About the Author

Part 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Part 2
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Summary of 1984
Characters
Summary Pt. 1 Chp. 1
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Summary Pt. 1 Chp. 5
Summary Pt. 1 Chp. 6
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Summary Pt. 1 Chp. 8
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 1
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 2
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 3
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Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 5
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 6
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 7
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 8
Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 9
Summary Pt. 3 Chp. 1
Summary Pt. 3 Chp. 2
Summary Pt. 3 Chp. 3
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Summary Pt. 3 Chp. 6

1984

1984 Summary, Study Guide and Essays

Find essays on 1984

T	Double edged sword	January 14th, 2003	Rating: 7.1820
1984 is a must-read. The belief that we have complete freedom and privacy in this country is a dangerous fallacy. I apologize if this posting digresses from the original point of this board but it seems a good place to do so. As alluded to in 1984, such a place as Oceania would not be possible without technology or, at the very least, would be much more difficult to establish. While I understand and embrace technology, I feel that most people have very little understanding or respect for it. How many people really contemplate what actually happens when they send an email, talk on a cell phone, purchase online via credit card, etc, etc. The same technologies that grant one more freedom have the same capacity to harm and to enslave if not respected. Like many, I used to think 1984 was simply a great work of fiction with little chance of actually becoming a reality. The frightening truth is that to a large extent, it already has. The terabytes of information compiled on every citizen already exist. All that is required is the motive to abuse it, as surely it has been for those individuals that have "popped up" on their radar screen as meriting surveillance. For those that haven't already familiarized themselves with it, look up the "Homeland Security Act" recently passed by congress. On the surface, it's a great idea for protecting the country from terrorism after 9/11. In reality, it gives the government carte blanche to acquire and use information on ANY citizen at ANY time and for ANY reason without anyone's knowledge or consent. The ends don't justify the means if, in the process of defending our "beacon for freedom", that beacon is threatened. Also look up "TIA" (total information awareness). 1984 might have been prophetic afterall. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Siddhartha Shrivastava	No Subject	February 4th, 2003	Rating: 6.7253
I finished reading 1984 last night & am thinking of it since then. I went thru all the comments above but none of them was able to come near what I felt after reading it. There has been a lot of words written above to find out present day telescreens, oceania & Big Brother. But when I finished the novel last nite it was none of these things which occupied my mind. Only thing that occupied my mind was those haunting last lines.The irony contained in them. "But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. " The struggle was finished , yes the struggle was finished,the struggle of a man to stand up for his beliefs 'cozhe believed in their righteousness. He had won the victory over himself. It is this use of word 'won' & 'victory' to represent loss & surrender, irony contained in them,the utter hopelessness coined in those cheerful words which haunted me all through the day. The most dreadful aspect of oceania was not scores of rocket bomb falling or the continuous war or the poverty or the mutability of past, What scared me most was impossibility of calling, what Orwell called, 2+ 2 = 4. The final surrender of Winston in believing 2 +2 =5 is what made me dread the Oceania & then dawned upon me the realization that in various walks of life almost all of us chose to believe in 2 +2 = 5 rather than confronting our private "Room 101". So for me 1984 represents the inner fears & private guilt of betraying our beloveds, our ideals , our principles & our beliefs in the face of adversity. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Dave	the scariest truth	August 21st, 2002	Rating: 6.6875
We need to read, and educate ourselves, and our future, with the broadest range of literary works, such as this, which encourage both the thought into possibility, and the exploration into the current reality of which we did, do, and likely will live in. How easy would it be, if it were so black and white as Orwell makes his 1984 appear to be. How easy would it be to accept if we were told that we were being watched by this devices line of sight, and listening devices were placed everywhere. How obvious would it be if we were to be blatantly subjected to forced indoctrination in the harshest of manors. How easy would it be to sell freedom and responsibility for comfort when we were told we were doing that. But Big Brother doesn't make himself so obvious to our society. Big Brother is smarter, sneakier, and more invasive than that. We are not told today where we are watched, yet still can be watched in 3D with camera's smaller