Review of a dystopian classic : 1984 by George Orwell

Hey Charlie ! 👋👋

        Today I will present you a very famous dystopian novel : 1984 by George Orwell. Before I present it, it is available at the school library, so do not hesitate ! 😄

The story takes place in Oceania, a fictive nation, and more precisely in London. Obviously, as we can tell with the title of the book itself, everything happens in 1984, after a big nuclear war in the 50’s. The Ingsoc’s Party controls everything : telescreens, which contains cameras and microphones, are placed everywhere and are used by the "Thought Police" to spy on people. If you show something suspicious, even just a facial expression are a word said in your sleep, that could be against the Party, you would disappear one day, and everything will go on like you never existed. The past is modified too by the "Ministry of Truth", so everything "Big Brother", the Party’s chef, ever said turns out to be true. The reader discovers this dystopian world through the eyes of Winston Smith, a minor member of the Party, who dreams of rebellion.

        Winston Smith, the main protagonist, is a thirty-nine divorced man. He lives in the fear and doubt that the "Thought Police" might discover his opinion of the Party. He is very curious about the hidden past, and wants to learn how and why the Party exercises such an absolute power. He passionately hates the Party, and commits several crimes in the novel. He is also very pensive and always hopes that the "Brotherhood", the anti-Ingsoc party, really exists, and if so who could be a part of it. His ultimate dream is to achieve freedom and destroy the Party’s power.

Winston Smith, played by John Hurt in the 1984's movie adaptation

        Julia is a young woman who meets Winston in the first part of the book, and they soon become lovers. She is independent and empowered ; almost the perfect opposite of Winston, even though she also hates the party. She likes to corrupt the party’s member, and her small-scale rebellion seems enough according to her. She wants to enjoy the present moment and she is very practical when she makes plans to avoid getting caught by the party.

Julia, played by Suzanna Hamilton, also in the 1984's movie adaptation

        The book is divided into three parts. For me, it was also a bit complicated to read, because of the complex grammatical structure of the sentences, or the vocabulary related to politics, war, ... But it is definitely not a bad aspect on itself, and it could make us improve our reading and understanding skills.

What I really liked about this novel is that the story contains a perfect mix of fictive and realistic aspects. Indeed, the book was written in 1949 and George Orwell was inspired by the sad reality of WWII and the totalitarian and communist governments that followed it. But the book can also be seen as very current, because it presents several aspects of our society, like privileges, political corruption, misogyny, … But thanks to the fictive elements like newspeak, the language of the nation, and the suspens in the story, we can escape the reality and let the book completely drown us into Winston Smith’s life in Oceania. 👍

However, there are some things that I disliked too. /!\ Trigger Warning /!\ : I will evoke in the next few lines some elements related to sexual harassment ; if you are easily triggered, you should skip this paragraph. I found that Winston’s point of view towards Julia, and women in general was very sexualizing. For example, he says how he would like to rape her at some moment in the beginning of the book. I thought it was very disturbing to read this, especially as a woman. Apart from that, I really enjoyed reading it.

                                                                                                                                                          

As a coincidence, I have recently seen few graffitis of this kind in the streets, so I thought it would be interesting to speak about it in this article :

Indeed, with the rough times we are living in, a lot of people are referring to 1984. Obviously, there will always be paranoiac people who believe in crazy conspiracy theories about the government controlling everyone with the lockdown and curfew, and how we will soon lose our freedom forever. 😂😅 But according to me, we could still make some parallels, without being extreme. I don’t want to be political on this blog, but I think that we could link, for example, the slogan of the Ingsoc’s party “IGNORANCE IS STRENGHT” and the new law forbidding us to film abusive policemen. Everyone has his own opinion, and I won’t say anything more about it. 👀

                                                                                                                                                                   

        

        Anyways, to conclude, I highly recommend this book because it is a classic, the story is very entertaining, but at the same time it makes us think about our society. That is all I had to say about 1984. As said previously, the book is available at the school library ! So I hope I made you want to read it ! 😎

Bye Charlie ! 👋

Article by Coline :)