Review: 1984
George Orwell is a downright genius. That’s the overwhelming feeling that I had once I finished reading 1984. Oh man what an awesome book. I’d got 1984 from my sister who thought it would be a book that would suit my taste and oh boy was she right. This goes up as one of my top books of all time. Being relatively new to the genre of Science Fiction I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but after reading this one, I can’t wait to read some other similar books like Animal Farm and a Brave New World. George Orwell’s 1984 will be the benchmark that the rest of these books will have to match up to.
1984 is a book that I would love to put under the horror category simply because it was successfully run a chill up my spine right through the course of the book. Make no mistake, 1984 is no fantasy la-la land type of book which paints a pretty picture of the future. I984 isn’t set in a brilliant future marked by scientific development but one in which society in which is frozen in time. It is a society which is ruled by an all-powerful entity called Big Brother. Big Brother controls what you can think, what work you do and just about everything that can be controlled. 1984 tells the story of a man named Winston who questions this entire system. That’s probably as much as I want to tell you of the story without having to give out any spoilers.
1984 is a book that was far far ahead of its time and in fact I would say that it is ahead of our time as well despite not focusing on technological developments and things of that nature. It makes you think more deeply about words like Freedom and rights, words which we often not just take for granted but don’t exactly understand the deeper meaning of. Winston once simply describes freedom as the ability to say that 2 + 2 = 4. What if you weren’t even able to believe that? That’s the type of haunting society that George Orwell creates in 1984. He deconstructs society down to its basic structure and talks about what really drives human beings and this is where Orwell really exhibits how brilliant he is. I’m sure Orwell’s works had an influence on a lot of the stuff that is more popular on TV these days like ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘V for Vendetta’ etc. I also see a lot of similarities in the governmental structure that exists in places like North Korea. But let’s not for a second think that our society can’t possibly reach a situation like the one mentioned in the book. And it is this realization that makes the book even more hauntingly brilliant.
The book is full of quotable quotes which further shows what a genius Orwell was. It is an absolute must-read for those who haven’t already read it. Don’t think about if you’re comfortable with the genre and all that. I assure you that it will definitely change the way you look at the life and freedom that you have.
My Rating: 4.5/5