than the head of a pin. And we can be heard by invisable lasers pointed at a solid from a mile or more away. We can be tracked from space with satellites with a reported resolution of less than one foot (we can see tire tracks in the mud with hi-res black and white sat photos). Under the affects of local anesthesia and GPS transponder with biometric and biological recording capabilities can be implanted without our knowledge, say, in the base of your skull, where it would not be noticed, in under a minute. And these are only the beginning of the things which Big Brother tells us. We neither chose our presidential candidates, nor who selects them, nor even chose them directly. We're merely given one more choice than Iraq, or any monarchy or single ruler government, solely to indicate to another what choice we would prefer made, without the choice to reject the options and find another. How far has Big Brother gone, where is Big Brother headed, and what does Big Brother really know? Who can verify what our 'free press' reports? Who checks and rechecks where the information the media reports to us? What plausible lies are we constantly fed until they become fact, and get changed slowly a bit more? Supposedly their's a law that states subliminal advertising may not be used, but how is this checked, and to whom does it apply? 1984 is a work of fiction, created in one man's mind, describing a fear of what could become. By no means does a mere novel have to become fact. But the science fiction of today is what drives us to create that science fact of tomorrow. For anybody who doesn't believe that some men are intelligent enough to see the patterns of the future, I invite you to read some of Joules Vernes novels', and see what technologies he foresaw. . . . Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Sleeve98	...Puh-leeze!...	February 28th, 2003	Rating: 6.6685
"Oh, this is a GREAT novel," "how prophetic," "THEY didn't want you to read it," etc., ad nauseum... 1984 IS a great book. It IS prophetic. But it's a car alarm. Considering the current social climate, one can't help but make that comparison. Sure the car alarm is a nifty thing, but who's paying attention to it? Exactly no one. Homeland Security, with its Total Information Awareness database, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forbids treating with your own property as you wish, government-approved spying on consumers by corporations - foreign AND abroad - the GPS-capable black boxes installed in all new automobiles . . . These things are happening because YOU are letting them. Those who would presume to select our leaders for us would spew its propaganda that gets more and more outrageous every day - and the public nods obediently, "habilitates" its thought processes and shakes its fists at those who "hate freedom." Don't crow on about the impact this book has had - judging by the complete capitulation of the lemming-like mob mentality, it has failed its mission to motivate. The eternal price of freedom is vigilance, and those who unquestioningly swallow the Party's line, despite their perceived cleverness in finding a relation to Big Brother within our government, have fallen asleep on the job. Shut up and go DO something - A N Y T H I N G but nothing. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Allan	No Subject	July 27th, 2003	Rating: 6.6265
Is Communism the same thing as Bigbrother-ism? The frank answer is no. Sadly, I have noticed many people (even those who posted on this board) believe that communism is the same thing as Bigbrother-ism. If you have paid enough attention to Emmanuel Goldstein's essay on "War is Peace" (chapter 3 of Goldstien's book) you would have noticed that the constant warfare is support by the government of the 3 powers because without constant warfare a hierarchical society would cease to exist! Stalinism and perhaps even Leninism is not true communism, but a distorted version of communism, Stalinism, one can honestly say, is something that resmbles Bigbrother-ism. The constant warfare, as explained by Goldstein, is to prevent the build up of WEALTH. If WEALTH was evenly distrubuted, then POWER would be impossible to remain to a small privileged elite, therefore in order to have power, warfare is needed to take away wealth from the people and spent on military purposes. Therefore, one would be utterly mistaken to think of communism (the word commune as base) as the same thing as Bigbrother-ism. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Ken O'Neil	Geroge was right. He just got the year wrong	July 24th, 2003	Rating: 6.5926
I have been reading George Orwell's 1984 about every other year since 1968 and I sitll get chills. Each time I read 1984 it becomes more prophetic. The book tells of a world that sacrifices freedom and self expression for econimic security. This is not realy about having good times because good time are only for those chosen few. It's all about power, control and conformity. As time goes by more and more of this philosophy is comming to pass. Don't get me wrong I belive I do believe in strong defence, but do we need to sacrifice you basic freedoms to be safe. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Doug	language and 1984	July 26th, 2003	Rating: 6.5758
