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Summary: Winston....is a character masterpeice, and George Orwell....
Review: I loved this book. I reccomended it to everyone I met. I went to a restaraunt yesterday and reccomended it to 15 people, yes 15. I choose a book every year. A book that I am going to analyze, this year it was 1984. I love this book I just really really love it. For any7 read this is the perfect book. For Sci-Fi, for Histroical readers, even me, a fantasy buff find it wonderful!Any way I will leave fellow readers to decide its true worth!
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Summary: Power of the government
Review: We thoroughly enjoyed 1984 by George Orwell, and feel that is it a warning to citizens of the consequences of power. The novel provided an eye-opening account of the affects on the individual in a totalitarian system. Orwell vividly depicts the loss of individualism and the conformity that results among the citizens when government is given too much power. We recommend this book to all high school students because it not only deals with the harsh reality of the government, but also with the feelings of the narrator, Winston Smith, towards the system. 1984 has encouraged us to take an active role in our government as voters, and has helped us to realize the full extent of our freedoms in the USA.
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Summary: George, Stick to Non-Fiction
Review: This is the second time I've been forced to read this book for aclass, and I have to ask, "What's the point?" Maybe if you live in a country that's a monarchy, this book's worth reading, but this is *America*, ok? The whole reason we live in a democracy is so that we the people don't have to worry about things like this. "Brave New World" played up the science fiction aspect of it's "futuristic" setting ,and I thought that book worked much better. Orwell's lecturing on politics was ok one time around ("Animal Farm"), but this book gets so bogged down in a million issues that just don't matter ("double-speak?" Who cares how people choose to talk-- we should be able to talk to each other however we want) and gets lost. If you want to read Orwell when he actual has something to say, try "The Road to Wigan Pier," which acutally is enlightening, not this preachy homily of something that never happened. It's 2000. 1984 was a bad movie with Michael J. Fox.
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Summary: Dark and prophetic
Review: Of the two great Dystopian novels, (Brave New World being the other)this one is my favorite. It is a story of a man dealing with his own thoughts about freedom versus oppression, and also an analysis of how Communism has gone bad (dictatorships) and where it could potentially take us. But how different is Oceania from our own society? Think of all the surveillance cameras you see and the idea of hate crime (which invades the thoughts of people, to find what they were thinking). 1984 is prophetic about China and the Soviet Union yet, it also tells something about America and our "freedom", showing us that no government is going to give you true freedom. The beginning and end of the book are the best parts, the middle is a little weaker, due to the development of a love story (I am still iffy on whether or not the love story part of this book actually harms the book at all). Anyway, it is a great book for anyone and it is highly recommended.
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Summary: One of the most important books ever written
Review: 1984 should be read by all, in fact this and Animal Farm should be required reading in every single classroom in America. My God how this book is important! Everyone should read it for the knowledge it provides and the warnings it puts forth.
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Summary: Food for thought
Review: I finally got round to reading this 'classic', and I must say I wasn't too disappointed, as up until now I've disliked nearly all the so called classics I've read. The first two parts of the book are largely mediocre- Orwells writing style has never really been particularly special and the world and characters he depicts are somewhat clumsy. It is only upon reading the final part of the novel that this book rises above the crowd, as Orwell firmly clarifies the message of the book, not only depicting the true horror of an omnipotent dictatorship, but also the systematic manipulation of information and fact to it's ultimate extreme. This latter point has tremendous relevance as it does occur in western societies, hence in America words such as 'liberal' have had their meaning altered by the media to the point at which they become non descriptive, merely remaining as a form of abuse. This use of language manipulation is revealed in the book to be the final step in ultimate control- to manipulate peoples actual ability to think. The book does leave the reader with much to ponder, and indeed many will take different messages away from it, though I must admit how anyone who has read the whole book can go away thinking that it was merely a straight forward attack on communism, is beyond me. Left, right and centre poltics are all capable of using the methods warned against in this book, and have all done so to a certain degree. Overall, well worth reading.
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Summary: Disturbing, a warning for us all
Review: 1984 is perhaps one of the best books i have read- Not for It's literature. Although it is fantastically written, it resounds with warning. Anyone who sees this book as simply "a book about communism" may as well set the book ablaze, for he has already destroyed it's message. The book tells of humankinds self-enslavement, where people are nothing more than machines doomed to produce and consume endlessly for the sake of further production and consumption. The only prevailing human emotions are greed, hate, distrust, sorrow, and loyalty to invisible characters. Any word, thought, action, or a mere facial expression that might make other Party Members nervous results in instant termination. History is nonexistant in the sense as we know it. The Party controlls all records-as the slogan goes "who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." There is no escape. The book does not give a solution to the enslavement, but in its bold and frightening forecast, gives the reader the means to prevent it. Never let yourself be silenced. I highly reccomend this book.
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Summary: Essential and still vibrant
Review: Orwell understood the why, the what, and most importantly, the who of post modern tyranny. He is a conflicted and tortured man. A man who exposed his own deepest beliefs in "progressive" politics and plumbed the depth of the consequences. In the year 2000 Orwell is joined by Jerry Furland, Claire Wolfe, Vin Supranowizc, Neal Boortz, David Horowitz and many others in warning us of the dangers of blindly following the newspeak of the Utopian Left. They are with us today. Just as deadly and just as implacable. The Clintons are, in essence, the quintessential inner party dictators. Gore is a bland understudy. This is still, half a century later, political dynamite.
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Summary: THEY SHOULD MAKE KIDS READ THIS IN SCHOOL!
Review: At first I didn't appreciate this book, but after the secondhalf, I realized its importance. This book forshadows what will happenif people merely lay dormant and don't take responsibility for themselves and their government. Like a reviewer before me, I agree that this is scarier than any horror book. Vampires will never exist, a world ruled by totalitarian communists can easily exist. Overall, the message of this story is both important and relevant to our times....
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Summary: 1984 defines our distrust for government
Review: The book is a fantastic read of Orwell's projection of a future in which three totalitarian governments (all equivalent) rule the earth. I would say the book has two sections, the story, which follows an Outer Party member's struggle to rebel, and philosophy, which is Big Brother's Manifesto (or, one could say, Goldstein's but really they are one and the same). The book puts the story on hold when Winston, the protagonist, reads the manifesto; I would say that there is flow problem with the abrupt nature of this switch. Certainly the Manifesto is endemic to the book and provides another perspective and history of the rise of Oceania, the state in which Winston lives.
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