I don’t quite know why I hadn’t read this before. This is an immensely powerful tale, and felt familiar all the way through due to the extent that Orwell’s concepts have permeated into cultural terminology. I read it pretty much in one sitting, partly floating on a lilo in the pool (perhaps that would be a lying?), which gave an interesting juxtaposition to the dark & depressing world of 1984.
How to write about it though? Is there anything which hasn’t been written about it? Published in 1949, it takes some of the aspects of the communist regime (I think!) and extends them to create a world where independent thought and action are forbidden, where the past is constantly rewritten, and where the regime demands doublethink – truly believing that which is not true, to the extent that one has forgotten it is not true, whilst also understanding that it is not true. It is truly compelling.
Winston Smith struggles to live within this world – as he works in the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he is constantly faced with proof of the regime’s control and amendment of the truth, and so starts to break out. He starts with a small rebellion (writing a diary) which eventually builds up to full involvement in anti-regime activity. Even from the start he believes that discovery and punishment is inevitable, and rebels because he cannot do anything else, rather than because he believes he will achieve anything.
I don’t want to give away the ending – if you haven’t read it, read it. I can’t really find much to comment on without writing a poor excuse for an A-level essay, other than how much of writing since then has drawn on this, popular TV concepts (Room 101 and of course Big Brother) have come from this, and it really does deserve its reputation as one of the best English novels of the twentieth century.
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