1984
By George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell is a dystopian novel. The protagonist Winston Smith was working in a city of Airstrip 2 where the authoritarian government and its leader ‘big brother’ control the whole society and every ’one’ needs to work under surveillance. Smith has different ideas compared to his co-workers, which is very dangerous. This is all until he meets Julia and spends time with her. They meet secretly in multiple places and fall in love with each other. However, what they’ve done is illegal in this country and especially for people who work in government like them. Sadly, they finally get caught and are tortured.
This book is very meaningful for me because the writer predicts the future in 1949 and some plots are still happening these days. I think Winston James got something that other people would never get because he has ability to think independently and this tells us we should also think independently. Therefore, we can value what we know and what is really precious for us.
This book comes with a caution though. Some of the storylines are too fierce and violent for younger readers. What’s more, people from different cultural backgrounds may have different views on the deep political issues that Orwell presents. For example, in China, where I come from, political books like 1984 are not going to be published in large numbers, and due to this people may not fully understand the author’s intentions. All in all, this book is an unquestionable classic and I think this book will open the minds of its most readers.
Book review written by Yuxuan (Henry) Zhu (Year 10 2020)
