While I have been reading, I realized I haven’t posted a book review in a while. So here is one of the most interesting (and well-written) novels I’ve read recently.
Summary– This all-time classic has been on my TBR list for quite a while, and I am extremely thrilled to announce that it was worth the wait. Because once I read it, it became ‘unputdownable.’ Set in a dystopia, this book seeks out to expose the warped ideals of Communist leaders, and mirrors many of the same baseline themes as Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm.’ The pervading ignorance in Orwell’s fictional country of Oceania–led by Big Brother and his ‘Party’ —figuratively pollutes millions of minds. Essentially it exterminates the concept of individuality, to create a single functioning body regulated in thought, speech, and action. When Winston, the main character chooses to discreetly defy this status quo, with his secret lover; Orwell begins to pose the question how far mankind will go to preserve history; science, and most importantly its own sanity in the face of fear and domestic terrorism.
Warning: To those who have not read the book, the following paragraph may contain many spoilers. AND to those who have not read the book: READ IT! I swear you will not regret it.
My Thoughts–
I’ve extrapolated many messages from this book. All regarding the ideas of ignorance, manipulation, and fear. To be honest, I found the principle of Newspeak (a shortened dialect with minimal synonyms, and surface-level language) downright scheming. The whole idea behind establishing a smaller vocabulary in the citizens of Oceania was to leave them uneducated and defenseless, so that they would be compelled to conform to the thought-process of the crowd making them easier to gaslight and manipulate. This is why the younger population was so much more rule-adhering; and blindly followed Big Brother. They knew of nothing else. At the end, when Winston is slowly devoured, both literally and metaphorically by the rats; Orwell is trying to show how fear can change the truth, and a person, just as easily as it can shift the axis of our world. Big Brother outrageously forces his subjects to fight the internal war of themselves and ideals; and makes them hypocritically believe something is wrong with them so that they completely ignore the raging tempest in the world outside their shattered glass.
Have you read this classic? What are you thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. And if you haven’t…I suggest you check it out! Who knows? Maybe you’ll love it just as much as I do.
Spilled Ink 