In a grim future, a totalitarian party and its (non existing?) leader big brother monitor and control peoples lives and minds at almost every level. WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, those are the party slogans. winston smith, a clerc at the ministery of truth, commits a crime by falling in love with a girl, julia. This is considered (in 'newspeak') 'misthink,' and winston and julia are arrested. After endless mental and physical torture, winston, in a last gruesome scene, gives up his resistance and finally, like everyone else, 'loves big brother.'
on this book:
Orwell's prophecy is now considered a modern classic, and the term big brother has become a synonym for an over-controlling government. Allthough the (literary) value of this book has been more and more questioned over the last decades (see for example anthony burgess's 1985), orwell's message that every political system can, in the end, lead to dictatorship remains effective.'1984' was strongly influenced by the anti-Utopian novel We by Yevgeni Zamyatin.two films based on this novel were made: one in 1956 with edmond o'brien as winston smith and one in 1984 with john hurt as winston smith, of which the second one is best known.
