1984

The book 1984, by George Orwell, is an excellent example of great storytelling. As I was reading it, I had trouble putting it down because I wanted to know what would happen next. There was always a sense of suspense and excitement through anxiety of being found out by the Party, the government which controls everything in Winston Smith’s, the rebellious protagonist, world. 1984 is a fantastic book to read because of the way it’s written, and I would recommend this to anyone interested in an amazing read.

I had selected this book from the summer reading list provided to me. My mom had looked at the list and highlighted four books on that list that she had read. She had told me that all of the four books she had read were very good. I asked her about each one and she gave me a quick summary of them. 1984 appealed to me the most because I enjoy the subject of propaganda in books. I now know that I had selected well from that list because I am very satisfied with what I read.

I have many examples of strengths in the book that made it a fantastic book. First, I loved that nothing was blatantly spelled out in the book, but rather I had to step back and think about what each word in a quote could mean. Secondly, it was a very short book (only 300 pages), which allowed me to take my time to think about the book, rather than having to rush to the finish it. Another example of what made the book a good use of storytelling was that it used foils to create a sense of tension between the Party and Winston Smith. Any reader will take a side on an issue, and because of Orwell’s use of foil, I’m sure there are heated debates about discussing this book, and I wouldn’t mind participating in one. There were about seven characters in the book, which was nice because they all served a purpose and their names were easy to remember because of the small number of them. Also in the book, there was a relationship between Winston Smith and black-haired girl named Julia that the Party had strictly forbid because it didn’t allow any pleasure or emotions in its citizens. If you are a strong believer of love conquers all, than you are reading the wrong book. I liked that, in this book, for once, the “bad guy”, in my opinion, wins. George Orwell used excellent storytelling in 1984; however, there were some problems I had with it that caused me to dislike it.

Unbelievability and holes in the story were the two main weaknesses in the book that caused me to slightly dislike this book. For example, I know that the book was written in 1949 about the future, and that it would be impossible for Orwell to predict what would actually happen, but that fact that the book is talking about a huge radical change (involving every country on Earth to become three giant nations) that occurs in thirty-five years puts me in disbelief and makes me believe that the author has no idea what he’s talking about. I think that any educated person would believe that it would take a lot longer than thirty-five years to basically conquer the entire world and rebuild a new structured society with new technology and beliefs. Also, I can think of several things that Winston Smith should have done that, in his situation, I would have done. This makes me feel detached from the character. Aside from those two weaknesses, I really enjoyed this book.

1984 shows some really good examples of excellent storytelling because of the way Orwell made his characters, events, and places come off the page and into my mind. I’m glad I picked that book for my summer reading and definitely do not regret it. I don’t think that my bias for propaganda books got in the way of my judging this book as having many strengths, and that it was genuinely a great story.