1984 by George Orwell

1984 is an amazing book. It’s what George Orwell imagined the year 1984 to be like. It’s slightly pessimistic, but it only adds to the intensity. The main character’s name is Winston who is a political (if you would call it that, but it’s not a having-fun party) party member. The party tries to control everything, and for the most part succeeds! They watch you at home where you are constantly being fed crap through the telescreens that broadcast corny music, false claims by the party, which all basically adds up to white noise. If you do anything out of the ordinary (or basically consciously think) you are persecuted and eventually killed. This act of thought is called “thoughtcrime” in the language of newspeak. The party stands for the sole purpose of fear, greed and cruelty, even though most people don’t see it for what it is. The party is perfectly content to repeat the past as long as they remain dominant. There is also the 80% of Oceana that consist of the proles. The proles are looked down upon by the party members as worthless animals because their ways seem primitive, but they have also have managed to keep their human elements and are not blindly loyal to the party.

So now that you have the basics, here’s Winston’s story. Winston carries out his stressful job daily, and does not totally believe in what he is doing (rewriting history over and over again to make the party seem perfect). The beginning of his magical journey to consciousness is when he starts keeping a diary (upon the fear of being found out by the thought police). This shows how amazing writing can be, as I’ve experienced. Winston then meets Julia, and they instantly love each other (which is forbidden as well) because they both hate the party.

As it says on the back of the book, this book is as relevant now as it was some 50 years ago when it was written. It might not resemble our lives, because usually things don’t become this extreme, but it’s not a secret that humans can go here. Around when this book was written, a good example would be the fascist regime of Hitler. If you spoke out against his party’s beliefs, you were shot. This worthless effort of total control is most definitely seen today (as it has in every stage throughout history, and probably will continue until the end of humanity). An example of this today would be the Taliban regime. They don’t allow music, suppress women, and forbid books. The quote “those who don’t acknowledge the past are condemned to repeat it” is very applicable here.

With all this preaching of no hope, it’s hard to believe that these huge systems of hatred can be broken down. In 1984, the party leaders believe that it will never be broken down. It thinks it has covered all the vulnerabilities and is therefore immortal. One part that made me really grin was after the thought police had caught Winston. In his prison cell, he was contemplating what he would do when the thought police finally came up behind Winston to shoot him. Once the thought police caught Winston, they sent him to the ministry of love (which actually tortures people) because he was thinking. The ideology behind the ministry of love is to convert the conscious beings back into the party’s way of thinking, and then kill them. So anyways, Winston was thinking that when they finally were about to kill him, he would turn around, showing that he did not believe in the party, before the bullet entered him. This was a bit confusing at first, but it’s actually quite amazing. The party is built on perfection, and in doing this last act of rebellion would leave the party members stunned. They had just released a soul that was in their view imperfect. They would have this memory forever, therefore scratching a hole in the party’s cover which in repetition would lead to the fall of the party.

There are many ways we can relate to the content in 1984, but one way that all of us can relate to is the concept of the telescreens. The telescreens monitor people's every move, making sure they don't break the party’s rules. When we’re not in a good space, we start to monitor our friends every move to give us our own selfish security. Another example of this constant monitoring, but not quite the same is security cameras. They're based on mistrust between fellow human beings. They're needed in some places, but they still do bare a resemblance to the telescreens.

From 1984 to Animal Farm, I've really been enjoying George Orwell's insightful writing. He writes about things that affect him primarily. 1984 reflects events happening in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has a really good way of describing dismal worlds and ultimately screaming to you "why are things this way?"

- Joel Penner