At nearly 40 years old and in bad physical shape, Winston is somewhat of an anti-hero. The book is structured into three parts, and in the first, we get to know the protagonist Winston Smith. If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Language is the defining way in which humans are either empowered or controlled. We tried to include the most relevant plot points as well as teach you some valuable lessons along the way. Let’s discover some of the great ideas from 1984! We hope you think the extra length is worth it. Note: Since this is a historically important book, we decided to give it twice the word-space of our usual reads.

Totalitarian governments succeed when they turn off our individuality via gaslighting.

Freedom is the ability to say what’s true, to say what you think, and to make your own choices.

The most powerful way to either control or empower humans is language.

Here are three lessons from this hall-of-fame piece of English literature: I recently read the book for the first time. It is routinely praised for its important themes, strong symbolism, and, in some cases, accurate vision. The book has since become an often-quoted literary classic, taught in classrooms around the world. Despite leaning more left than right himself, Orwell feared unquestioned socialism would, ultimately, escalate into a government practicing systematic oppression - and could do so within the next 35 years. Published in 1949, 1984 was his warning to Western nations not to succumb to then-popular communist ideas. As such, he had seen the terrifying impact of governments with complete control both first- and second-hand in Spain, Russia, and Germany. He later worked as a journalist during World War II. Orwell had been an Imperial policeman in Burma (modern-day Myanmar) and fought in the Spanish Civil War. In that sense, 1984 by George Orwell is indeed a great book: Most of us know the word “totalitarian” indicates something bad, but only after reading a dystopian classic like this will we truly understand what an absolute government might look like in practice.

“The best books are those that tell you what you know already,” Winston Smith concludes as he finally leafs through the pages of a forbidden book he’d been dying to get his hands on. 1-Sentence-Summary: 1984 is the story of a man questioning the system that keeps his futuristic but dystopian society afloat and the chaos that quickly ensues once he gives in to his natural curiosity and desire to be free.

1984 novel