Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - 1984

Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

1984 by Umberto Eco, Miguel Temprano García, George Orwell, George Orwell

69 reviews

sabrinaleaf's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Un livre fort intéressant ou rien ne se passe vraiment. Pas du tout ce que je m’attendais avant de le lire

La première partie consiste plus à expliquer le monde ou le Parti règne.
La deuxième, ces Julia.
La troisième, la défaite intérieure de Winston.

Content Warnings

riverofhorton's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

So this was actually my second read of this book, the first having been around 10 years ago. Just as I did the previous read through, I was struck by just how much of this book is relevant to our world today. This is one of the books that I will keep coming back to again and again throughout my lifetime.
The book itself is a somewhat dramatised (hopefully) version of Stalin's Russia/Nazi Germany. It has so many layers to it, and I', still not convinces I've worked out just how deep the 'Party' goes in their propaganda, gaslighting, and plotting against its own citizens.
This is an incredibly well planned out (or perhaps the word is researched) and realised world, where even the bits that are fiction could very easily be real. That, I think, is the true terror of this book: How easily society could go from even today's status, to that found in this book. Thus, Orwell's intention to have this book serve as a warning was fully realised.

Content Warnings

effervescentglow's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

star_g1rl's review against another edition

3.75

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a good book to read because it’s a classic and the one of the first of dystopian fiction, but there are many better reads and there’s strong antisemitism and sexism throughout. Also, it has a dark ending and emphasizes that society is doomed

Content Warnings

wun4's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I hate all of the characters (except for Parsons). Y'all suck! Gosh, I thought

betraying someone during torture

would never get worse than Sotnikov! As a worldbuilding piece, as a statement, as commentary and as something you read and say "Oh, what the fuck.", it's beautiful. There's also a lot of foreshadowing all over, which i love a lot. As anything else, eeh. The plot stands as a tool to show it off to everyone who wouldn't read a big-ass essay about totalitarism. You do it in the middle of the book, though.

Julia had the right reaction to it.

Content Warnings

te_ss_i's review against another edition

5.0

dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

_jennilein_'s review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

pupaebug's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book was so good. Obviously everyone knows the premise of 1984. Everyone can use the phrase "Orwellian" and have a semi-understanding of what they are actually referring to. So going into this book, I knew the base level of what I was getting myself into. A male protagonist disillusioned with a totalitarian regime. However, I was absolutely not expecting this book to be such a gripping read. A real page-turner.

I absolutely love the world-building of a totalitarian regime. It is why I loved the Handmaid's Tale so much, it was really cool to see a regime that seemed to spring out of our own society and our own history. After reading this, I realized that all the things I loved about the Handmaid's Tale were inspired by this book. Just like Winston, I wanted to know absolutely everything about the Party. Did the

Brotherhood

exist? What was the

Inner Party, what did they know, and how did they get the privileges they have

? Could

O'Brien, or Julia

be trusted? How did this regime come to be? Is the Party

lying about the wars with Eurasia and Eastasia

? Was

Big Brother

real? And, just like Winston, I was engrossed by any new information I received. I meticulously read

Goldstein's book,

accepting it as fact about the Regime. I fully accepted that

Winston and Julia were safe in Charrington's shop

and

were learning the real truth about Oceania.

"You are the dead."

was shocking. It was great. It felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me. As much as I was wary of

O'Brien

and felt that

him giving so much information to Winston so quickly was a trap

, I never expected that

Charrington and the shop was in on it.

That was insane. After this point, the book's

slow devolution into a horror novel

was both difficult to read and difficult to put down. It was truly scary. It made the reader fully understand how a person could be convinced that their very reality is changeable, just because the government says so. Every single thing in this novel came back to haunt Winston. His

dreams about O'Brien, his love for Julia, his fear of rats, his mom, all of the people in Oceania he had known, his diary, everything

. That is incredible horror and a true nightmare.

Winston being released from the ministry of love at the end of the novel was unexpected, but a perfect ending. We were able to see just how broken he was. He was nothing of his former self, be truly believed that all of his real childhood memories were false memories, and he was brought to joy throughout his day only by news of Oceania's war victories. The last line of the book, "He loved Big Brother," to me suggests that he is about to be shot and killed. He did not even get those final ten seconds of regaining dignity and individuality that he dreamed of before getting shot.

I know that this book is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. What an incredible read.

P.S. Throughout reading this book I felt I could pinpoint the exact moments that inspired Margaret Atwood to write The Handmaid's Tale. The use of the word Unperson (Unwoman, in THT), The emergence of a new society in the wake of the old one, with the war effort always in the background to encourage patriotism and limit rationing of goods. The presence of a regular scheduled catharsis time for all of the citizens to get their rage out on the "enemy" (Two Minutes Hate in 1984, Particicutions in THT). I also really think Margaret Atwood read the Appendix in 1984 and was inspired to include the Historical Notes section in the Handmaid's Tale. It's just too similar. An essay written by an academic after the events of the story that suggest that things have gone back to normal and the totalitarian regime has ended. Newspeak is no longer used, the Party is spoken of as if it is a thing of the past, free thought is free again.

This review is so long. This book is amazing. The general consensus is always about how important a book this is, and it absolutely is important. However, I think a lot more people would choose to pick it up if they knew how genuinely enthralling this book is as a piece of psychological horror.

Content Warnings

mh197960's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark 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: No

Content Warnings

absolut_ly's review against another edition

2.5

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I have both simultaneously and impossibly completely read this book and wholeheartedly denounced its utter existence or potential to exist.

I think I’m disappointed. I had long expected this book to contain some more SCIENCE to its -fiction, yet mostly it dealt with drama and confusing or blurring the lines of reality. I’d wager this was more intended as a political protest and warning tragedy of the existing world governments in the 1940s than a prediction of what was to come. While a lot of the meta-content has, in fact, evolved to become true, it equally mispredicted some changes, lending to its true purpose of protest.

I can not recommend reading this book. Read a synopsis or something, or read Part 2 Chapter 09 and nothing else. I’m not even sure if Orwell was antisemitic by making the ‘villain’ be Jewish (

there’s no good closure on the purpose of Goldstein other than to be the scapegoat for the opposition to the Party, and nothing other than hateful rhetoric toward him or his ideology

) but he doesn’t do aftercare for any of the awful things; you just get a tragedy.

Content Warnings

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