1984

    1984 is a story about a world that has completely abandoned human nature.  For me 1984 was an odd story that really made me think.  In many ways the world that Winston lived in was terrifying.  A world in which the government had complete control over human emotions, truth and could even alter the way people thought.  I think that George Orwell wrote this book as a warning against communism and the dangers of dictatorship and tyranny.  To me this novel was about what can happen when a government takes too much control, not just in one country, but across the world.  In the world of 1984, there are three governments that are constantly fighting an endless war with each other.  They fight this war simply to use up produced materials and have an excuse to keep the poor hungry.  The Party uses this tactic to keep the lower class completely dependent on the goverment, in order to keep them loyal to their country.  This directly reflects what was beginning to happen in communist Russia when Orwell was writing this book.  The Government also creates and portrays a common enemy to the public.  This enemy is Goldstein and the Brotherhood. I found this part of the story very interesting.  In a lot of ways I found this idea almost genius.  Throughout history people have rallied together to fight a common enemy, so in Oceania, the government created this fake common enemy to unite the country.  My overall attitude of the novel was that it was more about the psychology of people than anything else.  The novel made me think about things I have never really considered before, in particular the concept of truth.  One of the biggest ideas 1984 deals with is that of truth and history.  “who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future.  Who controls the present controls the past ... what ever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting.  It was quite simple.  All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. Reality Control.” (pp. 35-36)  I found myself struggling with this concept for most of the book.  The idea that if you know something to be true, but no one else thinks it to be true, and no evidence makes it true, than is it true at all?  Winston also struggles with this concept.  It isn't until the end of the book that Winston gives in to the party and no longer believes what he knows to be true.  The party makes him completely abandon everything he knows to be true, and forces him to abandon the one thing he loves most, Julia.  After this moment he is no longer human.  He is no longer capable of human emotions and has completely conformed to the Party, believing their lies and following Big Brother.  I did not like the ending of this novel because Winston essentially died.  I was rooting for him to escape the lies and corruption of the party but in the end, he became just another one of their brainwashed slaves.