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1984 by George Orwell

Overview

  • It's dystopian novel set in future world ruled by a totalitarian government called The Party.
  • The Party controls everything, people action, their words and thoghts
  • The Government is led by a mysterious figure known as BIG BROTHER.
  • People is wathced 24/7. The party control information, media and even language.
  • Main character is Winson smith, who works in ministry of truth which basically alter past record so that The party is always right
  • This book is good example of how government can manipulate truth and control society by fear and psychological pressure.

Quotes

Ignorance is strength. Throughout reported time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world. The high, the middle, and the low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age. But the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the high is to remain where they are. The aim of the middle is to change places with the high. The aim of the low, when they have an aim, for it is an abiding characteristic of the low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives, is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. Thus, throughout history, a struggle, which is the same in its main outlines, recurs over and over again. For long periods, the high seem to be securely in power, but sooner or later, there always comes a moment when they lose either their belief in themselves or their capacity to govern efficiently, or both. They are then overthrown by the middle, who enlist the low on their side by pretending to them that they are fighting for liberty and justice. As soon as they have reached their objective, the middle thrust the low back into their old position of servitude and themselves become the high. Presently, a new middle group splits off from one of the other groups or from both of them and the struggle begins over again. Of the three groups, only the low are never even temporarily successful in achieving their aims. It would be an exaggeration to say that throughout history there has been no progress of a material kind. Even today, in a period of decline, the average human being is physically better off than he was a few centuries ago. But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimeter nearer. From the point of view of the low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters.