1984 by George Orwell follows the life of Winston, an ordinary man living in Oceania, the prominent setting of the book. Oceania is a dystopian superpower led by “The Party”, a totalitarian regime headed by the mysterious “Big Brother”. Oceania is often in a state of global war, yet the Party spreads propaganda and places heavy surveillance and restrictions on Oceania’s citizens. Winston dreams of rebellion against the party and forms a relationship with Julia, another rebellious party member. The story continues from here. I enjoyed much of this book, and the message it brings is based on real-world corruption, oppression, authoritarianism, and surveillance within past and present countries such as Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union under Stalin, which were quite prevalent when the book was published in 1949. Before reading this book, I already knew a lot about it as it is a modern classic, and I was already vaguely aware of this novel’s themes on society, oppression, and surveillance, yet I feel reading the book, the themes were more subtle than I thought they would be. Although, this isn’t a bad thing as I feel it increases the book's reading comprehension level. Furthermore, this book has powerful world-building, and it makes the reader immersed in the world of Oceania, and you can empathize with characters on their struggles with the part and with each other. One of my complaints is that some of the book feels dragged on, and it feels sometimes as if there is only filler. Also, the story was a little hard to follow at times, but that might have just been the way I read it. Overall, to future readers, I would recommend this book as it is a literary classic, and it commonly is referenced in pop culture and everyday life. It might be in the school curriculum to read it too, so many people will have to read it anyway, but I’m not sure. Its messages are timeless as the problems struggled through by Winston and Oceania’s citizens can be drawn to people today, living under dictatorships or with their voices suppressed. Some nations today have very heavy surveillance, kind of like Big Brother.
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