Friday, July 3, 2009

Mind Break

To give my mind a break for a month, I'll leave you with a book/movie review of an extremely good book and an extremely confusing movie if you hadn't read the book.

1984
by George Orwell

"1984" tells the tale of a man named Winston who was born into the country of Oceania. Oceania is one of the three super-states that control the world and they are all in perpetual war with one another. Oceania and the others East Asia and Eurasia are all absolute forms of a communist government with the elimination of privacy and the instillation of a hive mind mentality into its citizens as a priority. A majority of Oceania's society is made up of the proletarians, or the poor. The second largest social group is the middle class, and the third the upper class. The most scrutinized is the middle class, and and the most liberated from government surveillance are the proletarians.

The story follows Winston, a member of the middle class, who grows continually dissatisfied with the government and its scrutiny. His character is dynamic and filled with inner monologue's which he carefully protects from being expressed outwardly as it would most certainly result in his death. As the book progresses it follows the liberation of his mind from the constraints put upon by the overarching government and his realizations of some of the rebellious thoughts. The book is extremely intimate to Winston's senses, and thus all of the details on the environment and characters are seen through his eyes and his mind. This gives the reader more of an emotional connection to the character and makes him much more dynamic.

Overall the book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in human nature, politics, and history. The movie is excellent in its representations of the characters and scenes, nearly pinpoint to how its describes them in the book, but falls short for audiences who are not familiar with the book as it skips around a lot of material and leaves out some key connecting events between scenes.

Exeunt.

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