Reviews with content warning for Classism - 1984

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

1984 by George Orwell

105 reviews

tiana_king's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

The world building could’ve been done much better but when you get to the last quarter of the book, it’s most interesting. It was all a set up for the author to monologue about human nature, the cyclic nature of society, and the very Voldemort-esque final message of “power for the sake of power”. Despite it being a monologue it’s pretty thought provoking so I still think it was decent.

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james1star's review against another edition

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challenging 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

How to summarise my thoughts? Umm… I honestly don’t know! I didn’t necessarily enjoy 1984 but I respected its importance and impact I’d say. In Orwell’s novel we follow Winston Smith who lives in London in a dystopian 1984 where ‘the Party’ and ‘Big Brother’ is always watching you, controlling you, controls the past, present and future. Smith commits thought-crime amongst other things and Yhh I don’t want to explain the plot too much but basically it’s his journey.

What I did like was the tension and eggarness to read on in how Orwell writes. The world building is continuous and vivid that you can theorise this dystopian world with pretty realistic characters. However, I personally though this detail and repetition of certain events, ideas, ‘facts’ and the like are very tiering and long. This was very apparent in Goldstein’s thesis being plastered into the middle of the book taking up a huge chunk of repetition that is seemingly never-ending that I despised. Why was it so long and drawn out? No thank you! Also, the characters do all lack depth and a likeness so in some sense you don’t care about what happens to them no matter how horrible it is - but then again they do live in a world built on terror and control so to find positivity is hard enough… but Yhh I didn’t warm to them. They’re also kinda annoying but I was still intrigued enough to read on. A LOT of it was also quite confusing with contradictory phrases and stuff I dunno - yes this was good in terms of world building the messed up nature of the society and party but still my brain was a bit whirled up.

Overall, I didn’t like the story, plot or characters (not really my vibe) and was far too repetitive and long in my opinion. However, it was written mostly well, kept me intrigued and has became a staple due to its importance where many takes and comparisons to ‘our world’ can be made. So a solid 3 starts from me.

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tiktakkodiak's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

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southcarolina's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense 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

4.75

We feel that we are paper, choking on you nightly.

You would be hard-pressed to find a book more immediately engaging than 1984. The worldbuilding is paced perfectly, firstly offering us glimpses of Winston’s small rebellions such as keeping a diary. We get to see his daily life under Big Brother and the challenges he faces before the main plotline starts. This immediately hooked me in, as I felt the book unfolded naturally and the city was easy to picture in my mind. I was able to connect to his struggles, and the pace ramps up naturally rather than a sudden shock to the system.

We’re put into Winston’s perspective, and I found not having been spoiled was thrilling. Being unsure on who to trust, was novel, and I wasn’t expecting the eventual betrayal to come from a certain character. During one part of the book, specifically the brotherhood scene, I did feel it was too good to be true. I’m glad the writing didn’t treat the audience like a fool and my suspicions were very clearly founded.

The last portion of the book is incredibly disturbing, but after the attention given to the cruelty of the party, it feels deserved and not out of left field. The ending is especially impactful, as you can feel Winston’s thoughts have been completely tangled. The narration is inconsistent intentionally, and I think it made a great impact.

Orwell has a very direct writing style, typically favouring shorter sentences, with the occasional long line for impact. He doesn’t need to bloat the text with unnecessary language, and it was a joy to read and put myself in Winston’s shoes.

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lily1304's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

Worth reading because it's a classic and it's so influential - "Big Brother" being synonymous with surveillance, and thoughtcrime/Thought Police are common references as well. Glad I could check this one off the list.

In its merits as dystopian literature... I'm not convinced. Winston and Julia are both kind of non-characters with very few discernable traits or motives. Julia is especially vapid, given that she constantly lets Winston speak for her and doesn't seem to be interested in

the rebellion they pledge their lives to.

It's possible that Orwell intended his two main characters to be deeply uninteresting to demonstrate that that's what a fascist surveillance state does to people. But it's a slog to read sometimes.

That, plus, it seemed like a large portion of the book was dedicated to Goldstein's writing or O'Brien's lectures. In some ways, 1984 is a great example of fiction as a medium for political ideas. But in other ways - if he has to interrupt the narrative with a direct lecture on power to get his point across, then he's not a very effective storyteller.

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bella_01's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0

I didn't enjoy this book much. The story is well written and easy to read (besides searching the meaning of a few words). I was not a fan of the antisemitism woven through the book.

I did not enjoy the 'book within a book'. I begrudgingly read it because I was unsure whether it was important to the story or not. I found the ending of the book a bit trash too. I have searched for an explanation of it, but haven't felt satisfied.

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