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Summary: Maybe not how the future will be, but still relevant
Review: this book simply changed my view of things in life. it sucked me in after a few pages, and the reason i really like it is that he writes one of the most engaging plots, yet he still has relevant views. i love his ideas, and how he carries it all to the extreme. i am now reading "Brave new world" which, although has a different idea of the future is really similar. I first read I984 when i was 11, and since then have read it countless times. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who thinks they can handle a good read.
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Summary: Orwell's Gift To The World
Review: A stunning book, that's really all I can say. Just make sure you read the chapter on the language, which is usually the last part of the book, first. If I were stuck on an island and could only bring two things I would bring the BIBLE (how things were and will be) and 1984 (how things must not be).
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Summary: It's a love story...
Review: Many people will tell you about how it focuses us on warnings of totalitarianism and communism and the like. But you know, sometimes a book is just a book and there is no hidden meaning. Winston loves Julia and Julia loves Winston. I hate it when teachers and "experts" try to get you to see the "meaning" behind the book. What if it's just a fictional story about a man who lives in a future world where people live in fear of being found out and he falls in love with a woman? I won't give away the ending. I only gave it 4 stars because some parts of the book are a bit tedious...especially when Orwell(Blair) begins to tell you things that you know you read not 30 pages earlier. Just remember it's a love story...and a good one at that.
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Summary: This book should be read by every Jehovah's Witness
Review: George Orwell's novel 1984 is a dystopia about a world where authoritarian governments rule the world. Everybody should read this book, because freedom of thought is not something that comes naturally to all of us in every country. Even in democratic countries like the United States where people will cross the ocean to fight for democrazy, but can't be bothered to cross the street to vote in national elections, freedom of thougth is something each individual has to gain themselves. Apart from oppressive governments sometimes religions decide that they know what's best for people they have control over. Authoritarian religions and authoritarian governments have so much in common that Orwell's book could just as well be about religion. Sometimes those in powerful positions even decide that their subjects don't have to think for themselves, but blindly obey what the leaders think is in their best interests. I was raised a Jehovah's Witness. 1984 was one of the books that opened my eyes. Don't be afraid to think for yourself. A good start is to read this book. If you have a loved one whose mind is controlled by a religion this is an excellent gift for them. Because this book is not really about religion Jehovah's Witnesses can read this book, although they are forbidden to read material that is critical to their beliefs.
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Summary: A few corrections
Review: Certainly not a book for high school kids (I wish teachers were assigning more age-appropriate books). I first read it at 17, and that was too early. One of the greatest masterpieces of world literature. The book is too complex and multi-faceted to be discussed here. Indeed, it is like a Rorschach test - everyone finds something of oneself in it, or projects on it something that is not there. I would just like to correct some gross misinterpretations. 1) This is not a prediction. Maybe Orwell should've called it "Any year". The year 1984 came up simply because he took the number of the year when he was writing (1948) and reversed the last two digits. This book is not a prediction, it is a warning and a description. 2) This is not a satire or an exaggeration. OK, maybe to a small extent (governments still cannot read people's thoughts). It is certainly not a fiction about a made-up world and it is not just a philosophical musing on life and humanity. While to the people in the West it might sound exaggerated or absurd, to those from the Communist world it is very precise and factual. Orwell is the only Western writer who got a true description of totalitarian communist reality. He got it perfect down to tiny details, such as the absence of razor blades. 3) This is certainly about Communists, but it is more than just about Communists. By the time he wrote it, Orwell was not a communist any more. He was not a Trotskyite (in Animal Farm Trotsky/Snowball is just as much a pig as Stalin/Napoleon). He was not a socialist or an anarchist. He was an individual beyond labels. 1984 is a book about totalitarianism in whatever form and under whatever label. 4) This is not about all of us. One has to make distinctions. Modern U.S. is far from an Orwellian society, surveilance cameras and political correctness nonwithstanding and whatever paranoids might think. Most of the newspeak in the West is self-imposed: people prefer to be blind slaves. Should one of us desire to break their personal mental chains, doublethinks, etc., who is there to stop us? But there are some countries that are indeed Orwellian. A short list:
a) Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) - the most Orwellian of them all.
b) Burma. Sorry, Myanmar (they renamed the country, just like in "1984", England is renamed into Airstrip One).
c) Afghanistan - dictatorship in the making. ("1984" plus civil war).
d) Islamic Republic of Iran.
e) Libya.
f) Peoples Republic of China. "Ministry of Plenty" might be closed there, but "Ministry of Love" is certainly not. This country alone is 1/4 of humanity: how about that.
g) Iraq.
h) Syria.
i) Cuba.
j) Vietnam.
