classics

Orwell, for a skinny accountant-looking Englishman who's real name is Eric Blair, you rock for this single shining moment in literature history. Yeah, kudos to you.

The nightmarish world of 1984 has yet to hit us yet, though we are getting there sometime. His world of Oceania is completely thourough and believable, with many similarities in today's society. It's an Animal Farm for the real world, no metaphors, no representations, just humans so idiots who didn't understand the latter can feel smart, too.

Winston, our hero, is almost a perfect mirror image of Orwell himself, wandering around the plot and pointing out the ways people will try to control you without even really trying to point it out. It is written so well it just speaks for itself. It doesn't need to be explained, it is understood at first glance.

The world is alive with sugar rations, forced morning exercises, paroles, betrayals, hipocrisy, and chestnut trees (You'll understand all too well when you finish the book).

Winston sees cracks, deep and ominous, in his utopia and eventually tries to rebel against it only to be "re-educated". The book explores the meanings of truth, of history, of what really is for our own good.

From the first sentence to the last four words, this book is one that will stay with you forever.

George Orwell's "1984" is the greatest work of fiction I have ever read. Upon finishing, I felt as though prior to reading "1984", I had missed-out on enormous amounts of alliteration and analytical thinking. This book literally blows your doors off. A magnanimous piece of literature, such as this, can be analyzed and perceived in various lights and subject matter, but for me, "1984" is a commentary on human nature attempting to freely function in modern civilized society. The end result, in this novel, is that it cannot happen.

Oceania is a conglomeration of the Americas, the United Kingdom, and the Southern tip of Africa. Oceania is ruled by "The Party" and is constantly at battle with two other conglomerations of nations, namely EurAsia and EastAsia. The leader of Oceania is "Big Brother" and his face is plastered throughout the nation with the ominous caption "Big Brother is Watching You". This is not a joke. Life in Oceania is run like a boot camp and patrons must work, perform physical exercises, and maintain a moral conscious that adheres to The Party's strict parameters. Orwell's work to create this Anti-Utopian society of "1984" is where the deep analytical thinking and metaphorical alliterations that we use today, were spawned, fifty years ago.

The Party is the system and the Party runs the system but the Party is not necessarily the reason for the system. The reason why I found "1984" such a terrifying novel is that "The Party's" mantra of Peace, Freedom, and Strength are not a rallying cry of revolution or inalienable rights in a constitution, but they serve as a necessary evil to keep humanity civilized in its daily existence as a society. Fortunately "1984" is only a work of fiction, but to not read it would be an act of ThoughtCrime.

Anybody who has not read this book is depriving themselves of great literature. Not only does it depict a perfect example of a negative utopia, but it illustrates the way people were thinking at the time it was written. George Orwell is one of the best writers of all time, and this masterpiece is a prime example why. Once you crack open this book, you cannot put it down. Bottom line, you need this book.