The following brief review can be found on my Goodreads and Amazon Reviews. Below are my personal thoughts on George Orwell's 1984.
After reading this book, I noticed many tropes seen in dystopian novels today, mainly when a government overrules its people and claims they know what is best. The only difference is its ending, which leaves a reader uncertain on how to feel. In the result, that's what makes the story good; it gives the reader the insight of what an economy — in this case, communism — can do with complete power over people and thought.
In the beginning, it was quite difficult for me to get into this story. At first, it was merely that I had no interest in reading it, especially if it was something I was going to have to read for school later (when I was younger, I had a few in-between years where I despised reading, then I enjoyed it immensely). Then, it was putting it off to read other things that I wanted to read; in my mid-teens and early 20s, I had become obsessed with reading YA novels rich with either dystopian concepts or paranormal love triangles (*OMG, I'm judging my younger self!*). When the time came to finally decide to pick up
1984, adulthood was in full force and distracting me from my escaping-reality hobbies. It didn't help that the ending was spoiled for me, which further delayed my decision to finish it. But I have succeeded in finally kicking it off my reading bucket list! And honestly, I am surprised it took me so long to read because ーunbeknownst to meー I was already a fan.
What does she mean by that? you might ask. Well, it turns out all those dystopian YA novels I was reading were very close to the Orwellian concept of controlling governments. Allie Condie's Matched Trilogy, Niel Shusterman's Unwind Dystology, Veronica Roth's Divergent Series, V for Vendetta, and even Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games have a form of "Big Brother is always watching."
The scary concept for Orwell, though, is that he was writing this story with an idea of almost reality. The time
1984 was written was a dark time in history for Orwell. When he wrote this, I think he may have been writing it as a cautionary story for others;
this is what can happen if we let this form of government overrule the people, or if they win the war. With this in mind, some might think his protagonist, Winston Smith, is a beacon of light, someone that will defeat Big Brother. But as I mentioned in my review above, the ending is not so; Winston is an example of how a thread can be manipulated and formed into anything with a little bit of force. At some point, that thread will break once the manipulation is done. "2+2 = 5".
In the end, I did enjoy this book and can understand why it is recommended reading. Though the wording can be bland at points in the story, they can hold a sense of longing for the way things may have been or could be, even though in reality we don't need to think that since we can now still experience things Winston cannot. We don't have to ration chocolate or coffee or shoelaces. Lemons are not extinct. Children to this day still sing the rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". Perhaps now the cautionary tale of the book, since the year 1984 has come and passed, is to enjoy what we have now; if we're not careful, it can be easily snatched away and in time be forgotten.
