Not a Bad Love Story

1984 was written in the war ridden post WWII London. It is meant to be a warning about totalitariansim governments. Although it was written almost a lifetime ago, it is not outdated. There are still countries in which speaking out against the government can end your life abruptly. That is only a step away from being erased by the Thought Police. As long as those kinds of governments exits, 1984 is still a possiblity. Although it was written a long time ago, there are still timeless lessons to be learned from this novel.

So many people are surprised that O'Brien forces Winston to his senses, but that is because they are only led to doubt O'Brien's loyalty through Winston's paranoid musings on 'hope'. O'Brien, of course, is a strong and compassionate member of the Inner Party and could never be capable of such wrongdoings. That is my favorite part of the story, when it is finally proven that O'Brien has not forsaken the Party after all! As for the trespasses of Julia and Winston, hopefully one day such foolish heresy will come to be eradicated from all group behaviour. Of course, 1984 is very outdated -- Orwell could not have imagined that North America would eventually find the right word for all these thoughtcrimes, "terrorism", and use it as an umbrella to stop any opposition to the Party whatsoever. However, one could speculate that the altruistic 'humanitarianism' of the last few decades has substantially delayed our progress towards Victory.