1984: check!

Another one crossed off my list!

So this was definitely an interesting read, and as predicted, something happened right after I posted last. And it did involve the girl and the thought police.

The ending was not quite what I was expecting, but it worked nonetheless. I definitely have more respect for Orwell after reading this book, as opposed to the misery that is Animal Farm. It is interesting how he juxtaposes Winston and Julia. They believe the same thing and have similar ideologies, but are different ages. In other words, Winston can remember times that were different from the year 1984, while Julia has grown up as a child of the party, and puts up a good front in order to disguise her true feelings.

One of the more terrifying ideas in the book was that of doublethink and altering the past. At one point, Winston noted that if O'Brien believed he was floating and Winston also believed he was floating, regardless of whether he was floating or not, he was floating. The making up of lies and forcing others to believe them was definitely an interesting concept. Bush thought we were going into Iraq to get weapons of mass destruction, and if Americans believe that, then that's what we're doing, regardless of why the war started in the first place. Orwell definitely is a strange thinker...

Additionally, the passages and chapters about Winston changing facts, deleting references to people who had disappeared, switching papers back and forth between Eurasia and Eastasia to convince the public of the truth were mind boggling too. Essentially, Winston and others work to destroy the past and make it relevant only to the present. The fact that Winston was one of the only ones who could remember the past was interesting, but vague. It could be that others could remember the past but were so brainwashed that they accepted everything Big Brother said without question, or that Winston was legitimately one of the only ones who could remember. I think the former is more likely because Winston did talk to a prole who could remember things, so it's likely that the party has brainwashed memories out of people. While I am glad I do not live like Winston, I feel there are enough eerie coincidences or foresight by Orwell to be just a little off put.

I don't feel the need to analyze everything that happened in the second half of the book, but I will leave you with some quotes I enjoyed.

"'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" (p. 34)

"Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one." (p. 80)

"The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already." (p. 200)

I wasn't expecting to like that book, or even have it influence me as it did. Kudos to Orwell, I guess. Next up is most likely Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Knowing me, though, I may come back with something completely different and not even something on my shelf. We'll see about reading though...school starts again on Tuesday so my free time may vanish before my very eyes.