The book I have chosen is “1984” by George Orwell.
I have always been interested in dystopian novels, I like getting transported into these crazy worlds, where the weak points of our society come out and burst and 1984 is the dystopian novel par excellence.
I read both the English and the Italian version, I saw the movie but I did not enjoy it as much as the book.
The thing I like the most about George Orwell’s masterpiece is the atmosphere: the very first page of the book drives us into the cold and grey town of London, capital city of what once had been called England but now is called “Airstrip One”. We meet the main character, Winston Smith, in “a bright cold day in April” while the vile wind blows. The hallway of Victory Mansions, where Winston lives, smells of “boiled …show more content…
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGHT.” and “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”, not to mention “2+2=5” the quote I like the most is:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”.
I think this line really catches the kind of control every dictatorship tries to exert: in 1984 history is literally rewritten by the Ministry of Truth (what a sarcastic choice of name) to convince people that Big Brother is right, that they are living in a perfect world and condition and that they must love the Party. Big Brother wants his subjects to be ignorant to better rule them, because we all know how simpler it is to manipulate ignorant and frightened people.
The world in which we live today seems really far from the dystopian society Orwell portraits: countries at war, then at peace, then at war again, for no apparently reason ; despotic governments and politicians who fight each other instead of cooperating, totally careless about people’s condition; people seem not to understand what is going on, but instead of reacting they let their rulers dope them with television, sex and food, they are like under a lobotomy.
Are we really “that”
I have always been interested in dystopian novels, I like getting transported into these crazy worlds, where the weak points of our society come out and burst and 1984 is the dystopian novel par excellence.
I read both the English and the Italian version, I saw the movie but I did not enjoy it as much as the book.
The thing I like the most about George Orwell’s masterpiece is the atmosphere: the very first page of the book drives us into the cold and grey town of London, capital city of what once had been called England but now is called “Airstrip One”. We meet the main character, Winston Smith, in “a bright cold day in April” while the vile wind blows. The hallway of Victory Mansions, where Winston lives, smells of “boiled …show more content…
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGHT.” and “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”, not to mention “2+2=5” the quote I like the most is:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”.
I think this line really catches the kind of control every dictatorship tries to exert: in 1984 history is literally rewritten by the Ministry of Truth (what a sarcastic choice of name) to convince people that Big Brother is right, that they are living in a perfect world and condition and that they must love the Party. Big Brother wants his subjects to be ignorant to better rule them, because we all know how simpler it is to manipulate ignorant and frightened people.
The world in which we live today seems really far from the dystopian society Orwell portraits: countries at war, then at peace, then at war again, for no apparently reason ; despotic governments and politicians who fight each other instead of cooperating, totally careless about people’s condition; people seem not to understand what is going on, but instead of reacting they let their rulers dope them with television, sex and food, they are like under a lobotomy.
Are we really “that”