Nineteen Eighty four is a dystopian novel written by George Owell in 1949. The book is set in “Airstrip One”, which is a strip of land that Great Britain has developed into. The settings is in the mist of war, where international superstates battle each other, where “Airstrip One” is part of Oceania, one of the superstates. Ever heard of the phrase “Big brother is watching you”? It might have been an inside joke that left you confused or feeling uneducated. This term was originally coined from this very book, 1984. After the book was published, it allowed people to view a distant future where the government would be oppressive and corrupted. The “Big brother” in question is an omnipresent government figure who can see sense or see everything and anything an individual is doing. As a result, the people must fit to the standards of society, pledge loyalty to the state, and push down independent thought. It is implied that if anyone even thinks about “anti government” ideas, they are arrested and are never to be seen again. This setting opens up to introduce the main character, an average joe, or in this case, an average smith. Winston Smith belongs to the middle class or known as the Outer Party. He lives a life like everyone else. He coughs down synthetic brown bread, and chokes on cheap gin provided by the state. However, Smith has a journal where he criticizes the party and big brother. He knows that if the “thought police” caught him, he would be executed without question. There are monitors placed everywhere that have built in microphones and cameras that inform the police about the behaviors of individuals. Smith despises this grip on his privacy, and this fuels his rants written in his journal. Smith has a small alcove within his apartment that Smith thinks that he is safe in. The one place where the monitor doesn’t have access to is the place where smith feels most safe.

Smiths hatred toward his society is also depicted in his workplace. Smith works in the Ministry of Truth, a place where official documents and physical records such as photographs are altered and censored. Smith’s workplace is a place of tension and loathing, he cannot trust his coworkers and no area is safe from government surveillance. However, like most of the citizens, Smith has adapted to push down his true thoughts and put on a mask of indifference. One day at the Ministry, Smith ends up helping a woman who had fallen down in the main hallway. While assisting the woman, Smith is handed a note. The note is later revealed to have the words I LOVE YOU. Sounds like the beginning of a cheesy or pseudo-romantic movie, but this is not the case. It turns out, the woman, who is called Julia, is also someone who has views against the government. Long story short ( Or long chapter short?) Smith and Julia start a love affair, where they meet up in undisclosed locations. However, this blind love leads them to lower their initial cautiousness as members of this twisted society. They act careless and eventually their love affair is discovered by the party.

Soon afterwards, Smith is approached by a party member by the name of O’Brien. O’Brien leads Smith to believe that he is a member of the Brotherhood, a secret revolutionary organization bent on overthrowing the party. O’Brien hands Smith a book by Emmanuel Goldstein, a kind of legend amongst the people. He is a man wanted by the party, and supposedly the leader of the Brotherhood. Smith takes the book, and it seems like the book is about to turn to a positive look. However, this is the absolute opposite. It turns out, O’Brien is a thought police agent who was acting undercover, in order to root out people with mindsets like Julia or Smith. The couple is captured, and transported to the Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Love is a modern day Tower of London, responsible for the “rehabilitation” of criminals. The ironic name has a weirdly amplifying effect on the terrifying nature of the place. O’Brien is charged with being the interrogator and rehabilitation officer for Smith. Smith, over a couple of months of solitude and extreme torture, ends up a shadow of his former self, a dying man of skin and bones. He is forced to admit to crimes he hadn’t committed, and force his mind to fear and love the party. However, Smith believes himself that his love for Julia remains the same. This is resulting in Smith being thrown into room 101, a room that makes the patient experience his or her worst nightmare. Smith’s worst fear are rats, and when a cage full of hungry rats are forced upon him, he desperately screams “Do it to Julia!”. This breaks his resolve, and shows that he has betrayed her.

After being broken completely and utterly, Smith is released back into society. Smith encounters a now released Julia in a park. They confess to each other that they betrayed each other, and now look at each other with hints of disgust. The party was able to destroy their once adamant love. Smith is shown toward the end sipping the jin he so hated toward the beginning of the novel. Smith is now an alcoholic, and thinks about his society. It is revealed to the readers that Smith’s rebellion toward the party and Big Brother is completely scrapped, and that he feels a complete love from and to Big Brother.

The novel is a great read that personally changed my outlook on modern society. It has great themes such as censorship, Nationalism, as well as love and betrayal. This book is a modern classic that allows the reader to experience the book in different ways every time he or she reads it. It gives a unique view from the mid 1900s on their outlook of the future. Owell is able to deliver a unique and shocking perspective on the importance of individualism, as well as faults in our society.The book overall is an excellent pick for readers trying to advance into higher levels of literature, as well as fans of the current dystopian hype. This novel can be seen as the founding father of the dystopian genre, and it lives up to its name. The novel had its twists and turns, that left me, the reader enthralled to the dark but interesting world stemmed from the mind of a brilliant writer.