Barbora Stejskalová 

10^th September 2013

English/Sexta

Shocking world of 1984 described by George Orwell 

Imagine living in a world, where you are constantly watched; no matter day or night. A world, where is no freedom, no truth and no certainty of survival. Think about how it must be to live in fear and hatred, to live in a time, where nobody can be trusted. Not even your colleagues, friends, family or your own children. Written in England in the year 1949, this is the world George Orwell describes in his novel 1984.In the world of 1984, the Earth is divided into 3 superstates: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, which are in a permanent war. 1984 brings the readers into Oceania (concretely London), where people live under the leadership of Big Brother (who might not even exist) and elite Party members. Other than the proles (the lowest class) and the Inner Party members, everyone is being closely followed by telescreens, which should prove even non-existing crimes.

Events and experiences in the book are told through the eyes of Winston Smith, the main character of this political novel. Winston Smith is a middle aged man, working in the Ministry of Truth, where all the documents are rewritten for the needs of the Party. He is an ordinary man, with (for this regime) unordinary thinking. He is a rebellion, who secretly hates the Party and he tries to find a way how he could rebel against them. Smith believes in Brotherhood, which is supposed to be an underground organization sharing the same hate against the Big Brother and the Party. He sympathizes with his colleague – O’Brien, hoping he is a member of this secret organization. On the other hand, Smith hates Julia – a girl, who works in the Fiction Department and who is exemplary party member. However, not all the characters are what they seem to be.

Orwell‘s style of writing is catchy, detailed and easy  to be read and understood. There are a lot of parts, where the surrounding is described in such vivid detail, so it is easily imaginable. For example, Orwell made it easy to see the difference between the beautiful country-side and town or the contrast between quarters of proles, as well as the contrast between Inner and Outer Party members.  Furthermore, the dialogs are very useful while trying to imagine how different the people in the book were. As a reader I could clearly recognize 3 types of speaking, which equals 3 types of people through the society: Outer Party members (normal English), Inner Party members (their version of English called Newspeak) and the proles (English dialect). At last, I also really enjoyed the retrospective parts of the book, where Winston’s mind flashes back to the days he spent with his mother, in order to show how the world has changed. 

                All in all, I personally think that this book can give people a lot. In my opinion 1984 is a really timeless novel, which helped the older generation  prepare for the  regime that was about to come, but also helped our generation to understand and to imagine things that we as a democratic state will hopefully never get in touch with again. The main purpose of this book was to warn West inhabitants of the dangers of a totalitarian government. In my opinion 1984 is a very extreme example of communism, however still realistic enough and moreover very interesting for readers of any kind. I was mostly interested in this book because I was surprised how the whole country was controlled using fear, lies and torture. I could not believe how easy was for the Party to change history (quot.:“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”) and make people trust their every word, even making them accept the fact that two plus two equals  five when it was needed. I think that Orwell chose a very good way to show the possible cruelty of a regime .I learned a lot from 1984, a story full of love, hatred, and betrayal, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

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