Orwell’s 1984
The youngest’s final book of the year in English is George Orwell’s 1984. The teacher behaved herself and drew no parallels to current events in the classroom, however, she did ask students to do so in their final paper.
It’s been many years since I read 1984 - and I read it at the same time as Animal Farm, which obviously differs as it’s about the animals. Duh! Still, the themes blur a bit.
I’m not nearly so well behaved as the teacher.
The core concept of 1984 is “doublethink”. Per Wikipedia, it’s “a form of trained, willful intellectual blindness to contradictions in a belief system.” Patriot Act anyone? Waterboarding is not torture? And Guantanamo Bay detainees are not subject to the constraints of the Geneva conventions?
The protagonist of the story, Winston Smith, works for the “Ministry of Truth”, which rewrites history to serve the contemporaneous party line. Oops, there were no weapons of mass destruction. And disbarred ex-president Clinton was the most wonderful leader since JFK.
The novel unwinds against a backdrop of a perpetual war – perhaps generated by the ruling party itself. Enough said.
I think I’ll re-read the book – it might provide more insight than newspaper reports of current events.
Posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 by Jeri
Under: Politics, reading | 3 Comments »


