Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'
1984 by Umberto Eco, Miguel Temprano García, George Orwell, George Orwell
69 reviews
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Antisemitism
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Colonisation, War
challenging
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
1984 is a book about a surveillance state. it's worldbuilding is very strong, and it deals with interesting questions like "what is realitiy?", "(how do we know) what happened in the pasr?" and "what influence does language have on us?", but other than that, i must say that this is not a very good book.
the main character, winston smith, is portrayed as extremely careful and untrusting for the first part of the book, but one encounter with a woman who (apparently) loves him is enough to make him throw all his concerns about how awfully loyal to the party and undeserving of trust all young women are over board and he then enters a relationship with her.
his actions seem to contradict the character as we got to know him in the first 100 pages of the book.
(he also had r@pe fantasies about his love interest, julia, in these first 100 pages of the book and she later says that she "hates women". there's a lot of misogony in this book!)
also, the whole book basically builds up to this high suspense point where winston gets in contact with a high-ranking party member who he is convinced is part of the rebellion, or at least dislikes the party and the big brother, but once it actually happens, the book is basically over. there's a whole lot of dense, mildly interesting political theory and directly after that, the thing winston knew would happen from the start actually happens,he gets tortured and his spirit breaks and the only interesting things are the mindcontrol and that two characters we trusted before weren't actually trustworthy and then the book ends. it's not very rewarding, honestly. you wait 3/4 of the book that finally something happens, and just as it gets to it, the book's over.
i AM glad i read it, but i don't think my life would've been worse if i hadn't.
the main character, winston smith, is portrayed as extremely careful and untrusting for the first part of the book, but one encounter with a woman who (apparently) loves him is enough to make him throw all his concerns about how awfully loyal to the party and undeserving of trust all young women are over board and he then enters a relationship with her.
his actions seem to contradict the character as we got to know him in the first 100 pages of the book.
(he also had r@pe fantasies about his love interest, julia, in these first 100 pages of the book and she later says that she "hates women". there's a lot of misogony in this book!)
also, the whole book basically builds up to this high suspense point where winston gets in contact with a high-ranking party member who he is convinced is part of the rebellion, or at least dislikes the party and the big brother, but once it actually happens, the book is basically over. there's a whole lot of dense, mildly interesting political theory and directly after that, the thing winston knew would happen from the start actually happens,
i AM glad i read it, but i don't think my life would've been worse if i hadn't.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Torture, Alcohol
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, War
Minor: Child death, Death of parent
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
- Spoiler Free - (still in process)
I had pretty high hopes for this book, everyone that I talked to loves it, and when I started it after years of wanting to read it I was shocked at the misogyny expressed that no one had told me about. This fact put me off reading it and may have tainted the rest of the experience for me; this review is solely my experience with it given my background and expectations, if you like this book and don't mind the problems it may have in my eyes, that is totally valid!
I think the book (personally) doesn't hold as the masterpiece it is said to be; I find the messages to be all very in-your-face, nothing is left for the reader to think about and form their own opinion on. This doesn't really hold as a good criticism of Socialism, either, because it basically makes a strawman argument against it (I've heard that "Animal Farm" is better in that regard).
Before I list my problems with this book, I want to say that Winston is a pretty unlikable character.
Main Sins:
- The descriptions of fat people are all pretty bad and made me want to burn the book because they had no relevance to the plot;
- Winston just hates all women and thinks that they're all dumb, blind Party-followers or just weak, until he finds one that says "I love you" and then he suddenly stops hating women *sigh*. Also pretty big TW for rape bc this mas is honestly crazy;
- He has some hope that poor people can change the current situation but overall he isn't that nice to them in his narration (writing their lines with grammar errors was a pretty low blow in my opinion), for the most part, they just mindlessly accepting anything that is thrown at them;
- The representation of Communism/Socialism seems more like a Capitalist Society with some mentions of food and clothing stramps for Party-members
Also, George Orwell acts like older generations don't spend their days complaining about the current state of society, and saying that young people are all degenerates (I understand that under a totalitarian system people won't have the same freedom to express their ideas, but the proles seem to live with pretty little surveillance compared to Party workers/members and they still don't emit any opinions like "When I was young...")
Conclusion:
That said, I still think that this might be a worthy read if you're aware that this is a book with very outdated views regarding some issues and you feel like it can still be interesting, you should go for it. It wasn't mindblowing for me personally but this is a favorite for many of my friends.
I had pretty high hopes for this book, everyone that I talked to loves it, and when I started it after years of wanting to read it I was shocked at the misogyny expressed that no one had told me about. This fact put me off reading it and may have tainted the rest of the experience for me; this review is solely my experience with it given my background and expectations, if you like this book and don't mind the problems it may have in my eyes, that is totally valid!
I think the book (personally) doesn't hold as the masterpiece it is said to be; I find the messages to be all very in-your-face, nothing is left for the reader to think about and form their own opinion on. This doesn't really hold as a good criticism of Socialism, either, because it basically makes a strawman argument against it (I've heard that "Animal Farm" is better in that regard).
Before I list my problems with this book, I want to say that Winston is a pretty unlikable character.
