1984

     The end of Part 2 was surprising, but still expected, since Winston is diving deeper into helping the Brotherhood. It’s similar to our world today: if you commit a horrendous crime, like fighting against the government, you’ll probably get caught. But since this is a story, I’d like to assume it ends happily with Winston and Julia surviving and gaining their freedom (I think most stories, especially fiction ones, end happily). However, revolting against the government and succeeding isn’t similar to our current world… yet?      You may be familiar with the news from last month about hundreds of people storming the capitol. Currently, our government is functional and guarantees our freedom, and yet people still found a reason for storming an incredibly important, highly restricted government building, which makes me wonder: how far would the government have to go for the citizens of the US to revolt and succeed ?

  In Part 2, 1984 really started to remind me of other utopian/dystopian books, most notably Brave New World and the Hunger Games, because those are the ones I remember most clearly. I think Winston and Julia’s entrance to the Brotherhood was what caused me to make these comparisons, because they were acknowledging their differences against the suppressed society they live in, similar to how Bernard thought differently in Brave New World, or how Katniss and Peeta rebelled against the government and the Hunger Games. There were also other similarities, such as in 1984, there are the Proles and the “normal people”, similar to how there is a hierarchy of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, etc. in Brave New World (I’m not sure if there is something similar in the Hunger Games, it’s been a while since I read it). Additionally, in 1984, the government and Thought Police are comparable to the Capitol in the Hunger Games, and the “normal people” and the proles in 1984 are comparable to those who live ...

     In chapters 7-8, I especially noticed the economic gap when Winston goes on the walk to where the Proles live. It seems like he judges them to some extent - he talks about the lottery and their appearances, for example, and sounds like he looks down on them. This reminded me of a picture and an article I saw a few days ago. I think it was on Twitter, and it talked about a very poor area in South Korea that neighbored a big, modern city. The picture showed a stark contrast between the two areas, with the sheds and overgrown trees of the poor area in the foreground and the shiny skyscrapers of the city in the background. When I read about Winston’s adventure, I imagined the area with the pub as the rougher area, and I imagined the ministries in the background as the more well-off area. The picture can be seen here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-17/seoul-slum-near-gangnam-guryong-exposes-south-korea-wealth-gap

The overall society reminds me of countries like North Korea, or maybe Russia (although I know it’s not as bad there). Big Brother seems to be the dictator who everybody is taught to worship, and there’s propaganda all throughout the city that warns people not to perform forbidden acts, as they will be punished. Additionally, it seems like not only is free speech highly restricted, but free thought as well. Winston mentions that he thinks his friend, Syme, will be taken away or “vaporized”, because although he worships Big Brother and praises the society, he’s intelligent, so the government fears that he may someday have a different thought. This part really showed how tight security is in this society. There are also more specific concepts in the book that parallel concepts in our world. For example, the Physical Jerks, which is apparently the society’s way of keeping citizens fit, reminded me of Youtube videos or TV shows where viewers follow athletes as they do their workouts. W...