Reflect on the degradation of language in 1984; here is Orwells greatest warning to the free world. Unless words have specific, precise identifiable and common meanings how is it possible to conceive of ideas such as freedom, oppression, resistance and the like. If it is no longer possible to formulate abstract ideas and communicate them then action and creativity are no longer posible and control is absolute and complete. "Syme bit off another fragment of the dark-coloured bread, chewed it briefly, and went on: 'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime , literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline,reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak, , he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. ' Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?" Look at the vocabulary of the average adolescent, the script of the avarage movie or the corruption of language by commentators and newsreader on the idiot box; we are half way there already and don't even see it. Buy a dictionary and good books and read, read, read, and you will be able to say with C.S.Lewis," The scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and microphones of his own age" Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Dan	1984 vs. 2003	February 4th, 2003	Rating: 6.4206
Many below have commented on this classic's relevance today, comparing the society Orwell invented in the 1940s with contemporary society. Clearly mass control is an issue today, with globalisation fast gathering momentum. I would note now how we are by no means living in Orwell's nightmarish society, but nevertheless fall victim to mass politics on a daily basis mainly through media manipulation, which we have seen a great deal of since 9/11. Note for example how we are being led into yet another unnecessary war in the Middle East (remembering the artificially puppeteered wars in '1984'), breaking numerous international laws and treaties (thus making the coming war illegal - remember the absence of any real laws aimed at protecting the public in '1984'), and against the polled dissent of 70% of the American public (thus making the coming war undemocratic to boot). In other words, our personal power against these mass institutions and operations is increasingly squashed by imperialistic assertion of US/globalised power in the world, in some ways like Winston Smith's little rebellion is squashed. But dissent is squashed in a sophisticated manner, exactly as in 1984 when O'Brien turns out to be a covert operative posing as a rebel. To begin with, we think we have freedom of speech and objectivity in the press and in the street. In the street we certainly do have the former, but it is clear that the media is far from objective and much is filtered and manipulated (observe how we have given up so many hard-won rights since 9/11, in ex-legislation which was meant to protect us; as well as many billions of dollars towards useless and harmful military operations for years to come, on account of national outrage as channelled and focused in the media onto the 'war against terrorism'). Thus our rights and freedoms are being eroded - but not through any overt Big Brother mass control - rather, through the wielding of big words in the media by the president and others, to inspire in us the feelings which will lead us to voluntarily agree to the plans they had for us and our money all along. In this way it looks like democracy and nobody complains, but how similar is it to Big Brother's propaganda really? It is just a little subtler. Another similarity is the Hate Room, where the general populace is given an object for all its pent-up aggression and frustration. Are Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and whoever else we are served up on a plate to hate, just our national Hate Room? How much control do we actually have over our own emotions and where they are directed? To put it another way, how much dignity have we lost? A dignified populace at home with its own feelings and in control of its own thoughts makes a society like '1984', or 2003, impossible from the outset. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Anonymous	No Subject	June 11th, 2003	Rating: 6.3846
George Orwell's class novel 1984 is a piece of literary genious that due to its harsh but honest views on totalitarianism was not accepted with the praise that should have accompanied it. His vision of 1984, a time decades into his worlds future indicates to us the level at which he interpreted the direction of the world through his involvement in times of historical significance. He describes the epochal society so vividly that it is not hard to believe what a place like that was like. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Liz	reality	February 4th, 2003	Rating: 6.3730
As time has passed 1984 is becoming more of reality. You should learn from reading books and that is exactly what Orwell wants you to do from his. He is a smart man who has predicted things that were not heard of in 1949 (when the book was written). Live, learn and act as a team upon the things that diminish our freedom. So you better start thinking now. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Isakov Eli	1984	July 27th, 2003	Rating: 6.2632
I believe "1984" it one of the most strongest , hardest and beautiful books I have ever read. My opinion about this book is amplified by the fact that I lived in a totalitarian state ( ex - USSR ) and everything described here: propaganda , three-year plans , thought control and even NewSpeak ( in some level - new words and names were created in USSR as a result of revolution and as a tribute to its heroes ) are in some extent familiar to me. Thats why I call upon the people who never saw or felt that: cherish your freedom. Do not let any political or religious propaganda to get over you. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Gabriel	1984	September 7th, 2003	Rating: 6.2381
