Essay 1984 Should Be Banned

1984 by George Orwell is ranked as the 5th most challenged book of all time and that is not right. 1984 should not be banned in our school library because it shows the horrors and struggles people face under totalitarian rule, it teaches the value of freedom, and it mirrors what is happening in today’s society. It is an educational classic that should be available to everyone. Banning books happens far too often and shouldn’t happen in our school library.

First, 1984 should not be banned from the school library because it teaches the horrors of a totalitarian society. Some may argue that 1984 is a pro communistic and totalitarian book, but it is easy to see that it is the opposite by how the book portrays the totalitarian society negatively.

For example, on page 62 of 1984 it states, “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public space or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide….facecrime, it was called.” The quote above shows that the book is not pro-communism because it demonstrates the fact that you can’t even have free thought or even show your facial expressions in these types of societies and how that is a negative thing. It shows how in totalitarian societies you lose all of your freedom to have an opinion and through this it teaches the value of having an opinion. According to, mymcpl.org, “It was banned and burned in the U.S.S.R. under Stalin's rule for its' negative attitude toward communism, and reading it could've resulted in your arrest.” The quote above shows that 1984 teaches the horrors and dangers of a communistic society because it has been banned in communistic societies for it’s “negative attitude toward communism”. 1984 should not be banned because it teaches the horrors of a society where you have no freedom to have your own opinion.

Second, 1984 should stay in the school library because it teaches the value of freedom.

While some may argue that it teaches to be against freedom, like the argument of it being pro-communism, it is not true. The book uses examples of freedoms that people do not have in the book to show how fortunate we in America are to have these freedoms. On page 19 of 1984 it states, “whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed- would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper- the essential crime contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it.” The quote above shows how in the book, they do not even have the freedom to express their opinions or write anything down. This teaches how good we have it in that we have the freedom to write down and express any opinion we want. Also, The New York Times states, “Orwell did not believe that 35 years after the publication of his book, the world would be ruled by Big Brother, but he often proclaimed that 1984 could happen if man did not become aware of the assaults on his personal freedom and did not defend his most precious right, the right to have his own thoughts.” The quote above shows that one of Orwell’s main purposes for writing 1984 was to teach the value of freedom and that you should always fight

to protect your freedom. He wanted to highlight that if man doesn’t pay attention or stay aware of freedom he has, he can easily lose it and that freedom is one of the most important things a person can have. 1984 should stay in the library because it teaches people the value of their freedom.

Lastly, 1984 should stay in the school library because it mirrors very much what is happening in today’s society.

Some may argue that 1984 is not even close to what’s happening in today’s society and while we don’t have thought police and a “Big Brother” watching everything we do, society is a lot more similar to 1984 than some may think. For example, on page 46 of 1984 it states, “Today he should commemorate Comrade Ogilvy. It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence.” Page 47, “Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact.” The quote above shows how the changing of history was something that happened in the totalitarian society of 1984 because when the book was written it was so unimaginable and seen as so wrong. While when it comes to today’s society, the changing of history happens very often and is supported by more people than one would think. For example, World.edu states, “With classics like Mark Twain’s Huck Finn being rewritten to replace words like nigger with slave, and Injun with Indian, we find ourselves stepping ever closer to a world of revisionist history, where instead of learning from the mistakes of the past we erase it from memory altogether.” The quote above shows that in today’s society, we see America’s racist past and decide that we need to erase it and pretend it didn’t happen rather than learn from it. This is similar to how in

the book, they are actively changing the past whenever they feel like it. While words like the n-word are extremely racist and should not be used today, we have to learn that that was the language that we used in the past and learn why we shouldn’t use it. If we erase our past, we will never learn from it and it is bound to happen again. 1984 teaches how a revisionist history never turns out well.

1984 should not be banned because it’s an educational book that shows the horrors and struggles that people face under totalitarian rule, it teaches the value of freedom, and mirrors what is happening in today’s society. Banning books happens far too often and is very wrong. No book like 1984 should ever be banned because of its important message and it’s significance to today’s society.

Regards, Maizie Scott