1984 Synopsis

If you have not read 1984 then I will give you a brief outline of the story. It involves a Big Brother. I think his name is Gordon. There might have been another Big Brother called David who had his airbrushed face on posters on every wall. The main character Winston works in the Ministry of Truth where he has to amend the news in order to conform with Gordon's wishes. If anything goes wrong then there is a Ministry of Justice, I seem to remember that the person in charge is called Jack.

The reason that I am writing about the book is because Winston's job was to write news items. In the book there was no good news. The country was losing an unpopular war abroad and had no hope of winning. The country was covered by CCTV and you couldn't do anything without Gordon knowing. However Winston would create news that would keep everyone happy. He would make up scare stories and the following week he would say things weren't that bad and everyone would feel better because things weren't as bad as they expected.

One week the story might be that all dog owners have to pay an insurance even if they are already covered by their house insurance and the only danger from their dog was if they licked you to death. The following week the government changes its mind and everyone is so grateful that they sing Gordon's praises.

Winston gives the impression that Gordon is taking public health very seriously but really nothing has happened and everyone feels better for it. The problem that I had with the story is that I just couldn't believe it would ever happen.

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