I have read the comments made by others, but I can't really get rid of the feeling that something is missing. Yes, the book is about loss and surrender, it is about the defeat of the individual, it has some roots in social reality, but this all are secondary issues. The main issue of the book is power. Everything revolves arround power. Orwell presents a world where power is aquired conciously and willingly, logically and on scientific bases. And power aquired in this way can't be lost. That is the message of the book, I think. The indivdual is weak. He can't rebel against those who rule. That we already know from history, but Orwell goes one step further. He states that even the masses are weak and can't rebel against this kind of power over them. Winston Smith is an excuse for Orwell to analyse the methods used to gain and preserve this power, to analyse a society where these methods are applied, where the individual is not important only the Party is important, and only it can preserve the power it possesses and therefore live on. In this society one priciple rules. It sounds like this:"The power must be preserved and it only can be preserved by the Party." Everything else is secondary. Peace, abundance, science, art and in the end the advance of civilization are sacrificed for this end. A simple question arrises: Why is it power so important? Orwell states that power is a purpose in itself. Power is aquired for the sake of power. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Alex Parker	No Subject	September 7th, 2003	Rating: 6.1818
There are some things that can irrevicabley change the way you look at the world and infultrate even the most mudane of daily instances with a spark of reconition and dread. This book haunts me. I woke up in the night after I had read it and struggled not to slip into a nightmare. Whether he intended it as a prediction or as an extreem way of highlighting certain aspects of humanity and sociaty I am unsure, but it is impossible not to see similarities between the book and modern life. It is impossible not to be moved by it contents. He penetrates the dark heart of politics and uncovers the base desires that lay behind the thin vail we call "civilisation". It is a captivating and very readable book that encompasses a whole range of issues that should shock and interest anyone who's concerns are wider than there own personal gratification. Read with caution; it may change your life Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Matt	Big Brother is out there.	July 16th, 2002	Rating: 6.1558
Big Brother is alive and well. He feeds off the fear of the foolish. He offeres the fearfull protection, under his all seeing eye. If we are ignorant enough to fall for the seductive "Government Protection" we are no better than the characters in Orwell's book. To quote Benjamin Franklin "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safty." Intresting enough Benjamin Franklin said this in 1759. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
DC Whitehall	1984 Poem	April 15th, 2003	Rating: 6.1000
By DC Whitehall Nineteeneightyfear. The party knows everything And now I’m awful at math And I stare in awe at a faceless king While I suffer his Loving wrath. I live in squalidly flawless Oceania And know of thinking, an outlawed antique Swimming lost in a sea of voiceless mania I fear the future of what will be Newspeak. I am denied expression of individuality I am denied free thought I am denied illicit sexuality For which all, I am caught. In Emmanuel Goldstein's book I find comfort But know that such is only ephemeral For it is rebellious thoughts I support Knowing all hope is surely decimal. In fair Julia I found thoughts not harbored And love for her found me stronger still In her a trust in a fighting comrade was sheltered Not to mention an unlawful thrill. But fate tears the tether that binds humans together And in O’Brien I discovered a coarse façade In him I finally saw the hater, the butcher For which he is denied the kingdom of God. Hated technology When in this course of human events For which government owes an apology We the people, hold our privacy as evident. Doublethink is a crime That we do not commit While they drink souls and wine It is incarceration we unknowingly permit. I frequent the Ministry of Truth Hence I know very well the worth of letters I change freely the verity of records As I breed premature alzheimers. While we should be endowed some rights I ponder over what is life and liberty As I stay up lawlessly writing cold nights What is happiness in this political purgatory. Now I’d sell all my pity for a bit of gin Since to me it is this drink They assign And I’d drink to my worries all over again And trade all my glory for a spot of wine. But choices are a luxury I now not know Since dreaded three words heard And before this of course I knew the throe Since notions of secrecy were at best absurd. I was immersed in a corrupt celestial light I had anticipated something less dire I wrote same four words a score that night And I am here for my mind’s desire. Love is lost so closely far away So I helplessly scream out her name In a passionate fit of agony, my sanity did stray Yet being locked here I must abstain. Obscured months pass like hours and my mind breaks As my Brother has found out my worst fear My spirit is broken, my body aches And I wish it upon my dear. I become aware under the Chestnut Tree Café Where the dismissd go to think Calmly I enjoy my victory gin today Not finding it a misnamed drink. I feel happy and I feel safe With powerful eyes draping over me As I recall less happy days as a waif I accept my brother now, expectedly. If I read the words now I would agree As inversely years ago I wouldn’t Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (1) But since I don’t read, both couldn’t. Don’t think, the year is now 2084 I find myself staring up upon the Lewdies’ feet And even these find no happiness anymore So seeking serenity I found my better retreat. (1):It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country(Horace) Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
