George Orwell - 1984
Eric Arthur Blair, also known as George Orwell, was an English novelist from the 20th century. His work is characterized by opposition towards totalitarism and strong commitment to democratic socialism.
He is best known for his dystopian novel, 1984, and Animal Farm.
The Party believes that Winston, an unbeliever, must be mad. To Winston, the Party is mad.
How can anyone say - and believe - that two and two makes five?
When a man disappears, how can his colleagues say - and believe - the he never existed?
Winston Smith, the main character, lives in a world where Big Brother and the Thought Police control every human being, along with the past as well as the present. There are cameras everywhere and information is kept on computers.
Dishonesty and betrayal are rewarded, but truth and love are punished.
But Winston is unhappy with his life and really angry with the Party.
He wonders... Are there others who feel the way he does?
Maybe...
<I betrayed you>, she said.
<I betrayed you too>, he said.
<In the end they do something so terrible that you say " Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to the person I love." You only care about yourself>.
<You only care about yourself>, he had agreed.
And he had meant it.
The girl on the picture is Julia.
They had met at work and afterwards had fell in love.
They had promised not to betray eachother.. Though it didn't happen.
The Thought Police caught them and so they were tortured.
In the end they meet, just to tell eachother the truth of the betrayal.
Changing the past.
Every day newspapers, magazines, photographs, films and posters were changed.
And it was Winston's duty to do that.
Why?
Because the party was always right.
And if it had mistaken, than the past was changed in order to make it right.
This all happened in the Ministry of Truth, though there was no truth.
Along with the past, they also changed the language.
Every year a new dictionary was made, containing always fewer and fewer words.
Words weren't built, they were destroyed.
I think that Orwell partially predicted the future. In 1948 he wrote how the world was going to be 40 years later, in 1984. He warned us all about the dangers of power, and what can come from its abuse.
In 1984 just a small portion of the world detains the power while the majority of the people lies in ignorance.
They altered the past, so that people wouldn't be able to change their position, because I think that without knowing the past, we can't improve our future, we are doomed: we must keep on doing the same mistakes we've already done over and over again...
Another central message of 1984 is the importance of language in human thoughts. Through language we shape our ideas, and if the state can control our language, than it can control our thoughts and ideas as well.
I loved this book, it has been fascinating and interesting from the beginning to the very end.. Though that is the only thing I found disappointing, because I had expected an "Happy Ending" but I was left with the sad truth, which is what makes this book even better.. I expected to see Winston's and Julia's love triumph over Big Brother, but it didn't happen. In the end they were brainwashed and all their feelings were washed away, in order to fully love Big Brother.
I think that freedom is one of the most important rights we have, because without freedom we are slaves of others. Orwell wanted to give an important message: without individual freedom, reality belongs to the people with the power. They have the power to decide each and every aspect of our life: what we must think, in who we must believe, who we must like, who we must love, how we must love and so on..
But since we have just one life, why does someone else decide how we must live it?