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[Don]

I like your comment a lot, I didn't immediately see the significance of Winston using the words won and victory in place of loss and surrender. The novel was so full of that kind of party mentality that it didn't really strike me when winston used those phrases. Good obvservation, as well as a refreshing deviation from the the rest of the comments dealing with current world governments. I'm not saying anyone is wrong for drawing those paralells, it's just nice to hear about a different aspect of the book.

[Unregistered]

thank you, i really think you picked up on something wonderful and terrifying in this book that others seem to lose in their political anger. one of the major points of the book is to make you realize what makes you human and to tell you to hold on to it no matter what. i enjoyed your commet very much

[Unregistered]

im only 16 and just finished reading the book i agree with your comment and i thought the book was excellent i cant stop thinking about those last few lines either!!

[Kate Ficklin]

you were talking about the irony in the words "won" and "victory," you have to also look at the irony through out the whole book. the ministry of truth was a building of lies that were spread in order to make people trust Big Brother. the ministry of love was the jail where people were tortured until they believed in Big Brother. when he says he "won" and he had "victory" he had become a part of big brother. the irony in that is the victory was not in him the party had won and in effect he loved big brother because he had become like all the others.

[Unregistered]

To adaquately understand this novel, readers should engage in study of the totalitarian regimes it was a commentary on. Perhaps--actually in most likelihood--it was a political plea of "warning," but some of the greatest insights can be gleaned from "1984" by examining the frightening parallels it contains with regimes that have actually existed. For example, the Soviet Union under the dictatorship of Stalin employed a secret police theoretically equivalent to the "Thought Police," exercised trials of "Great Purges," based on political opposition with either death or labour camps as sentences, and created groups known as "Trotskytes," amongst others, that one can draw many parallels with in Orwell's work, such as the labelling of individuals as "Goldsteins." <br>Thus, Orwell's novel is not merely a literary masterpiece in terms of metaphors, symbolism or use of language. It is an artfully executed historical analysis of the oppressing nature of totalitarian regimes.

[Alex]

Like you, I was also shocked by the book, even depressed. You, really have pointed to the correct item of the book, the human item. If, even your beloved ones and the logic of thoughts are betrayed, nothing rests. <br>Great sensibility that of your comment, I agree, completely.<br>After reading the book, it is encouraging to be able to share same thoughts with people.<br>

[Rob]

I agree, all through the next day after I had finished the book all I could think about was the last couple of lines. I actually felt disgusted that he could have thought like that at the end and it was very unsettling especially because given the situation would'nt anybody feel the same as Winston.

[Unregistered]

This observation revealed to me another level on which "1984" works. The frightening realisation that moral integrity, loyalty to our fellow men and independant thought can be destroyed when placed under sufficient duress. That these qualities, commonly thought to be separate from physical characteristics, can be neutralised and by an all-encompassing totalitarian state.

[Rebecca]

"1984 represents the inner fears & private guilt of betraying our beloveds, our ideals, our principles & our beliefs in the face of adversity." I have read every comment on this must-read book, and in my view this sentence sums it up best. Society is so concerned about all the have-nots just accepting their lot

[Rebecca]

"1984 represents the inner fears & private guilt of betraying our beloveds, our ideals, our principles & our beliefs in the face of adversity." I have read every comment on this must-read book, and in my view this sentence sums it up best. Society is so concerned about all the have-nots, who are really in the majority, just accepting their lot in life, that a whole mindset has been created to achieve just that. A perfect example of this is today's common practice of doctors throwing antidepressants at people to "make them happy" when their depression may in fact be a direct result of genuinely unfortunate life circumstances. But it's easier to achieve happiness for them artificially, and society needs so many people to be functional slaving away at all the undesirable prole jobs in order to keep everything going.

[steel]

I think you hit it right on the nose, Im in 12 grade and we just finished it.<br>You did a very good review

[brian]

the thing that gives me hope is that winston did not beleve in god.<br>with god all thinge are posable and if winston was a beleaver he could have survived room 101. just the opinion of a belever.and i mean the god of the bible not the generic god so meany people like to worship.please excuse the spelling i went to public school and dident start to care about education un till i was 30 .

[in search of truth]

I appreciate your heart felt insight on this book. That is something I had payed little consideration to, but your absolutley right. It is troubling that so many of us would rather abondon what we know and believe to be absolute truth, because of our personal fears. If only more people believed that 2+2 could only equal 4 and 4 alone, than perhaps something could have been done to put a stop to tyranny of Big Brother. The innocent perish when good men stand by and say nothing. A sad truth.

[kobe]

well, i have read 1984 few years ago , and what you said had crossed my mind many times, but i bag you one diffrence: what scarred me the most was the fact that we, as humans, are acapble of totaly missleading ourselves and our minds when we need to.

[Laura]

I totally agree with you. Like Winston, we can understand how these regimes work but not necessarily why and you have brought up why - human weakness.

[Siddhartha Shrivastava]

I finished reading 1984 last night & am thinking of it since then. I went thru all the comments above but none of them was able to come near what I felt after reading it.<br>There has been a lot of words written above to find out present day telescreens, oceania & Big Brother. But when I finished the novel last nite it was none of these things which occupied my mind. Only thing that occupied my mind was those haunting last lines.The irony contained in them.<br>"But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. "<br><br>The struggle was finished , yes the struggle was finished,the struggle of a man to stand up for his beliefs 'cozhe believed in their righteousness.<br>He had won the victory over himself. It is this use of word 'won' & 'victory' to represent loss & surrender, irony contained in them,the utter hopelessness coined in those cheerful words which haunted me all through the day.<br><br>The most dreadful aspect of oceania was not scores of rocket bomb falling or the continuous war or the poverty or the mutability of past, What scared me most was impossibility of calling, what Orwell called, 2+ 2 = 4. <br>The final surrender of Winston in believing 2 +2 =5 is what made me dread the Oceania & then dawned upon me the realization that in various walks of life almost all of us chose to believe in 2 +2 = 5 rather than confronting our private "Room 101".<br><br>So for me 1984 represents the inner fears & private guilt of betraying our beloveds, our ideals , our principles & our beliefs in the face of adversity.<br><br>