Have you ever thought of living in a society where you are constantly being watched? Even when you are alone, your every action and every thought are being scrutinized. You are expected to behave, think, and feel in a certain manner which has to be approved by others and the moment you act undesirably, dammn, the next day you don’t even exist! You become a ghost with no past, no present, and no future.

Even the mere thought of having to live under such conditions grips you in sheer terror and that’s what I felt while reading this book- 1984 by George Orwell

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Written in 1948 by George Orwell, this book is a story about a future which is now past but still so relevant to the present. The author creates a dystopian society of future set in the year 1984 named Oceania, which is ruled by a totalitarian regime, called Ingsoc or simply ‘the party’.

“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”

1984, George Orwell

These few lines, I believe, are the perfect description of what Winston Smith is, the main protagonist of this story. The whole story unfolds itself in front of the reader from the perspective of Winston.

“For the first time, he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself.”

1984, George Orwell

George Orwell used symbolism throughout this book in various places and one of the most important examples of that is “Big Brother”. He is the face of the party. Everywhere you look, you find his eyes gazing upon you through big posters at every corner. He is omnipresent, there’s nothing that escapes his eyes.

“Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.”

1984, George Orwell

While I was reading this book, I felt like I had been trapped in it for so long without knowing freedom as we know it today and I longed for a way to get out of it. The story had a natural flow and never for a minute, it made me feel disconnected.

“The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.”

1984, George Orwell

The one thing, apart from the story and the characters, that makes this book all the more gripping is the way in which the author explains how exactly a totalitarian regime works and the insights given by him are so important, it changed my perspective of looking at things. He addressed some of the major problems of our society with such details that it gives us a very deeper understanding of how the world he created came to be and how it could also be avoided from becoming a reality if only one tried to look for the signs.

“The end was contained in the beginning.”

1984, George Orwell

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it to everyone.

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Feature photo is from PublisherWeekly

Some Quotes From 1984 by George Orwell

The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.

 

If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.

 

So long as human beings stay human, death and life are the same thing.

 

Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.

 

If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones.

 

It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.

 

The consequences of every act are included in the act itself.

 

Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.

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