When I first began reading 1984, I found it hard to force myself to keep going. The first few pages were very boring to me. I couldn't even imagine living in a place or time like Winston did. The author did a very good job of giving you a very detailed image of exactly what was going on and how things looked. This apartment sounded scary and creepy. The whole thing about Big Brother is Watching You just creeped me out. I can't even picture having to look at those signs and hiding things from the telescreens. The government was so involved and strict.
One point that sticks out in my mind as rediculous is that point that was made about marriage as a vehicle for producing children to serve the Party. I can't imagine just having a child to serve the government. It is even crazier that Winston and his wife Katharine only married in order to have a child and do their "duty to the Party".
It is also very wrong in my mind that Winston's job was to rewrite history to say exactly what the government wanted it to. What if you actually lived through the event and know exactly what happened for sure but the government didn't like it, so you were expected to just forget about what actually happened and go along with them? I think that would be very hard to do and confusing at the same time.
Impact
12 years ago
I agree that the whole Big Brother concept is creppy, that they are always watching you. The marriage thing about just having a child to benefit the party is disturbing and might even occur in real life in some poorer, dictator style countries of the world.
ReplyDeleteYes this concept is definitely a scary one. It seems they do absolutely nothing in their leisure time. How horrible it must be not to have the freedom to not even speak your mind or even think what you want to think. When reading this book I pictured a world with no colors, and couldn't picture it in any other color than gray. It seems so boring and horrifying at the same time. I wonder what the suicide rate was?
ReplyDelete1984 is obviously a good book in the eyes of many. You are right about it being extremely detailed. The author did a fantastic job portraying this totalitarian society. The characters were realistic and believable which some authors are not good at depicting but Kalle Lasn defies this task. I could not imagine what it would be like to live in this sort of society. Being watched 25/7 would drive me insane. Hopefully this sort of thing never happens
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