1984 Reflective Essay

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George Orwell’s 1984 was by far my favorite reading assignment because it is most relevant to my life and today’s society so I was able to connect a lot of things into the book. Given this book was written in 1940 before the true horror of the soviet union was recognized it does a good job almost mirroring the actions of the soviet union, many events that take place in the book also occurred in the soviet union to a much worse extent. I see school as a mild version of the Party at times, ever forcing us to take on more and more rules and forcing us to think certain ways via standardized tests and the like. The creative thinkers are forced into believing they aren’t as smart as the students who excel at academics. We are told that our passion …show more content…

Without sadness there is no way to distinguish happiness, without pain there is no pleasure, life without contrast isn’t life, without being able to measure change quantifying time is impossible, and in a perfect utopian society as described by totalitarians the citizens of such a society would have no ability to distinguish anything from anything unless otherwise told, given that they truly know nothing but what the government tells them giving them full control. Come to think of it that is not a bad method of crowd control, albeit extremely oppressive and unreliable. I feel like any political notion that involves complete indoctrination is conceptually brilliant but realistically impossible. The idea of everyone doing equal work in order to thrive as a society seems like the best option but breaking it down you realize how much is sacrificed in order to achieve such a state. Even then the flaws of human emotion would get the better eventually and the society would fall apart, and maybe it’s a good thing that we are unable to achieve that

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