Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Nineteen Eighty Four: Anniversary Edition by George Orwell

79 reviews

haiqanoor's review against another edition

it’s so boring, all the main character does is complain and be a misogynist -

the only mildly interesting thing he did was was write in that book and then he went straight back to having beef with some kids

- i don’t remember the guy’s name and orwell is a snitch so

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Torture, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

siowan's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

rewb's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Genocide, Torture, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

spookypossum's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

tkivinen's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A dystopian classic for a reason. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Death of parent

viviankeithley's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Excrement, and Murder

imaginefishes's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Terrifying to read and realise some of the parallels between this world and ours in Singapore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Minor: Sexual content

nikolas_kolinski's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

• 1984 - review

1984 may not be the best book ever written in terms of style and narrative, yet its powerful and ever-present themes certainly make it a masterpiece.

Orwell's style is capable of appearing analytical and rigorous, but also colourful and full of emotions at the same time, depending on what's necessary.
Moreover, the language in part I and many parts of part II is strictly logical and linear, while the parts where Winston and Julia fall in love

or the moment in which they believe they have really found a way to rebel against government (through the so-called "Brotherhood")

are full of positive emotions, hope and happiness. 

In the same way, part III of the book displays the horrible state of mind in which Winston is reduced (and then even enslaved, we may say) by the Party and presents a load of different emotions, hence contrasting Winston's attempt to  break free and his hopes with the tortures and the will of O'Brien and his other tormentors. 
The feeling is overall that of a slow and decadent decay, from freedom and happiness to sadness, humiliation, melancholy, suffering and, finally, blind obedience.

The author thus proves himself a master of writing, versatile and capable of telling different moments with different nuances. Furthermore, although act I and act II may seem boring at first, as soon as the reader finishes the book by travelling through

the challenging

act III  (

sharing all of Winston's hardships and struggles in the process

), the whole book takes on new meaning, and the early parts, even if they may have seemed bland in the start, seem now a necessary prologue to the perfectly

and tragically

constructed third act.

Orwell's psychological characterisation of his characters is superb, with Winston being the protagonist and the main point around which the plot revolves, while giving also importance to the role of other characters, but always through Winston's eyes.
It is no surprise then, that many of the characters appear and behave differently than they really are:
- O'Brien

more than any other, initially considered a friend and a saviour, eventually turns out to be one of the worst - and therefore, one of the best - villains ever written

- Mr. Charrington

, initially seeming like and old friend who is nostalgic for the past times and hopeful for a new future, eventually betrays both Julia and Winston for the Party

-  Julia herself

, seen always only through the main character's view, which is positive and blissful when Winston starts to date her and really loves her (giving also in this instance more space to her own ideas and opinions) but which in the end, after the torture they both endured and after they both betrayed each other, is totally cold and distant, partly still secretly wanting to get her back but still surrendering to the rules imposed by the Party and thus seeing her as something useless and bad for him.

The most elaborate, important and essential part, still to this day, is however the precise and accurate way in which Orwell explores the ways through which a government can overpower and overwhelm his own citizens to become a dictatorship, or even worse.
The fact that each and every man, apart from the proles, is constantly monitored by tele-screens, hidden cameras and hidden microphones highlights the first step the government takes to gain power: the constant control of his citizens, followed immediately by punishment when someone doesn't do what the Party wants (something really relevant even in our age, where we are already increasingly surrounded more and more by technology)
Then, all the lies and propaganda through which the party indoctrinates its citizens, not only by constant lying but by making sure they are happy to lie to themselves (freedom of thought and freedom of the press are not only important, they are necessary, otherwise everything could get always worse and worse)
And in the end...

as explored in act III, a terrible procedure of torture and oppression that makes the individual not only renounce to his freedom to act, but also to his freedom to think and even his freedom to feel, then replacing the broken shells with blind obedience to the government and making citizens betray each other. 
(Power can be gained in many different ways, not only through a politics of the image ("image-politics") - which we see also really often today as well, though with different and certainly less evil goals - but also through widespread control of the state and the individual, by manipulating the popular masses and by means and terrible tortures that are always hidden)

.
It could be argued that most of Orwell's ideas might be too influenced by the historical era in which he lived and by his strong opposition to communism, however, even if we remove his personal views, the novel still maintains its clear and functional moral messages.

1984 is thus not only a book, but also a clear advice and a useful warning against how any of us might be manipulated and controlled, thus vindicating its role as a masterpiece for its highly cultural and historical importance.

Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.

Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, War, and Deportation

kittygracex07's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, War, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Death of parent

zams's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Honestly I have to say I'm very glad I did not have to pick this book up to read it physically, because I found the plot fairly boring, and would have probably DNFed it, so yay to audiobooks I guess, because the message was amazing. 
Julia and Winston's "relationship" weirded me out quite a bit. I think it came out of nowhere and was never really explained, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with the age gap to be honest, allthough it is definitly not to be depicted as the same as it would be in our current world compared to their day-to-day life.
And again, if I didn't have it read to me for hours on end while getting work done I would have not made it through because it was just so boring.
On a different note, the message about capitalism and authoritarianism were absolutely amazing. On top of that, the plot twist in the end absolutely shattered me. This is definitly an insanely important book in my opinion, and just from that view point it would immediatly be a 5 star read, and I'm sure I missed a lot of important remarks in all of the layers of this work. It's just the writing style and side plot that makes it not really work for me so well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail