1984

[zĒa£]

What is 1984 about?

[RayReiLee]

It's about government gone mad how George Orwell predicted 1984 to be. Actually it's a really good book, even though it didn't happen to be true.

[CrakinCapn]

Book? I'll grow rabies and kill a goat for a glipse!

[Hopeless]

It's about what george orwell thought 1984 would turn out to be, a totalitarian ruled world. Oceania is a totalitarian ran stated dominated by the princiles of Ingsoc (english socialism) and ruled by an ominous organization known simply as the party. Oceania and the other two world superstated, Eurasian and Eastasaia, are involved in a continuous war over the remaining world, and constantly shift alliances. As the book progresses it becomes clear that the war is largely an illusion, and that the three superstates maintain this illusion for their mutual benefit. It serves their shared purpose of holding onto absolute power over their respective peoples. Much of the warfare, in fact, is inflicted by these governments upon their own citizens.

[FallenWings]

From what I heard about it he predicted what the world would be like in the 1980's. And it was real wierd because he was amazingly close. Could be a different book.

[Alucart]

basicly gov OWNS YOU, what you eat and talk about as well
2+2=5

[6u63]

basicly gov OWNS YOU, what you eat and talk about as well
2+2=5

lol. This is true. There is a quote in the book where the main character (Winston Smith) believes that the government, who has for so long controlled the minds of its citizens, can twist logic.

As some people have said about this book, it is basically George Orwell's prediction of what the future has in store for us. During his mid-20s (? Not too sure), he was part of the Burma Imperial Police (let me apologize in advance; I can not remember) and his short essay "Shooting an Elephant" expresses his troubles with the government and the people of Burma. Because Britain controlled India with an imperialistic government, Orwell came to the conclusion that it was not the government/white man that controlled the Burmese, it was rather the oppressed controlled the oppressors. This experience was part of the many factors that led him to write "1984". [some other factors were living with the poor (there's a book he wrote about that... "Down and Out in Paris"? I'm really really unsure), fighting with the Spainards (again, my memory fails me on who he was fighting with, I do know that he was against Stalin), and etc.]

1984's main character is Winston Smith. This man is the first Outer Party member that seems to be an individual that doesn't submit the only thing he has that is his own to the government: his mind. The setting is in England which is renamed as "Airstrip One". The people of Airstrip One are split into 3 social classes: The Inner Party, Outer Party, and the proles. The proles are somewhat not considered human yet they are the key to destroying the totalitarian government. The statistics show that the Inner Party is about 5% of the population, Outer Party 10-15%, and the proles, 85%.

The Inner Party are the ones in control of the society. In everyone's house, there is a machine that is called the "telescreen". It is able to transmit and receive messages. This deadly device is able to observe and record all the movements one makes.

A huge part in 1984 is the usage of "doublespeak" and "Newspeak". Doublespeak is the ability to have an individual take upon two concepts or not fully understand the situation of the problem. There are 4 different types of doublespeak: euphemism, jargon, bureaucratese, and inflated language. Here are some broken down definitions:

- Euphemism: a word of phrase that is designed to avoid harsh or distasteful reality
- Jargon: the specialized language of a trade, profession, or similar group
- bureaucratese: piling words; overwhelming the audience with words. The audience won’t get the point or they will in a long period of time.
- inflated language: make the ordinary seem extraordinary, the common, uncommon; to make everyday things seem impressive; to give an air of importance to people, situations, or things that would not normally be considered important; to make the simple seem complex. It’s distorting the real image of a word or phrase.

Newspeak is the destruction of words. Why is this so significant? It is because it limits the individual's ability to think and express his/her thoughts. The government wants to take complete control of everyone's life. They even create a force to track down people for "thought-crimes".


The representative of the Inner Party and government is a fake figure that goes by the name of Big Brother. He is the Stalin-figure of 1984, who is also described to somewhat look like Stalin. The people of the Outer Party see him as their Savior and there is a time in the novel where we see a woman who is praying to him. This distortion of the mind definitely shows whose in control of the society.



Ugh. Too much knowledge flowing in. I didn't copy and paste this crap. The reason I know so much is because I'm reading this book and I just took a unit test on Part 1. 100 questions = 30 minutes :furious: I hope that helped. If it didn't, I'll post more.

[gillianvalkyrie]

Read Brave New World too because 1984 is just one half of the coin. What Orwell predicted could never happen unless everyone had a hand in it as well.

[Nym Moonshadow]

I believe 1984 is a great book of what might be. It scares you alittle, but I believe that the possability of horror is one that we ought to be weary of instead of the possability of bliss and utopia.

[vash_stampede]

sounds interesting im gonna go to the libary tommorow

[ChampagneSupernova]

iono.. i started to read it but it was sorta boring (to me) so i stopped reading it