Main Sins:
- The descriptions of fat people are all pretty bad and made me want to burn the book because they had no relevance to the plot;
- Winston just hates all women and thinks that they're all dumb, blind Party-followers or just weak, until he finds one that says "I love you" and then he suddenly stops hating women *sigh*. Also pretty big TW for rape bc this mas is honestly crazy;
- He has some hope that poor people can change the current situation but overall he isn't that nice to them in his narration (writing their lines with grammar errors was a pretty low blow in my opinion), for the most part, they just mindlessly accepting anything that is thrown at them;
- The representation of Communism/Socialism seems more like a Capitalist Society with some mentions of food and clothing stramps for Party-members
Also, George Orwell acts like older generations don't spend their days complaining about the current state of society, and saying that young people are all degenerates (I understand that under a totalitarian system people won't have the same freedom to express their ideas, but the proles seem to live with pretty little surveillance compared to Party workers/members and they still don't emit any opinions like "When I was young...")
Conclusion:
That said, I still think that this might be a worthy read if you're aware that this is a book with very outdated views regarding some issues and you feel like it can still be interesting, you should go for it. It wasn't mindblowing for me personally but this is a favorite for many of my friends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Antisemitism, Death of parent
first read in 2017: 4 stars
London, 1984: England is part of "Oceania", one of the three super states into which the world has been divided after the Revolution. Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth is the "correcting" of old newspaper articles on order to reflect the current political and societal sitiuation - because what the Party says is and has always been the truth. Also: Big Brother is watching you.
In this almighty surveillance state Winston tries to start a revolution and gets subsequently brain washed.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" didn't fully convince me as a novel, but the idea behind it is disturbingly impressive and shows alarming parallels to today's North Korea...
dnf'd in 2021 - Warning: strong language!
London, 1984: England is part of "Oceania", one of the three super states into which the world has been divided after the Revolution. Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth is the "correcting" of old newspaper articles on order to reflect the current political and societal sitiuation - because what the Party says is and has always been the truth. Also: Big Brother is watching you.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" didn't fully convince me as a novel, but the idea behind it is disturbingly impressive and shows alarming parallels to today's North Korea...
dnf'd in 2021 - Warning: strong language!
I had no urge to read this book again, but my book club chose it, so... I read 84 pages. What really struck me this time is the sexism. Already in the first chapter we encounter said sexism
He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.
... antisemitism (when describing Emmanuel Goldstein, the "Enemy of the people")
It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard - a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose [...]. It resembled the face of a sheep, and the voice, too, had a sheeplike quality.
... and murder and rape fantasies about a female colleague
Vivid, beautiful hallucinations flashed through his mind. He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian. He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax [...]. He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her.
This could be seen as stylistic choices or whatever - but I hated it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Torture
Moderate: Racism, Rape
Minor: Antisemitism
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Confinement, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content
Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Antisemitism
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization
Minor: Antisemitism
dark
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Original 2011 rating: 1 star
2021 review:
I first read 1984 in high school. Being homeschooled, there wasn't any discussion or context for it, my mother just handed me a list of classic books she read in high school and told me to have at it. I remember very few of the books I read off that list, but I do remember I hated 1984. Absolutely loathed it. I read a lot of dystopian back then, but it was young adult dystopian where there were rebellions and the heroic protagonists overthrew the evil government by the end of the trilogy. A dystopian book where the protagonist wasn't "good" and the evil government won was inconceivable to me. Plus there was sex in this, and I was very much not comfortable with that.
I picked it up again because I read Brave New World, another classic dystopian written a little bit earlier, and I wanted to compare the two. I didn't end up doing a lot of comparing, though, because I ended up reexperiencing the story. With the benefits of being not a sheltered high schooler and having enough adult awareness to see the many ways the world is screwed up (and the maturity to not immediately throw the book in the "not suitable for Good Christian Readers" pile the instant sex is mentioned), I was able to read it in a whole new light.
From endless wars where the enemy changes but the demand for patriotism doesn't to constant government surveillance to strong stratification between upper and lower classes, much of this book maps directly onto my modern experience. The Party has a distinctly communist feel, but I don't know if that's because George Orwell actually feared the oppression would come from communism or because he just took a lot of imagery and ideas from the Soviet Union to make it. (Wikipedia suggests he just opposed totalitarianism in all forms, not specifically communism.) I found the telescreens used to both broadcast and spy highly ironic, because I'm pretty sure TVs don't have the technology to broadcast our actions or words back to anyone but our phones sure do and we voluntarily take them everywhere.
You can read this as an interesting dystopian with elements of current reality, or you can let it make you really depressed. I went back and forth on how I was experiencing it. But I finally understand why this is a book people make high schoolers read.
Since this is a reread, this review has more been about my changing understanding of the book than the book itself. It is well written, with a solid world dominated by a totalitarian government and a fairly unlikeable narrator that you manage to root for anyway, and a really horrifying amount of brainwashing torture that spans roughly the last third of the book. It's quite good, and shockingly prescient considering it was published 72 years ago. I don't think it's one that I'll reread repeatedly, but reading it with adult eyes was definitely worthwhile.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Antisemitism
Minor: Rape