Hello guys, it's been a long time since my last entry, so today I want to talk about my experience while reading the book that I've wanted to read since last year. I'm talking about “1984” by the British author George Orwell.

If you have read my last entries, you know that I've been writing a lot about the books I've recently started reading. I'm talking about Crime and punishment and 1984. To tell you the truth, I can't remember if I wrote about “The prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli (Edit: I didn't), but I had to read it for my philosophy class. Even though I HAD to read that book, it was already in my reading list, and to be honest, I really enjoyed the process. It was almost like reading a manual to win those old 2D games, in which you have to conquer kingdoms. The process of reading “The prince” changed completely the way of how I see history, and the tactics that kings used in old times to conquer other territories. Now, back to “1984”… When I started reading it, I thought it'd be so difficult to finish, because in the first pages I struggled so much, and that's funny because before starting reading it, I thought it'd be extremely easy to read, and I say it because I had just finished a Russian classic. In my mind, nothing could be more difficult to read than a Russian classic (I don't know why I thought it). But… I was completely wrong, and that discouraged me haha, but I was focused on finish that, and above all… enjoying the plot.

Ok, I continued reading and at some point, I was feeling pretty confident, and I was understanding almost every single word, and the plot was flowing smoothly (apart from some words that weren't necessarily important). I could enjoy the book as I never thought I would ever do, and every page I finished, was one more motive to continue. I've been talking about motive, courage and determination, but reading that book wasn't a huge problem, basically the plot makes you feel hooked on, with a feeling of “what will happen now? Maybe that character is an ally, or maybe he'll just try to kill the main character, or worst, the main character will kill him”.

I just noticed that I didn't talk about the plot, then now I'll introduce you (sorry, I forgot!) Well, 1984 tells us the story of a man living in a futuristic society (futuristic for the date that the author wrote it, I think it was in the 40s) He's name is Winston Smith, and he lives in a society where you can't think for yourself, by the principles of ingsoc (it's a kind of political cult), and when I say you can't think… You literally can't think, or express some kind of negative feeling about the party that head the society, and the leader is called Big Brother(yes, now you know why that Reality Show is called Big Brother). In that society, there are telescreens in each room of their homes, and in each part of the city. In these telescreens, the face of Big Brother is showed every time, but it's not just a kind of poster where you “watch” it, it's pretty the contrary… That thing watches you. And he's face is almost like J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-man, with a big black mustache. So, imagine a society where you're constantly observed by the party (it's called Inner Party), and every expression that shows your bad feelings about it, it's monitored by a military organ from the Inner Party called “thought police”, and if they see that you don't LOVE the party, you are vaporized form the face of the world, and nobody can save you, because your register, documents and life are deleted even from the past. But you're only vaporized if you commit a thought-crime (anything that is against the principles of ingsoc).

Winston works for the party in a ministry called Ministry of Truth, and it's controversial, because his work is to delete every kind of written, recorded or any register from ANYTHING that can be used against the party. What he does in the most times is editing those facts. There is the Ministry of Plenty, that cares about the consumer goods, the Ministry of Love, that administrates war, and the Ministry of Truth (I already told you about it). Any kind of love (sex included, as well) is forbidden in that society, besides the love for the party and the principles of ingsoc. Then, if you love someone you're committing thought-crime, and you must be vaporized by the thought police. What happens is that Winston craves for love (in the broad sense of the word), and in one moment he falls in love with Julia, a brave woman. From that point, the story unfolds.

Well, I don't know what to do, because I don't want to give spoilers, but I want to write about it, though. If you don't mind about spoilers, then keep reading. If you don't want to get spoilers, then thank you for reading this.

Wow, At the moment where they met, I thought he'll kill her in that tight alley, and another thing I thought that could happen was a moment where Julia would tell him that she was an ally from the Brotherhood (not yet, but she had the same principles). What happened was that he almost killed her, even though it didn't happen. A part which touched me, was when he describes a scene of an old film, in which a mother was shot by a helicopter while hugging her little son at sea.

Another thing that struck me was that Mrs. Carrington was a dirty (I wanted to say other thing, haha) traitor. To be honest, I thought he could be Goldstein himself, because in his home there weren't any telescreens, and he was such a good and kind man, but I was completely wrong. Another dirty (haha) traitor was O'Brien… Oh man, I didn't expect this (I don't know if it's correct, in Portuguese we have: Por essa eu não esperava). O'Brien as a traitor was something that made me feel confused, and for the point forward I couldn't imagine an end that could be good for them (Winston and Julia).

The end: What can I say… That was unpredictable, I couldn't imagine that way. At the moment when O'Brien was torturing Winston with the rats, I thought that someone from the Brotherhood would save him… But that wasn't what happened, and the book finishes with no hope for them. When I say them, I was talking about the whole society, because nothing changed. He even swore to throw acid on children, for the sake of the Brotherhood and the end of the Inner party… But in a moment of torture, he gave up everything… including Julia, and the symbol of his betrayal was when he yelled while saying: Do it with Julia, but not with me! At that time I noticed that this book is beyond a story of good against evil, or some kind of romance… It's about the way of how we CHOOSE to live. We're in a society where everyone is watched by everyone, and we think it's normal when it's not. Every day I notice that more and more people are getting harder to talk to and argue with. We live stressed, depressed and with anxiety of people, and that's what George Orwell describes in this book. I don't know about you, but in the election period in Brazil, people are capable of such stupid things for their “Inner Party”, and when I was reading “1984” I had the same felling of when I saw a person being chased in the street for using a t-shirt with the face of his candidate. The same thing happened with various characters that were betrayed by their own family just to criticize Big Brother…

Well, it was all for today, thanks for reading and correcting it.

Edit: The next book I'll read is probably “The Count of Monte Cristo”, by Alexandre Dumas.(Oh man... 928 pages)