1984: a Masterpiece you should read

Book title: 1984

Book author: George Orwell

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopia on a totalitarian society, set in 1984. Today, in 2026, when I read it, the book felt so relevant that I almost didn’t want to finish reading it—to escape from reality. Because the book is more reality than dystopia.

Winston is a party member. Always monitored by the eyes of the party, through telescreens. The thoughts don’t get past too; there are the thought police.

The government apparatus is divided into four ministries - the Ministry of Truth that concerns itself with news, entertainment; the Ministry of Peace that concerns itself with war, obviously; Ministry of Love-maintains law and order; Ministry of Miniplenty-controls economics. The description of ministries gave me enough to relate to the current world order situation…

The book explores the surroundings of Winston. The official language is called Newspeak, a language that is constantly narrowing down, to narrow down the thoughts. People fantasize wars. Human relations are decaying. Pleasure and pain—both the emotions are dwarfed by the overpowering practice of loyalty to ‘the Party’.

I appreciated the book and the writing very much. Even though I enjoyed the writing, knowing how Mr Orwell projected the future with such accuracy, the darkness consumed me. It’s a must-read, but not a must-good-feel book. I can’t gather myself up to write a detailed review, for the fear of feeling dark again. I will revisit the dog-eared pages from my copy in future, to maybe nod to reality again, or maybe to cheer for a better time, who knows.

Will leave a quote from the book, to display the kind of powerful prose it uses—

One does not establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.