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Boekverslag George Orwell
Nineteen eighty-four / 1984
Geschreven door: | Emma (4 vwo) [meer] |
Datum ingestuurd: | 5 november 2008 |
Taal: |  |
Woorden: | 1.150 |
Bekeken: | 737 keer (1 deze maand) |
Waardering: | |
Deel op: |
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(1984)Information:
Name book: 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Author: George Orwell
Year of publication: First published in 1949.
Summary:
The story has three parts, which each focus on a certain subject.
Winston gets introduced in the first one. You will learn about his job, the situation there and the fact that he keeps a journal. Something that is very forbidden at that time. At work he gets a note from a girl named Julia. He does not know her, but the note says ‘I love you’. He arranges a meeting with her, and she explains that she is also against the Party. In the meantime, he has regular eye contact with a male named O’Brien. Winston believes, guessing from the glance in his eyes, that O’Brien is also an enemy of the Party, the current rulers and dictators.
In the second one, Winston and Julia make love in the countryside, where there should not be any two-way telescreens and microphones. They start a love affair, which is forbidden, for there should only be sexual intercourse for the sake of producing children who will follow the Party, not because of lust of love. Winston rents a room in a small antique shop in a proles (proletarian/workers class) quarter of London. He is told by the shopkeeper that there is not a form of spying in this house, so he continues to make love with Julia there. In the meanwhile, he makes contact with O’Brien. Winston figures out that O’Brien is part of the Brotherhood – a secret organisation against the Party, equal to The Underground in World War Two. He explains all his doubts and anger to O’Brien, who nods friendly.
At the end of this part, Winston and Julia are in the antique shop again. They accidentally break a picture frame and the picture falls out of it. There is a telescreen. It turns out the shopkeeper has always been part of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are arrested, but they promise to never betray each other, before they are sent away.
The third and last part takes place in the Ministry of Love. That happens to be a very ironic name, as the main think the Ministry of Love does is torturing people. The same thing happens to Winston, by O’Brien himself. He was not part of the Brotherhood, he even assumes the whole Brotherhood does not exist. Winston is tortured for months and he starts to wonder why. O’Brien explains it all. The Party has not planned to kill him. They do not want him to say that the Party is good either. They want him to believe it. To make a sheep of him like they did with all the others.
In the end, Winston is brought to the infamous Room 101. Earlier in the book it is explained that Winston has a serious phobia for rats. In Room 101, he is brought closely to rats, which could eat him any moment. He screams that they should torture Julia with this instead of him and therefore betrays her.
After that, he is sent free. He meets Julia again, she also says she betrayed him. The story ends when Winston is finally fully convinced of the truthfulness of the Party.
Characters:
Winston Smith
He is a middle aged male and the protagonist of the novel. The story takes place in the year 1984, which is kind of obvious. He works at the record department at the Ministry of Truth, there he erases all data which could say anything badly about the ruler of the country where he lives – Oceania. Winston lives in a situation which is far worse than the worst totalitarian dictatorship ever occurred in humanity. Even thinking something that is slightly forbidden will result into torture and possible murder. Winston must keep his untrue thought away from the Thought Police. That is a hard task, but he tries to do it anyway with a bit success. He is rather intelligent and keeps his mind open for other things than the media serves him. He feels he is someway more worthy than other human who follow the Party like sheep.
Julia
A young girl and promoter of the Anti-sex League and other pro-party activities. Later is revealed that this is just a mask, she is in fact pro-sex and secretly makes love with Party members who also are not keen of the manner of ruling in Oceania. She and Winston have a secret relationship from about one third of the story. Although she knows about some things, like at which places there are telescreens, she is not quite intelligent and rather just rebels. She believes that one person cannot make the Party suffer damage, she does it all for herself.
O’Brien
He is an intelligent person and he knows how to persuade people to believe the same thing as him, that the Party is the most important thing and should be followed with no exceptions. He is able to create the mask of anti-Party member and Winston trust him with all his heart, but O’Brien shouldn’t to be trust.
Own opinion:
I found this book quite interesting. Of course I already heard famous phrases like ‘Big Brother Is Watching You’ and such, and I have always been interested in the book where it all came from. When a friend said this book was rather good, I wanted to read it too. I am glad I did.
The story is pretty thrilling. I would never have guessed the ending or even the plot wending at the end of the second part, where Winston and Julia get arrested. The story itself was full of plot changing, which kept me interested.
About the writing style. It was somewhat old-fashioned, but I suppose that is normal from a book from the fifties. The words were not very hard, I could easily read it without using a dictionary, as the story was very clear.
The book was somewhat miserable. There were quite a few scenes where the manner of acting of the Party was described and that did not make me cheerful at all. The scenes with Winston and Julia, on the other hand, were more uplifting.
Also, the theme of the book was quite interesting. A dystopian society like present in Ninety Eighty-Four is possible to achieve, even nowadays. If they would try hard enough, countries like the USA could rule the world within a year, I think. But what we all should learn by reading this book, is that such countries are depressing. Human rights are ignored, and that is a very bad thing.
Therefore I think the book was good. It was easily written, exciting to read. It was a bit sad, but that is what the theme stands for and thus that is all right.
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