Anybody read 1984? I had to read it for a class, and I'm having trouble with a question I have to answer for it. The question is, "Why the title 1984? Why the book?"
Now I understand that the book takes place in 1984. But I need to find quotes from the book supporting why the title is significant, and why the book is significant. Any help is appreciated.
Orwell wrote it in 1948 I believe. So he changed the digits. But furthermore it means that he set his novel in a future which has many similarities with today's world. The need for security measures, CCTV, religious fanaticism, state watching its citizens, ... .
Anyway I believe there are some Orwell experts here, they might be able to help more. I read the book ages ago.
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People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
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1984 just shows it will be in future, it could also be 1994 and it wouldn't make any difference. Why is book significant? Why is any book significant? Because it's great!
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During times of heavy loss And when you're sad
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Originally Posted by tknick90
You're in a forum entitled 1984 with 887 threads and 6000+ posts, I'd say the chances are good.
Sorry to Guinevere, but I firmly believe the 48/84 switch is a red herring. Whether there's any truth in it, I don't know, but the reason for 1984 being picked is much more mundane - maths.
There are several clues in the book:
Winston's childhood recollection dates him to the immediate post-WWII era, making him 40-ish, which is consistent with the book.
The old man in the pub who is asked to recall his youth clearly remembers WWI-era life, making him 75-ish in 1984.
Go to work, get married, have some kids, pay your taxes, pay your bills, watch your tv, follow fashion, act normal, obey the law and repeat after me: "I am free."
Anon
You're the expert. I bow to your superior knowledge in all matters Orwell.
I read it some newspaper article a while back.
My lifelong love affair with books and reading continues unaffected by automation, computers, and all other forms of the twentieth-century gadgetry.
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
Logan Pearsall Smith, 1931
with all due respect to tknicks teacher but what sort of question is why 1984 why the book,this strikes me as a very disheartening and ambiguous question that would have steered me away from english literature whilst at study.
winston and julias relationship
newsspeak and doublethink explain
what does bb mean today,cctv?id cards?stop and search?,personal privacy?power of government?,elites,the proles.
should not a teacher pose questions like this?
shame on you teacher.
read the book tknick it is a masterpiece of the written english language.it has a rythmical prose akin to music almost,not one single word is wasted,you will carry and think about the questions and issues raised in the book for the rest of your days probobly and it has a prophetic side to it that is a testament to the authors intellect and understanding of the power game.
many happy debates and bouts of thought to you.
It is a book that I read many years ago and enjoyed it thourhily.
I agree with lukgem, it is a lame question, to me it is more of a cop-out than a question. Surely it was Orwell's vision of how he saw the future under a dictatorship and he chose the year 1984 as its year. This of course is only a simplistic view of the book.
Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each other's throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation [Prester John - John Buchan].
It is a wonderful book, but I don't agree with claims that it predicted the future accurately. Like most attempts at prediction, what Orwell did was take his present, the immediate post WWII world, and projected its anxieties onto the future. Stalin and Hitler were the obsessions current then, and so his future world is heavy on the notion of dictatorship and empire. The grey masses laboring under permanant wartime restrictions describes London in the late 40s quite nicely. Aside from a few accidental scattershot hits, it misses the look and spirit of mid-1980s Europe almost entirely.
Well according to the intro on the penguin edition of 1984, The title was suppose to be "The Last Man in Europe" or 1980 something. It was originally suppose to be 1980 and it took longer than expected to write so he put the date at 1984.
I don't think the title of the book is very significant since he was willing to change it so easily.
Whatever is ideas of what 1984 were in his mind and the book, I think all can agree we are glad that it did not turn out that way in end because if it had there would not be this forum!
Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each other's throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation [Prester John - John Buchan].
I repeat, it wasn't an attempt at prediction.
Orwell made it very plain that he wrote an allegory on totalitarianism to warn against the dangers of totalitarian rule.
Go to work, get married, have some kids, pay your taxes, pay your bills, watch your tv, follow fashion, act normal, obey the law and repeat after me: "I am free."
Anon
If you look at the dates of publication and when written they all say 1949... so i also believe the title 1984 being derived from when written is utter malarkey. Why 1984? is simple. It's just a future date picked by Orwell to tell the horrors and dangers of mixing totalitarianism, advanced technology, and more influential leaders.
The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
-Machiavelli
hey curlyqlink!
what about the berlin wall?and the supposed evil of the soviets,
i recall it as a time of nuclear fear.unknown socialists who could destroy london, washington,new york and sydney at the press of a button.the east german secret police and propoganda the "west" fed us about the faceless eurasians.there were spys in all workplaces in the communist dictatorship, unknown waiting for any unorthodoxy.it could be that 1984 was real for much of the soviet block.
i could be wrong as i was just about into double figures in the mid eighties and as a child was maybe more susceptible to the telescreen at home.
but it seems to me orwell did a good job seeing the future shape of the world map and politics.
It seems like the farther we advance in history the more this book pertains to today. Say Orwells title was 2005. I think it would have been even more correct.
The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
-Machiavelli
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