1984 is about a man named Winston who lives in a society controlled by the leader who

remains anonymous to the public, and stands only as a figurehead: Big Brother. They are

restricted on every level, cruel to each other, and are forbidden from their emotions. They are

robots in a society meant to perpetuate only delusion to keep alive a narrative.

It’s a hard book to read. It’s gross sometimes, and even a bit vulgar. That is why it is

being talked about being banned, and even already banned in some states. However, it is in these

vulgar realities that are exactly as that suggests; a reality. The book doesn’t abstain from large

confusing vocabulary and ideas, asking questions about what truly makes up that reality. If

everyone collectively decides against something, and works their way around it, is that new thing

something that is real? Proven? Fact? If O’Brien wanted to fly, and Winston believed he was

flying, then who is to say he wasn’t actually able to fly.

However, no matter how many of his rights are stripped from him, Winston’s heart is

never stopped. The inkling of his true thoughts lay there in his subconscious, especially in the

absence of surrounding watchers. He breathes the life he lived; the life of societally proclaimed

insanity.

That must have been Orwell’s figure of hope. That for as long as people strive for power,

the nature of people will continue to think reasonably. They will find heart, and will not fight

life’s basic desires. That is what we need right now. The book is not just vulgar to be that way,it’s

about the heartlessness perpetuated in such a society, and how someone would navigate it as a

human, and not a rule follower. From the eyes of someone fickle, but someone self aware.

Someone who was bested, but someone who was not untrue to himself, or the world so painfully

defiled.

As we enter a society that is being driven to madness with every random, borderline

childish, decision that is made, it is so incredibly important to know what is going on. The

potential wars, the tariffs raising our own prices, the immigrants being ruthlessly deported. It is

so important we support each other, because it is in this exact manic behavior, when we lose our

humanity, we lose our freedom along with it.

In the words of George Orwell, “When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies

of fear and hatred, but when left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods

that the war is happening.”