Novel Project - First Journal Entry for "1984"

! Mild Spoiler Warning ! This entry may contain some slight spoilers... but nothing too bad. :)

1987 is a very interesting book so far. Nearly every book I read I can predict, but this one is extremely unpredictable for me. I am growing really addicted to it, which is good since I haven’t really been addicted to a book in a long time. I find the character Winston very interesting. He’s seemingly the only one against Big Brother, and he seems to be going a little crazy because of that. Well, I would too if I were him. I think this book is especially appealing to me because I really enjoy books with a slight sense of fear lingering in every page.

When I first began to read it, I knew it was going to be a good book. I was also pretty confused at first because the storyline was confusing and hard to grasp. I love stories that involve a dystopia. As I read 1984 I’m really reminded of the book The Giver and the movie "V for Vendetta," probably because they include dystopias in them as well. Another sort of example is the movie "War of the Worlds," only that doesn’t quite involve a dystopia but more of a ‘human extermination’ kind of theme. Book and movies like those really spark my interest. I’m not exactly sure why, but it must have something to do with the fact that I’m not in a dystopia or a world being attacked by aliens. I suppose if I was, I’d like to read stories about individuals who are free and out of harm’s way.

"Writing for the future," Winston wrote in his diary. What he means is that even though he is forbidden to write in a diary, he is, and it is for the future. Winston states, "How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?" He later states that he is writing to O’Brien. I think that whether or not he’s writing to anyone or not doesn’t quite matter at the moment. Writing seems to be something that keeps him reasonably sane, the only way for him to vent.

In the world of Big Brother, you are allowed to think on your own, you are allowed to do what you want, but at the same time you are restricted from everything. One wrong little move or even the slightest suspicious action could get you killed. Even if you have done nothing, you could be killed, it seems.

In the world of Winston, there is a constant uncomfortable nervousness, a fear that the world around him is blasphemy. He seeks for an impossible answer of truth to what his world could have once been. Was it better before, as he suspected, or was it worse, as Big Brother so often stated?

Questions, questions: Why is Big Brother turning everyone into mindless slaves under his control? Does he want an equal world? Why and how did Big Brother get everyone to follow his leadership? There must be more rebels than just Winston. Perhaps there are more rebels, and they are doing just what Winston is, waiting and watching. Also, how did Big Brother regulate such a brilliant plan as to even get rid of the rebels? How did all great leaders succeed in gaining so many followers? I’ve noticed, however, that all great or terrible leaders of this world have eventually fallen. Doesn’t that mean that eventually Big Brother will fall too? Hitler, all the Presidents of the U.S., even leaders in households eventually fall. The natural order of things, whether that means the leader was killed, impeached, or dead from old age or sickness, always prevails. Always.

On another note… Winston is disturbed, but very clever. He must be the hero of this story because he is, as far as we know, the only one against Big Brother. As for O’Brien, we can only rely on Winston’s suspicious of him as a rebel of Big Brother, but who knows for certain. Also, the black haired girl seems to be an important role in the story, providing a lot of confusion and anger for Winston. I suspect that she is actually on Winston’s side. She seems to be stalking him when he goes off on his own, but perhaps she is actually drawn to him or is trying to tell him something. I know that when I feel drawn to someone I tend to follow them or ‘gravitate’ to them. This is why I have my suspicious about her. At the same time I’m afraid they (Winston and the dark haired girl) will end up being friends or maybe more, because of a cliché I have seen many times in stories. (Boy sees girl, boy likes girl, boy pretends to hate girl, girl likes boy, girl pretends to hate boy too, and then they fall in love and live happily ever after.) So with that being said, I hope they don’t end up that way. However, I have a feeling George Orwell will put everything in place as he often so ingeniously does.

This is the last paragraph, I swear! Finally, I would like to talk about Newspeak. To be simple, I think it is incredibly ingenious. Taking the English language and squishing it together. Why didn’t I think of that? Rather than create some weird, alien language, Mr. Orwell simply uses the English language as the basis of his new language. But back to the point: Newspeak is just so clever to me. There are a few words I found particularly interesting: For starters, unperson. I thought this was a very eerie word to describe those who were ‘vaporized.’ Also, double-think. I still have yet to completely understand this concept, but as far as I know, it requires double-think to understand double-think… I think. The last word I can think of off the top of my head is thoughtcrime, a word which describes simply thinking about committing a crime, being suspected of it, and getting taken away, or even killed.


On a final note, I am really looking forward to how this book is going to turn out.