Upon completing 1984, my first thought was, "?".
I didn't think, "what?"; I didn't think,"weird..."; I didn't think,"George Orwell's a freak."...I just thought, "?"...if it's possible to think in terms of punctuation.
Why did I think that? Well, after reading pages and pages that lead me to think in terms of rebellion and good overpowering evil, I never imagined an ending like that.
Most of Book 3 seemed to paint a picture of torture, betrayl, and failure (if you ask me), but Books 1 and 2 made it seem like Winston was going to be able to start something more that would contribute to the downfall of the dystopian society. After holding out for awhile, Winston still betrays Julia, and furthermore, ends up trying to accept the beliefs of the party. Doesn't that kind of make all of his previous efforts and opinions useless?
Blame Disney movies, and all of those childhood stories read to me that always had happy endings because this ending seemed uncalled for.
1 comment:
Rebekah: The closing lines of 1984 are classic. And you're right, it's no happy ending. Winston did betray Julia, and it is the ultimate betrayal. And the Party WAS able to control him. So what do you think Orwell's point is?
You raise an interesting question: "Doesn't that kind of make all of his previous efforts and opinions useless?" In a way, isn't that what his job was at Minitrue? Erasing the past?
It's ok that you thought ? Good books do that.
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