Plus most of Africa and quite a few other places. Plus all kinds of cults. As you see, the book is still quite relevant. It describes what was and is. Be grateful that you don't live there.
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Summary: An idea carried to the extreme
Review: When I first started reading this book I knew it was going to be depressing. I knew Orwell was writing it to warn the world of the dangers of a totalitarian society, and he wanted to make it as horrible and realistic as possible. And the things that happened in the book were horrible, very horrible, but they weren't all realistic. I thought it was a good book up until where Julia and Winston were arrested. I think that's where Orwell stopped being realistic and he started letting his own cynical feelings get in the way of his writing. Orwell had a very sad life, and he was a depressed, bitter, and cynical man. It is good that we were warned about what the world could become, but realistically no government could ever control you to the extent that that government controlled Winston and Julia. When O'brien was torturing Winston he could read Winston's every thought. He knew Winston's every fear every doubt, and every feeling. He even knew what terrified Winston most in the world. He knew everything. He took something so precious from Winston. Someting that most of us take for granted. He took Winston's private innermost thoughts and changed them to fit the Party's ideals. I hated the ending to that book. That was the worst imaginable ending possible. If he would have lost everyting and been killed, but at least have died knowing that the Party was wrong I would have been happy. I think Julia was right. They can't get inside you. Another thing I found unrealistic was when O'brien spoke of how the party wanted only pure unadulterated power. Human nature has not changed in all the time humans have been on this earth. We are still selfish people that tend to want to go our own way, and do our own thing. It's unrealistic that whoever started the Party would desire only that people in the inner Party have only total power. The inner Party's only desire was to keep the Party alive and strong. Somewhere along the way someone would be selfish, and mess things up. I see Orwell's point on how a government can become so dangerously dominating and oppressing, but Orwell carried that idea too far. He carried it to the utmost extreme.
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Summary: Still a relevant warning...
Review: Although I have generally found Orwell to be a politically confused thinker, 1984 stands out as one of the best and most forward thinking works I have ever read. The amount of relevance this book has today is overwhelming, considering modern government propaganda techniques and the double edged sword of technology. This story serves as a warning to all who trust the government, especially in regards to privacy issues. Winston Smith, while not the ideal romantic protagonist, is still compelling in his own right with his inspiring (and finally tragic) fight against Big Brother. The struggle that takes place between Winston and the government in 1984 is psychologically thrilling and intense, and it is still difficult for me to put the book down each time I read it. I am particularly drawn to the character of O'Brien, who represents to me the culmination of a path that all seasoned politicians and government officials travel down. The year 1984 has come and past, but an extreme statist government similar to the one portrayed in the novel still may haunt us in the future.
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Summary: Wonderful! I couldn't put it down!
Review: I've had to do alot of reading this year for my AP English class, and this is one of the best books I've read so far. It was so captivating! I had to force myself to put it down. I loved how new elements were always being added into the storyline. After I got through the first two chapters I was hooked. It sucks you in, and I like a book that keeps you wanting to read more and more. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, especially if you like to read about what man's future could be.
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Summary: frighteningly on target
Review: to be perfectly honest, after i'd completed '1984', i feared for us all. partly because i am a perpetual worrier, partly because this book so easily depicts what can, and already has begun to, happen to us as a race. 1984 intricately details a world shot to hell by mass propaganda, scapegoating, blatant lies and brainwashing. the story is told in third person, through the jaded and frustrated eyes of one winston smith, just another poor soul gone wrong. we see what the world has become: a machine, cold, colorless, dangerous. the government, known only as the Party, literally rules each and every aspect of life, down to the thoughts in one's head. the storyline sounds somewhat complex, but in actuality it's easy, almost too easy, to understand and relate to. the saddest, perhaps, part of this book was the fleeting love affair winston becomes involved with, and its eventual, and inevitable, demise. towards the end of the story my heart sort of dropped, because it does not necessarily end in triumph. i cannot give a good enough description of this book, it's hit too unbelievably close to home. i bought it not too sure of what the premise was(which i do often because i am a fool), but once i'd opened the book, i could see i held a real gem.
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Summary: Almost too real!
Review: The book is not only well written but, in my opinion, an accurate picture of where the world is headed. Although parts may get a bit confusing, if you plow through those parts it all makes sense in the end. A bold and daring novel written as fiction but parts may be frighteningly real when you look around you at our current society. I recommend it to everyone but specifically those who are either paranoid or totally detest the way our society behaves.
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