“1984” Written By George Orwell
A Novel That Meets More than What it Brings to the Eye
Imagine not being able to relax and enjoy the privacy of your own home. How could you have possibly made it through each day knowing that everything you do, is done to please someone else? And your freedom…Gone?
“1984,” A compelling and undeniably intriguing novel, set in a time and place where your imagination can’t even come close to creating an image that would be able to mirror those of the individuals that walked the grounds of Airstrip One.
Set in Oceania, the novel retells the accounts of the time period, revolving around a man named Winston Smith. The years surrounding 1984 Oceania, were filled with great sadness; misery; mistrust. You lived in poverty, with disease and hunger and filth. You were not allowed to voice your own opinions, think anything other than what you were told, or even write in a diary or journal. As silly as that sounds, yes, that was even considered a crime and law enforcement of the time, called the “Thought Police”, were supposed to punish you. This kind of society is unthinkable.
I take it that, for myself and others, it is quite difficult to picture a world where everyone in a society is categorized into only three groups and all of your thoughts and actions, are guided by the thoughts and actions of a single person, and everyone refers to him as “Big Brother,” and lives in fear of this ruler. I’m sure I would have been afraid as well. Here’s a man whose solitary goal was to “brainwash” an entire population of people to make history fit his desired representation, and anyone who would stand in his way, would be punished severely, and maybe sentenced to death. Not an easy concept to grasp, when today we live in a time and place, where you’re free to do pretty much anything you please as long as it’s legal. So voicing your opinions, having your desired privacy at home, and writing opposing thoughts towards a political point of view that you do not agree with, are all legal activities that you may do as you please.
In this novel about Winston Smith’s experiences, George Orwell, a phenomenal writer, has captured these events in such a captivating way, we begin to feel as if our own ideas are limited. He effectively gets his readers to understand everything these people are deprived of in this totalitarian society that he is describing, and then moments appear when you think you can feel what they feel, or see what they see, but those moments are not clear for me, because I live in a society where I am as free as I choose to be.
This is truly a novel that meets more inside, than what it brings to the eye. You see the front cover and there is just a number; a date. You open the book and you have no idea where the first sentence will lead you. But as you read on, the words form to stir emotions inside of you and by the end of the book, you know why a number; a date; would be the perfect title for this novel.
Orwell was such an inspiration for interpreting events and real-life encounters of what happened in the years surrounding 1984.
If you loved the film “Minority Report,” then you can understand to a capacity, how much control your government has over your life. It is unbelievable to think that no one, at any given time, could live in complete control over their life. Back then, technology was not so advanced. With today’s advancements in technology, it would be much easier for invasion of privacy…just a thought.
--Kayla Gray
The English Times
