Review | 1984 by George Orwell

It’s difficult to review this one because its a tough read. I tried reading this back when I was in college, but I couldn’t manage to because it was difficult for me to understand such dystopian plots. And after a decade now, I tried to read it again! Well, I still struggled but I did it!

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four is a very grim read which warns its readers against totalitarianism. It might be most famous for exploring the idea of technological mass surveillance but at its core it is a book about power.

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

Being politically illiterate, the only thing I can say is that the plot of this book is still relevant. Not completely because I am still publishing this post, but almost relevant.

This book is a little horror story where the state controls everything from working, eating, drinking, sleeping, talking, thinking, procreating… basically living. Individualism is a crime here. In the story, they don’t actually know what year it is because so much of the past has been erased by the Ministry of Truth. It could very easily have been 1989. I think that makes the title more powerful. Something as simple as the year or date is unknown to the characters. They have to believe it is whatever day that they are told it is. They don’t have the right to keep track. Knowledge is powerful, but ignorance is strength.

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