零點的邀約

1984  by George Orwell

Sci-Fi Penguin readers

Overview

Winston Smith is an outer party member who lives under the control of Big Brother. Although he is one of the outer party members, he resides in a small, dilapidated flat and eats disgusting scraps of food. The worst thing is Big Brother is watching everyone, and there is a telescreen in his flat and microphones everywhere to monitor people's thoughts. Winston isn't happy about his life, and he wants to express his hatred of the world. One day he meets Julia who shares the same feeling. Later on, they become secret lovers, which is recognized as a crime. However, their secret actions were already under surveillance by the party.

Opinion

The book makes me feel very uncomfortable, and I feel sorry for Winston. The methods that the party uses to control people are extremely inhumane, but people even cannot know the idea of 'bad'. By creating 'Newspeak', the party deleted the idea and the word 'bad', so there is only 'ungood'. Moreover, the party also destroyed the function of family.  In the book's future, there won't be lovers, friends, and families anymore. Only the party and Big brother remain, which is how the inner party can have power forever.

Favorite Part

I can hardly say that there is a part I like. Maybe the only part I don't dislike so much is the main character, Winston Smith. He still has the will to fight and to disobey the party. However, he failed at the end of the book, and this implies no one can escape from the rule of the party. At the end of the book, I guessed the prisoners who are hung in public might not be from Eurasia, they may be someone like Winston.

Least Favorite Part

The most horrible method that the party used is 'Newspeak', which is a language of fewer and fewer words. The main purpose is to cancel the meaning of words, so people can't even have the idea to rebel. Moreover, there won't be any literature. However, I searched on Wikipedia, and it says the other two countries had also developed a similar system in order to control people. I wonder what the country Eastasia would do to Chinese?