1984 Revised Response

Prostitution and dictatorship are both real world issues, and today’s middle school kids have every right to know about the real world.  In the book 1984, by George Orwell, the world is at war.  In Orwell’s prophetic creation, the world is split into three parts, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia.  The main character, Winston Smith, lives in Oceania, which is run by the tyrant “Big Brother.”  Even though 1984 includes prostitution, oppression, and violence it has real world information and is un-worthy of being banned.

            First of all, 1984 is a Great American Novel that is a part of our history and has been for decades.  1984 takes us inside the minds of many during the wake of World War II.  In the late 1940’s when 1984 was written, many people believed that the world was stuck in continuous world war turmoil, that these massive wars would be never-ending.   George Orwell was one of these people.  John Bennett of Institute for historical review wrote, “Orwell worked for the BBC for a time, and the Ministry of Truth [the place that the main character works in 1984] is modeled to some extent on the BBC. Orwell noted that the BBC put out false hate propaganda during World War II, and controlled history by censoring news about the genocidal Allied policy of leveling German cities by saturation bombing.”  The BBC, a major news organization both then and now, is a basis for the book.  There is a large amount of details in 1984 that give us insight as to what was going on behind the eyes of the media during World War II.  As Bennett points out, Orwell in his book 1984 makes many connections to World War II, which is a part of history.  By banning this book, the government would be throwing away a real factual view into our history.

            Also, 1984 has themes that are relevant to the world today.  Many governments of the world today resemble the government in 1984 and to ban the book would be shielding middle school kids from the real world.  Lewis Beale of CNN wrote, “In the novel, nearly all public and private places have large TV screens that broadcast government propaganda, news and approved entertainment. But they are also two-way monitors that spy on citizens' private lives. Today websites like Facebook track our likes and dislikes, and governments and private individuals hack into our computers and find out what they want to know. Then there are the ever-present surveillance cameras that spy on the average person as they go about their daily routine.”  As Beale points out, constant surveillance is an issue that the people of Oceania face in 1984 and also an issue that people living in the modern world face.  Another parallel found between 1984 and real life is the parallel between the government of Oceania and the government today.  Seattle Times’ Misha Berson writes in an article, “Big Brother's frequent use of the slogans, "You have it good," and "It's getting better" [are] pertinent to our own era.  “Those are messages we're constantly getting too. So who is Big Brother in our society today? I think it's corporate America as much as it is the executive branch of government."”  As you can see, all of the themes of 1984 are relevant to the real world today.  To deny kids the ability to read 1984 would be the same as making a kid go without ever seeing the news, until they were an adult.  It would be completely illogical to put a person in the world with no knowledge of what goes on.

            However, some believe that the prostitution in 1984 is an inappropriate concept for children to read about.  In 1984 there is a scene in which Winston writes about when he once had sex with a prostitute.  The scene is written, “It was three years ago. It was on a dark evening, in a narrow side-street near one of the big railway stations. She was standing near a doorway in the wall, under a street lamp that hardly gave any light. She had a young face, painted very thick. It was really the paint that appealed to me, the whiteness of it, like a mask, and the bright red lips. Party women never paint their faces. There was nobody else in the street, and no telescreens. She said two dollars. I… I went with her through the doorway and across a backyard into a basement kitchen. There was a bed against the wall, and a lamp on the table, turned down very low. She… She threw herself down on the bed, and at once, without any kind of preliminary in the most coarse, horrible way you can imagine, pulled up her skirt. I… I turned up the lamp. When I saw her in the light… When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same.”  Some believe that the book is too graphic to stay on the middle school library.  For instance in Jackson County Florida the book was challenged because it “contained sexually explicit matter.”  However, the content of the book is not explicit at all.  Nothing is described in the scene quoted above, or for that matter anywhere in the book.  Many concerned parents believe that the books their children are reading are too graphic to stay on the shelves of schools.  Yet, there is nothing graphic about this scene, which is arguably the most explicit scene of the book.  So, while prostitution is a part of the book, it is hardly sensible to argue that the graphic prostitution of 1984 is any reason to ban it.

            While it is true that 1984 has prostitution and totalitarianism, these concepts are things kids deserve to know about.  The education system has to realize that children my age have a right to be told the truth, and not shadowed in the safety of a fictitious world.  If our schools ban 1984, it will only deny children their right to learn about a crucial time in our history, which they will most likely never see anything like until the day they die.

Bibliography

"Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century", American Library Association, March 26, 2013. Access Date December 16, 2014. <http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons>

Berson, Misha.  “Orwells '1984' has parallels to reality of present day”, Seattle Times, January   20, 2004.  Access Date December 18, 2014. <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040120&slug=orwell20>

CNN Opinion. “We're living '1984' today.” CNN, Sat August 3, 2013. Access Date December 16, 2014. < http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/03/opinion/beale-1984-now/>

Institute for Historical Review. “Orwell's 1984: Was Orwell Right?”  Institute for Historical Review, February 1985.  Access Date December 17, 2014. <http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html>

Orwell, George. 1984: A Novel. New York: Plume, 1983. Print.