1984

Welcome to The Young Reader's Review! This is my first post on this blog and I have to start with the book that should be obligatory to read: 1984 by George Orwell.

The story takes place in 1984 in London that bizarrely takes place in Oceania. Let me justify this: the world is divided into three parts; Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is controlled by a dictator: Big Brother. He’s the kind of person that haunts your dreams and makes you wake up panting, thankful that the dream has stopped. He watches all of Oceania at all times of the day with tele screens that are everywhere: in the streets, in the shops and even in the people’s apartments. He resembles Stalin physically:

 But why does he do this? 

Big Brother wants to assure that everything you do is to glorify him, he doesn’t want you to do anything to make yourself happy. You cannot write, love, or even think what you want (that is called thoughtcrime). If you don’t respect these rules, you can be hanged or brought to a place that no one dares to talk about…But you haven’t heard the worst: we don’t even know if Big Brother exists!

Crazy isn’t it? Well that’s the life of 39 year old Winston Smith.

Winston lives in London, Oceania and he’s the story’s main protagonist. His job is to change the past so it glorifies Big Brother. For example: if Oceania is at war with Eurasia and Oceania wins, Winston has to write that Oceania has won at every war against Eurasia. So, we can say that he deletes the past. Since he changes the past every time something happens to give a good impression, does the past still exist? But when you think about it… Winston’s job is actually an exaggerated form of a job that exists today in this modern society: historians. This year at school, have you talked about a lot of defeats of your country or more successes? I don’t know about you but we haven’t talked a lot about the defeats… And I think the answer is obviously that school also wants to give a good impression of our country, a bit like Big Brother.

Coming back to 1984, one day Winston realizes the total injustice in this totalitarian society: There is no liberty! His first act of rebellion is to buy a small notebook in the town suburbs where the tele screens weren’t present. This may not seem grand but if he’s not careful he could end up with a death penalty. He found a place in his apartment where the screens can’t see him and he writes everyday his ideas about Big Brother.

But that’s just the beginning, the story becomes much more exciting.

One day at work Winston notices a young beautiful woman named Julia. At first he absolutely hates her:  he thinks that she admires Big Brother a lot and is just another brainwashed person in London.

But his opinion changes when she discreetly hands him a note saying “I love you”


He immediately becomes interested and they try their best to see each other away from the tele screens view. They even buy an apartment in the city’s suburbs with no screens so they could be together there.

I am not going to spoil the end, but if you loved books like Divergent, Hunger Games or Maze Runner, you are going to love this book and be very surprised at the end. This book is beautifully written and has been voted numerous times best book in the world. The ideas are interesting and so is the story. If you are a mature adolescent I strongly advise you to read this. ツ