viper850512	In response to Todd	December 15th, 2002	Rating: 6.0377
Todd wrote on september 16th 2002:"The ending also, many have said that it shouldn't have been like that, that it should have a happy ending but we must all remember the purpose of this book was to warn us all, Orwell is a Genious in his own right." I just want to point out that the end of the book IS actually a happy ending. No, seriously, if u read the ending carefully, you will realise that Winston actually won. He "won the war with himself. He loved Big Brother." The key word here is "loved." Many people don't realise it, but in Newspeak, love and hate are the same thing (ie: The ministry of LOVE, where they torture people). In essence, Winston won the battle with himself because, despite his horrendous torture, he still had anti-Big Brother thoughts. The idea that "They can't get inside you" had been proven true. Countless effort had been put into trying to change the way Winston thought, and in the end he still had control over his own mind. The "long-awaited bullet" was symbolic of this. The relation between the actual bullet, which Winston had originally longed for, and this new symbolic bullet (the realisation that he could still think what he wanted) was that they both could provide relief to the tension building up within himself. In the end, the happy ending was surely existent, even if it wasn't entirely obvious. Winston had won. They had tortured him endlessly, but he still hated big brother. The meaning of the smiles on big brothers posters became clear. Big Brothers smile was a false one, an entirely forced one. This related because of the fact that that was what everyone had to do. No matter what your thoughts, you just had to pretend that they didn't exist, and put on a smile. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Megan	No Subject	July 27th, 2003	Rating: 5.9231
Orwell's dipiction of post World War II Oceania is profound. Though painful, 1984 is something that everyone should read. It is something that will affect the way you look at society and the way you live. Though I was depressed for months after reading it, I think that it is something that everyone should read, both as a warning of a future without hope of compassion or humanity and to experience Orwell's frank and chilling diction. He is truly a prophet. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
Freeman	China is like Oceania without telescreens	July 1st, 2002	Rating: 5.8800
A chilling fiction with a tragic ending, but in 1948 Orwell had already foreseen that what a totalitarian could bring to our society with the most damaging effect on people's mind, and how personal freedom could be striped away if we do not protect it for ourselves. The communist mainland China is almost exactly like Oceania just no telescreens. Nowadays the majority of people living in Chine have become totally disinterested in politics, but merely surviving. As a Chinese who was born in China, I wish more Chinese people could read books like 1984. 'If there is hope, it lies in the proles.' Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
john	No Subject	August 17th, 2002	Rating: 5.7429
one of my favourite books of all time. i wonder if people realise how close we actually are(mobile phones knowing where we are all the time, security cameras following our every move,even computers telling us where we logged on to and when). and then the propaganda telling us of what will happen if we dont toe the party line. it scares me to think of what will happen when our children and grandchildren are around. what is scarier is that politicial correctness is partially responsible due to the fact that people are now afraid to say or due certain things for fear that they will upset people. im all for being kind but im also for being yourself,something we are slowly but surely losing. things have to change or we will be looking at 1984 as a history reference. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High
emma	No Subject	February 21st, 2004	Rating: 5.5000
After recently reading 1984 i realised the proles are alive and well, living in the suburbs. The extent to which their values and opinions are moulded by the media reflects on the power of the Inner Party. Their ignorance of world events and politics feeds their gullibility and gives the countries leaders more power. Sadly the surburbs are growing. I don't believe a development in technology is what is needed to replicate George Orwell's 1984 world, its the growth of the suburban population, a population which can be moulded and manipulated, which is the key. Rate This Comment:   1 Low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High

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