1984

    1984, written by George Orwell, is one of the most famous politic fictional novels in the world. It's admitted as the representative of Anti-Utopian novels along with Brave NewWorld by Aldous Huxley and We by Eugene Zamiatin. The story of 1984 is built on an imaginary view of world. The whole world is divided into three super states—Oceania, Eurania and Eastasia. The Oceania is a country with fanatic Totalitarianism. The only regime in Oceania is English Socialism, which in the official language "NewSpeak" is indicated as IngSoc. Citizens are extremely class differentiated. Telscreen can be found everywhere in daily life, watching each single movement of each normal citizen. Children are encouraged to report their parents' potential "crimethink" to "thoughtpolice". Historic meterials are constantly rewrittened to make the decisions of the Party forever right. The entire society can only survive under the blind worship towards the leader Big Brother and the hate on the enemies in and out of the nation. The main character, Winston Smith, is an external Party member. Through his daily work and life he begins to question the leadership of IngSoc, latterly falls in love with another external member called Julia which caused him captured as a crime thinker. In the end, after the cruel reform of the Ministry of love, Winston is transferred into a typical "goodthinker" and voluntarily executed.

    The ingenius idea and the intelligent plot both bring this book into the forefront of the literary world. The character development in this book is defiantly clever and magnificent. At the very first beginning Orwell summarizes the whole plot with the slogan and the central idea of Ingsoc: "WAR IS PEACE;FREEDOM IS SLAVERY;IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." The Party's action of using war to distract the citizens from problems inside the country perfectly explains the phrase "WAR IS PEACE"; "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" is described the existences of doublethink, thought polices, in another word the mind control in the country; the reform of Winston, the witness of all this evil action, represents the meaning of "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY".

    The language in 1984 has done such a great and far influence to English itself that words created in the book are widely recognized. Some phrases and sentences that sounds ridiculous have held some specific meanings. "WAR IS PEACE;FREEDOM IS SLAVERY;IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." The equal sign between words with exact opposite meanings may make no sense usually. But combined with the events in the book, it becomes the most powerful and ironic way of expressing the cruelness of Totalitarianism. Another well-known sentence from the book is "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." Simple five words have already become the perfect symbol of restriction of freedom and privacy. Another example that impresses me a lot is in the last chapter, "Under the spreading chestnut tree. I sold you and you sold me." Beautiful and pathetic as a poetry line, this sentence is the mourning of the awful ending between Winston and Julia, and also the condemnation towards the reason that caused this tragedy.