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Book report - 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
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Book report 3: Nineteen eighty-four [1984] - George Orwella. Bente Philippens
b. GA51
c. 1984/Nineteen eighty-four
d. 326 pages
e. George Orwell
f. Penguin Books - June 8, 1948
g. Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born in 1903 in India, where his father worked
for the government. The family moved to England in 1907 and in 1917 Orwell went
to Eton. From 1922 to 1927 he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. This
inspired his first novel, Burmese Days. For two years, he lived in Paris before re-
turning to England, where he worked successfully as a personal tutor, teacher and
assistant to a bookseller. He also wrote articles for a number of magazines. In late
1936 Orwell went to fight in Spain for the Republicans and was wounded. Homage
to Catalonia is his account of the civil war. He spent six months in Morocco and
wrote Coming Up for Air there. During the Second World War he served in the
Home Guard and worked for the BBC Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943. As liter-
ary editor of Tribune, he regularly wrote a page of commentary on politics and liter-
ature. He also wrote for the Observer and later the Manchester Evening News. His
unique political novel, Animal Farm, was published in 1945, and this book along
with Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) brought him fame. George Orwell died in London
in January 1950.
h. In the year 1984, the world is divided into three great powers: Oceania, Eurasia,
and Eustasia. These are constantly at war with each other. In Oceania, Big Brother
and his party rule with absolute power. Society is divided into the proles, who are
free, the party members, who are monitored all day and night by telescreens, a
kind of television with a built-in camera, and the members of the inner party, who
control everything. Winston Smith lives in London, Oceania, but does not live by
the rules of the party. He is an enemy of the Party and knows that he will die for it,
like any thought criminal. He cannot believe in the things the Party does, such as
changing the past. He does not believe that he is the only one. He assumes that a
man who also works in his department, O'Brien, understands him. Therefore, he
writes a diary, partly to O'Brien. Then he meets Julia, whom he first thought would
turn him in, and she lets him know that she loves him. After they meet, they have
sex, completely against the rules of the party. They decide to rent a room. They
make contact with O'Brien, who they think belongs to an organisation against Big
Brother, and sign up. Winston is then given a book containing the ideas of Gold-
stein, Big Brother's enemy, about politics and history. Then they are arrested. He
also meets O'Brien, who has been watching him for seven years as a member of
the party.
i. Theme: Social Criticism
The main theme in this book is social criticism. It was written in 1946 when Europe
had just emerged from the Second World War and there were a lot of changes
looming which made it uncertain what the world would look like. Orwell was a so-
cialist, but was opposed to dictatorship and in favour of democracy. With this book
he wanted to show his contemporaries the horrors that would occur if the whole
world fell under a despotic regime. To make the picture more realistic, he included
aspects of Nazism and the Soviet Union and clarified them. As Winston eventually
adapts to the regime, Orwell made a statement that even the strongest of men
eventually succumb to the horrors.
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