Involving till the last word. Beautifully designed dystopic world, which rises a lot of questions about human existence and purpose in this world.
Big brother is watching you!
Big brother is watching you!
"1984" is classic novel by George Orwell written in 1949. For me it was very interesting to see how author sees the future (as I know now it's the past), and as the world shown in the book is totalitarian that means no much technology or life development or improvement can be expected. The most interesting technology for me was an all seeing eye, a screen in every place, which is watching every move of every person.
The book shows the world after some nuclear war. There are just three countries in that world and they are always fighting. The described country is called Oceania. Winston Smith is the main character of the story. He is working to rewrite/correct the history of the world. The past is rewritten every day, because the system (Big Brother) must be always right. The world without the past or future and without any meaning. People are doing everyday work without even realizing why they are doing that.
I liked "1984" because it was involving till the end. Even though the time author wrote this novel was the time when all kind of ideological systems were developing, it's still very interesting to see one of the most ridiculous version of them. I was born in Lithuania, where we had the system of communism, but I don't remember much of that because I was too little. But after reading this book it's easier for me to understand older generation, because they were part of that system. So probably they experienced many things written in the book and the consequences of all that are still influencing their lives.
On the other hand, as I was reading the book I was thinking, even if that world seems so cruel and ridiculous through my eyes, could it be that we are living in the same world right now? No, not the same from the outside world, but the same from the inner ourselves. The values of the Oceania were: war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. If we take the second one and try it on today's society, I could say that most people don't like to be free. They are looking forward to being enslaved in jobs they don't like and activities that doesn't make any sense also being scared to get fired, because it means that they will have to use their brains to find or start something new. The third value is also very common among nowadays society. As I wrote in my previous post, most people simply ignore the information and feel good about that. The book is very worth reading!
So, do we really live in a different world? What do you think?
The book shows the world after some nuclear war. There are just three countries in that world and they are always fighting. The described country is called Oceania. Winston Smith is the main character of the story. He is working to rewrite/correct the history of the world. The past is rewritten every day, because the system (Big Brother) must be always right. The world without the past or future and without any meaning. People are doing everyday work without even realizing why they are doing that.
I liked "1984" because it was involving till the end. Even though the time author wrote this novel was the time when all kind of ideological systems were developing, it's still very interesting to see one of the most ridiculous version of them. I was born in Lithuania, where we had the system of communism, but I don't remember much of that because I was too little. But after reading this book it's easier for me to understand older generation, because they were part of that system. So probably they experienced many things written in the book and the consequences of all that are still influencing their lives.
On the other hand, as I was reading the book I was thinking, even if that world seems so cruel and ridiculous through my eyes, could it be that we are living in the same world right now? No, not the same from the outside world, but the same from the inner ourselves. The values of the Oceania were: war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. If we take the second one and try it on today's society, I could say that most people don't like to be free. They are looking forward to being enslaved in jobs they don't like and activities that doesn't make any sense also being scared to get fired, because it means that they will have to use their brains to find or start something new. The third value is also very common among nowadays society. As I wrote in my previous post, most people simply ignore the information and feel good about that. The book is very worth reading!
So, do we really live in a different world? What do you think?
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