"How can you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribble on a piece of paper, could physically survive?"

This book was mentioned in his Little Women movie interview about the book that he read, this one is the first that comes to his mind. Honestly, i dunno anything about this book, but by some comment people said that almost all student read this one because it's kind of the book that usually your teacher asked you to read for assignments and stuff, but since i'm indonesian, and my school never asked us to read books for language class,  so yeah here i am, a newbie for this one. Without further ado, let's dive in!

Synopsis

The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, which the book was published back in 1949. The story follows Winston living in London 1984. The country is living after the so called "Revolution" with their slogan

WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Kind of confusing? Believe me, so do i. This is the dystopian book, with world divided into three big states, the Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Winston is living in Oceania which the lead by the party, with the big brother as its leader. A totalitarian country, that claimed that the living is better now than before the war decades ago. Of course Winston is not believing it. The past is altered, and fabricated. With individualism counted as a crime, he just convinced that there is something wrong with the party.

My Review 

I honestly amazed by the first page of the book, since it's an introductions about this book. The author himself was suffering from illness in 1948 and die in 1950 yet he wrote a dystopian world in futuristic time, the time when 1984 even hype before it's actually 1984 at that time. 

The Plot

At fist time i was struggling while reading this one, because the vibe is definitely the feels when i read the Mein Kamf by Aldof Hitler last month (which i still can't really shake it off, that feeling). The world so called "Revolutions" that always saying that they're doing better now in comparison with the before the revolution, just feels like a cult in the country. Winston himself believe that the past has been altered, remade, which none of them true now. Nothing left as history facts how life is like before the revolution. Not a book, not a newspaper, because he himself working in department that in some other department working everyday to made the "new history".

"If you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that could be given a name." 

I definitely feel the propaganda is going on here, but i just can't really going fast pace to reveal the truth behind it because again we go with Winston's point of view. He believe that the party is wrong, and believe O'Brien also in same opinion with him. But the risk for being "annihilated" is just too big to talked it out loud about it. 

The first part of the book are just mostly talking about Winston's love, and the half part of the other part included a lot in book about the Brotherhood, an underground army lead by Goldstein. And lastly the most fascinating part, would be the most scariest part that you can find in the book

Weird Loveline 

Then suddenly his life focusing on her. Tried to talked to her secretly and failed for several time, then make it, agreed to meet outside the office, met and go to the woods, kissing, know nothing about the girl not even her name. Talk some more, have sex and just know the girl name is Julia, not even her last name. 

I think the way he loves her is just instant love, that i find not really amusing. He likes it when she's not pure, that she made love for more than one man. The more man she has been with, the better he said. Julia in other hand asked him what he thinks about her at first. He's being honest that he want to have sex with her, and then kill her. And she loves him more. I mean she made the move to him at first, without knowing much about him. Like... what?

Maybe instant love isn't my favorite troupes, or i just don't get it but this one isn't the book that i would suggest for a kid. Not even a high school er. What are the western think to made the student start reading this book at first place?

Political Issues

For the love line part, i can't really agreed for this book become book that must be read by student. But for the Political Issues, i can definitely see why this book is a must to be read in school. 

"Power is not a means, it is and end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship. [...] The object of power is power." — O'Brien —

"We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. " — O'Brien —

This book includes of brainwashing scene that i think kind of scary, because in the end, Winston, the only human who sees the weirdness within the party, can't fight the party alone. 

My Verdict