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Summary: The most terrifying book I've read so far.
Review: "1984" is a wonderfuly written book, but I woudn't recomend it as a before bed read. I ended up reading the last chapters while laying in bed. Big mistake! I would also not recomend this book to people under 13, or even 14. I'm 13, and I almost wish I had waited a couple years before reading it. In the climax of the story, I started crying from fear, and I'm constanly having to reasure myself that the world is not like that, and never will be. Don't get me wrong, I loved the book, and I encourage anyone who doesn't mind aquiring a slight sense of paranoia, to read it.
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Summary: A Dark World
Review: This book was nothing like I thought it was going to be. George Orwell saw how dim the world could be and he took it a step further into the future. The main character Winston Smith represents a world trying to reach for freedom and more than just a existence. He struggles with not conforming to Big Brother and in the end he fails. This book makes me think of what could have been but has not in America. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs another look at the freedom that we have.
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Summary: The best book I've ever read
Review: Sad, beautiful, nauseating, incredible, believable. All in one text. A masterpiece of the twentieth century. If you haven't read it yet, you owe this to yourself!
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Summary: Grim and Well-Written; Are We Headed There?
Review: I've read this book twice: as an adolescent as required reading in a literature class, and as an adult. It was creepy but unbelievable (to me) the first time. Now, I'm not so sure.George Orwell's masterpiece holds two important themes: political parties controlling what people say, do, and even think; everyone watching, monitoring, or spying on everyone else. I think that we are still far away from the first aspect. It was attempted in the former Soviet Union, and is still being tried in Communist China and Cuba, but those experiments have failed in many ways. After more than seventy years of outlawing religion in the Soviet Union, it quickly resurfaced after the fall of communist control; suppression does not equal erasure. What would have happened if it had continued another seventy years? Who knows. But thought control is MUCH harder than behavior control (which isn't easy either). As to the second theme of everyone watching everyone else, we are slowly drifting in that direction. In didn't happen by 1984, as Orwell feared, and our drift in that direction is more for safety reasons than for reasons of political control, but the slow crawl is there. Before the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, there was a big debate about the police in various cities using surveillance on the public to catch wanted criminals. Many people were outraged. My feelings were mixed, because of the potential for violation of civil liberties AND the potential to catch dangerous criminals. Where was the lesser harm? Now, following the terrorist attacks, we are pushed, by necessity, one step closer to Big Brotherism. If you don't think so, visit your local airport, if you can get in. Is this bad? I don't know. Is it necessary? Yes. Risk of further crime and terrorism is weighed against safety. Again, where is the lesser harm? It's not an easy question, but we will have to answer it. Sociopolitical implications aside, George Orwell's "1984" is a well-written, imaginative, deep book about serious and thought-provoking issues. I can't call it "enjoyable", but it definitely is valuable and well-done and pertinent.
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Summary: In Brief
Review: I would like to make a very brief comment on other reviews. Wh do so many reviewers of this book confuse Socialism with Communism?
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Summary: Orwell's chilling work of genius has more than meets the eye
Review: Most people read 1984 when in high school; it's an accessible classic, with plenty of shock interest as well as literary value. I'm reviewing 1984 here for those who may already have read it. The overall theme of oppression and the fear of totalitarianism is well known; but there are underlying themes that are interesting reading indeed. For example, the excerpts of "the Book", purported to have been written by the underground resistance under Goldstein (or by the Party itself, if we are to believe O'Brian) is a mouthpiece for his social philosophy. In the fragment of three chapters, the ruling class, middle class and proletariat class (high, middle, low) are pitted in an eternal cycle where the high seek to exlude all others, the middle to achieve high status, and the low to simple create havoc and complete upheaval. Take a look if you haven't read this part of the book carefully. It's mighty interesting. Winston's relationship to O'Brian is also fascinating; the enigmatic O'Brian, Inner Party member and intellectual, has a fatal attraction for Winston--even more so than his passive affair with Julia. And when O'Brian breaks him in the Ministry of Truth, it is as much a surrender of love as it is a brainwashing. The interaction of Winston Smith and his persecutor is a uniquely written relationship. If you haven't re-read 1984 in a while, and especially if you read it when you were young, it's a great book to revisit.
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Summary: What If?
Review: What if there was someone watching your every move? For Winston Smith, this was a reality. A radical political party, simply called the Party, had taken control of life in Oceania. Its citizens had no choice but to mindlessly follow the reign of terror. Winston and his lover, Julia, banded together to secretly revolt against the Party's authority. Orwell's 1984 is a disturbing warning, forcing people to examine the freedoms they take for granted. This book is a haunting shadow of what may have been. Although the novel was lengthy, it is interesting, thought-provoking, and worth the time. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy taking a closer look at themselves and their own society.
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Summary: It's amazing what are considered classics today...
Review: Okay, it was kind of thought-provoking, and I do admit that comparing the "unpersons" to the exile of Moses in the movie The Ten Commandments was interesting, but the book lost its intellectuality after a quarter way through it. The beginning was interesting, though morbid, but it just goes downhill. The main character, Winston, daydreams about raping Julia, who later becomes his dirty mistress. Then about a hundred pages later, they get caught by the Thought Police, thrown into "prison," and are brain washed. That's pretty much what happens. I just finished printing out my summer book report for this book. If in honors English they gave you a choice between this book and a book about a snail slithering across pavement, I would pick the latter. I think it's absolutely disgusting that just about every book that we had to read in freshman English had sex in it. The one book that didn't have sex in it was To Kill a Mockingbird, but then that had accused rape in it (that was actually the one book I liked). I'm tempted to raise my hand on the first day of class and ask who was the idiot who decided that we should read this book, but I think it may have been the teacher I'm going to get. Hehehe...
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Summary: heard of the tripartite commission?
Review: To see some rather disturbing indications that Orwell should be shelved somewhere between fiction and non-fiction, have a look at "When Corporations Rule the World" and "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television". Most people dwell on the political aspects of 1984, naturally enough, but I'd like to reiterate the perhaps obvious point that Orwell is a really fine writer. Many of his wry descriptions had me laughing aloud. Mark Twain's classic definition of a classic is "a book that everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read." 1984 is a counterexample, a classic that is both eminently readable and well worth reading (unless you completely trust giant interlocking bureaucracies to look after your personal interests).
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Summary: A Haunting Journey into a World that Echoes of Our Own
Review: 1984 is considered a classic for a reason. Having recently read it for the first time I discovered why. 1984 took me on a dark journey through a world of oppression, an oppression of the human spirit on the most basic levels. I'm sure this is greatly detailed in other reviews so I'll stop at that. Orwell intricately describes the political setup of the powers and the methods of population control - something that I discover is becoming more and more part of our daily lives. Also this novel is a wakening call to the present trends in international politics. Big Brother is coming and is just as easy to set up in the Western Capitalist countries as it is the past Communists. 1984 is the alarm. With all these merits the book does lack a little in Orwell's prose, however with his harsh call to vigiliace and the thrilling story it does more than rectify the small faults. Read it, and remember, Big Brother is watching.
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