Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes written 1984) is a 1948 dystopian novel written by George Orwell, about an oligarchical, collectivist society. Life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control. The individual is always subordinated to the state, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the Party to manipulate and control humanity. In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party's propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct, yet his meager existence disillusions him to the point of seeking rebellion against Big Brother, eventually leading to his arrest, torture, and reconversion.
I will first review the book's plot. I is solid and the pacing is good, the story never really drags for too long and the turns in direction are at times unexpected. If not unexpected, they are at least developed very organically without any force to an ends.
The characters are well developed and believable, fully fleshed out and the writing style is suitable for this sort of dreary dystopian scenery. Orwell really is masterful in conveying the dread and hopelessness of his dystopian world. There is close to no space for questioning the logic of his world as all his loops of logic that one may question are closed off, and the reasoning behind every action in the story is well explained. Even if there were to be any question, he leads the reader on with such strange logic that you could only find one possible line of logic is possible at the end.
As a whole, this book is well written. However, after reading it I just felt crappy because the ending was so hopeless and crazy. I need to read something else, so freaking depressing.
