1984 by George Orwell: The review

So recently I read the book 1984 by George Orwell for my English class and I have to say it is one of the most interesting books I’ve read for school. 1984 and Of Mice and Men are the reigning champs for Favorite Book Read for School, just in case you were wondering.

Anyway, for those of you who’ve read it, I know you’re thinking why on earth I, a senior in high school and a 17 year old girl, would ever like a book that is so philosophical it could make a psychologist’s head hurt. But I’m actually serious with this. It’s so interesting to think about a world like that of Oceania, a world where everyone blindly believes whatever the government says without question (hint, hint people of America) and people are severely punished for thinking for themselves.

Now, mind you, 1984 was written in the 1940s, so Orwell was predicting the future, you could say. The question is, did he predict correctly? Almost. Today is actually a lot like 1984. The people follow the government and what they say without question and technology only aids in making us stupider. Fortunately, we still have our freedom of thought and free speech. I thought it was crazy when the book was talking about Goldstein and how he’s the enemy because he was advocating freedom of speech and free press and all the rights we have today… Kinda crazy.

But I think my favorite part was the ending because that was the part that required the deepest thinking. Now, I am in love with happy endings. I hate books that don’t have happy endings. I hate Of Mice and Men’s ending because it’s not all that happy. But I seriously liked the ending for 1984. At the end, Winston is in a café and he is playing chess and thinking about the war of Oceania and he’s reading those directions for the game in a newspaper. In the directions it says that white mates and Winston thinks “White always mates. No matter what.” Then he starts talking about good and evil and black and white and how Oceania and the Party are white and how white stands for good.

So I was reading and I was really upset because the Party had won. Winston ended up loving Big Brother and converting to the side of the Party. But then I had a thought. If the Party is white, and white always wins, doesn’t that mean the Party is good and Winston was evil? So the good side won and it was a happy ending. It’s crazy to think about because the whole book I thought the Party was evil.

We never read books from the side of the villain, but what if that’s exactly what this book was and the good side still won? All I can say is applause for George Orwell, who wrote a book that had more hidden meaning than a freaking Shakespeare play. So if you haven’t read 1984 in a while or even at all, please read it, you so will not regret it. It takes some thinking but it’s definitely worth it. And that’s coming from a teenager who can’t read a scholarly book/ essay to save her life thanks to the good old internet. :D