UPDATED June 17th, 2017
We all had to read 1984 by George Orwellin school. But it’s safe to say that most of us had no idea of the just how relevant it would be in 2014. “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past,” says the novel, a work of dystopian literature that is still at the top of reading lists across the country.
Concepts and phrases introduced in 1984 have become common today including Big Brother and The Thought Police. While some of the horrors of this book have remained fictitious, others have eerily come to fruition in our time. Orwell saw the future in 1949, when the book was first published, and wrote about his fears decades before today’s social, political and technological advancements.
Because the book remains relevant today as both a social commentary and a warning of what society could become, here are 21 reasons to re-read 1984 by George Orwell:
