary: Scarrrryyyyy
Review: Do you ever feel like you are being watched constantly? Is there an excess of authority figures in your life? Winston Smith feels this way too, or at least at the beginning.

This everyman lives in a very complicated time and place. The year is, of course, 1984, and the setting is war-torn London. London is a part of Oceania, which is either in open conflict with Eurasia or Eastasia at any given day. Its confusing because the folks at the Ministry of Truth literally make up new history everyday, shifting public opinion instantly with a few efficient word changes.

Dark and truly frightening, the novel focuses primarily on the organization that tries to control the doubting character of Smith. Highschoolers can easily find elements of Smith's story to relate to. In fact, the book's Thought Police may remind you of your parents on a bad day.

Rating:
Summary: Read it!
Review: If for some reason you got through high school without being forced to read this book, I highly recommend that you read it now. Besides being creative and extremely thought-provoking, 1984 paints a vivid picture of a hopeless future world... a world void of privacy, friendship, love, and family. In this world, where Big Brother is god, mindless conformity is the highest virtue. Winston, the main character, serves as a powerful narrator in revealing the true nature of this society that, in the late 1940's, did not seem all that distant. The two factors of Orwell's society that struck me most were: 1) the disintegration of the family unit, where children control and betray their parents and 2) the mass brainwash of citizens and the idea of "doublethink," where history is repeatedly rewritten within citizen's own minds. Everyone should read this book, if only to appreciate the society that we do live in.