My first impression after finishing “1984” was: this book is quite a bit shorter than I imagined.
Summary
The story of “1984” takes place in a fictional 20th century,
in a politically oppressive country, following an ordinary protagonist named Winston.
After a period of turmoil, the world is divided into three countries.
Winston’s country is called Oceania, and Oceania is led by the Party. (original text)
The Party’s leader is called Big Brother.
Big posters of Big Brother are plastered all over the country,
with a line of large text under the photo:
Big Brother is watching you.
Thoughts on the Book
Reading this book gave me such a strong sense of déjà vu.
Big Brother.
In the book Big Brother is a fictional character—he’s the embodiment of the Party’s ruling power.
The Big Brother poster I imagined in my mind was something like America’s Uncle Sam recruitment poster:
though the smile is kind, it’s full of oppressiveness.Political oppression.
After I introduced this book to Mia, Mia sharply asked me:
“It really seems to be satirizing the Soviet Union—was this book published during the Cold War?”
Indeed, this book was published in 1949, and the Cold War was from 1947 to 1991.Compound words.
“1984” uses a lot of compound words (at least I think they’re compound),
for example the Party’s three requirements for the people:
crimestop, blackwhite, doublethink.
The Three Words
The book explains the meanings of these three words:
crimestop: What a country’s citizens think should all be good things; they cannot have any bad thoughts.
blackwhite: When our enemies call a deer a horse, it’s wrong; but when our organization calls a deer a horse, it must be for our own good.
doublethink: Sometimes a thing is correct, but the opposite of this thing is also correct.
In the book, the Party rules the people mainly based on these three principles.
I think this is a very interesting idea from the author:
once you achieve these three points, the people won’t have any uncontrollable thoughts,
and the Party wants everyone’s thoughts to be controllable.
Just like the main character in the book asks one of his friends:
“What good does it do the organization to wipe out everyone’s thoughts?”
His friend answers him:
“You are a person, you will die. But when you become part of the organization, you become immortal.
The principle is the same as cutting hair—the person loses a part, but on the whole is still alive.
This is power, the power of immortality.”
Reading this, I couldn’t help thinking of a conversation in “Schindler’s List”:
“You can easily execute someone in a concentration camp, but that’s not power.
True power is when you put a knife against someone’s neck, you can say: ‘I pardon you.’
That’s true power.”
Finally
I wonder how the Chinese translation of this book reads—I’ll have to check it out when I get the chance. ツ