Sheila's Reads

This may be more timely then when it was written.  Winston Smith is not following the Party's rhetoric.  He is thinking and realizes he has other memories and thoughts than what the Party wants good Party members to have.  He finally sees a way to rebel but the Party gets to him.

 

There is so much in this book.  It is a story of a regimen that controls everything including people's thoughts.  It is also a story that can be likened to our day and society.  Power and money are held by a few who control everything.  Winston thinks the proles will one day rise up but those in power know they won't because they don't think for themselves.  They listen to what the Party tells them and believe it and never question it.  Those in the Outer Circle of the Party believe what is told them also.  If they are caught thinking and remembering other pasts, they are arrested and tortured, reeducated, and eventually murdered so that they fall back into the Party line.  I thought Winston would make it.  I hoped Winston would make it.  But the Party got him.  It broke my heart.

 

This is my first time reading 1984.  I have to admit I wish I could write an essay about it and how our politics and society are becoming what Orwell was warning us about.  He talks about the technology, the oligarchy, the Newspeak used, emotions voided, everyone thinking the same, .  I see it so much of his vision happening today.  We grow further apart from one another.  We use technology instead of communicating face to face.  Families are broken and fewer marry and have children.  Education becomes rote because of teaching to tests.  1% of the population has more money than over half the lower income people.  Corporations have more rights than people.  Wages have frozen and backslid because of rising costs of housing, transportation, and food.  The government does not help the proles.  It keeps them downtrodden and poor.  So much could be expanded upon.

 

I also enjoyed this book because it made me think.  It used 50 cent words.  I had to use a dictionary.  I haven't had to do that for a while.  It is not a book I will forget any time soon.  If you haven't read it, I urge you to read it.  Wow!