George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
“1984” is a dystopian novel by English writer George Orwell. “Big brother is watching you” is the slogan that emerged from this book, which is often called the “despotic novel”, where an authoritarian government sees and controls everything. It is a bleak vision of the future, leading to the extreme consequences of the totalitarian conditions and tendencies of the present world.
The Big Brother totalitarian regime, which constantly monitors everyone and everything through countless screens, exercises absolute control over the actions and consciences of the people.
Everything serves power. Books, books, archives and minds are constantly falsified, because “whoever has the past, has the future; whoever has the present, has the past. ”
Winston Smith is a clerk in the Ministry of Truth, which is dedicated to constantly updating history to adapt to today’s circumstances and fragile alliances. He and his colleagues are kept under surveillance as a collective measure by the ubiquitous presence of Big Brother who sees and knows everything.
In the novel “1984” the TV screens watch and everyone eavesdrops on each other. Crime is the “sin” that brings death, so everything that helps crime must disappear: freedom, language, feelings.
With great skill, George Orwell explores the themes of mass media control, government surveillance, totalitarianism, and a dictator’s methods of manipulating and controlling the history, thoughts, and lives of people in a way that no one can escape.
“1984”, one of the masterpieces of literature of the century. XX, is read as a manifesto and as a prophecy at the same time. It still comes to today’s reader as a call to live without compromise, but even as it warns us of the disturbing truth, that the terrorist state that sows death is only one step away from returning to reality: Big Brother is already watching us!
Critics
Suddenly, Orwell’s novel seems very familiar to us. It is a world where Big Brother constantly monitors and the tools of technology can eavesdrop on people’s homes; a world of endless wars, where fear and hatred are directed at foreigners; a world where governments insist that reality is not “something objective, external, self-existent” but “what the Party believes to be true, it is the truth.”
The New York Times
Orwell’s novel is a warning to the human race. He emphasizes the importance of resilience in the face of mass control and oppression.
The Guardian
Absolutely extraordinary!
my
Orwell created the character of O’Brien to warn people of the intellectual being seduced by power.
The New Yorker
It is almost impossible to cite propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian policies, or distortions of truth without reference to 1984. […] That novel is both a profound political essay and a shocking and tragic work of art.
The Atlantic
Books like Orwell’s are a powerful warning, and it would be a great sin for readers to interpret “1984” simply as another description of Stalinist barbarism without realizing that, in that work, it is about us as well.
Erich Fromm
“1984” was not written just for the sake of Stalinism or dictatorships in general, but simply and only for governments. Even the most paternalistic governments seemed to be part of 1984, and the phrase “Big Brother is watching you” represented everything that was out of the individual’s control.
Isaac Asimov
Many of the ideas in this book have become so much part of our language and cultural heritage that it can easily be forgotten that “1984” is actually a book. From “Big Brother” to “Thought,” the landscape of dystopia created by Orwell still exists in the minds of those who have not read the book. It has become a handbook for totalitarianism, for the state that watches over everything, for the power of the mass media in manipulating public opinion, history, and even the truth.
Independent
