How To Read 1984 By George Orwell Effectively?

First off, reading ‘1984’ effectively requires a focus to really appreciate the many, many themes in the book. So, to start, read ‘1984’ in a place that is quiet and again conducive to reading long tracts of text without distraction. Many of the themes in ‘1984’ are very heavy and require a lot of thought. So, writing down your thoughts, ideas, questions and even any notable quotes throughout your reading of the novel is highly advisable. For me, the act of writing something down on paper often solidifies the connection I have felt with a particular part of the novel.

In addition, to properly appreciate the prophetic warnings Orwell has conveyed in the novel, it’s crucial to have sufficient knowledge of his era of the novel’s composition, which was marked by the creeping threat of totalitarianism, revolution, and sophisticated propaganda. After you finish reading the novel, reading up on a simple review or summary of the novel will greatly aid in appreciating many of the finer subplots and methods in which Orwell skillfully develops his current and relevant critiques of a manipulated information. The concepts of ‘Newspeak’ and ‘Doublethink’ are ingeniously simple yet exquisitely powerful tools, commonly found in today’s information saturated society.

Also discuss the book with your friends and/or join a book club (online or in real life). Even though you can read a book in just a few days, reading a novel as complex as “1984” needs some time to process. As you read along, sometimes you have totally different ideas of what you just read than your fellow readers. That’s what makes literature so powerful and that’s how you can get more out of a novel. You can discuss the scene where you got the most chills, and how you thought about a certain character or plot twist.

Finally, do not read ‘1984’ too quickly. This novel is not only a very powerful story but also a commentary and a warning to future generations. As such, there are many lessons which can be gleaned from the novel and it is definitely a book which should be savored. After I finished reading the first half of ‘1984’ I felt extremely shaken but at the same time I felt that I had been enlightened in some way. There were many things which had been brought to my attention and I had plenty to think about after finishing the novel. These feelings and the excellent writing of Orwell are something that I think would be good to experience for yourself, and I am sure that you will be able to see the world in a different light after reading ‘1984’.

The first time you read a scene, try to get lost in it and see how the plot develops. Get mad, cry, finish the book. But then wait a week or two and read it again with a pencil. The first time you read it you were affected by it emotionally. The second time you will read it intellectually and see how every single detail, every bleak circumstance, every casual comment supports the rest of the story and underpins the central theme of Orwell’s prophetic structure.

I got so much more out of reading the book by reading chapters and then immediately journaling out my reactions to them. Not analyzed or processed, just how I felt and what I thought. Writing out “This part of the story made me feel claustrophobic” or “The Parsons children are terrifying” or “Why does the memory of that paperweight hurt so much?” helped me to process out the very heavy themes in the story and see where my own biases were coming in. Later, I could go back and see how my thoughts were affected by the narrative of the book. It created a personal dialogue with the text that simply reading the book would not have created. The book gets under your skin, and journaling out my feelings and thoughts about the book was like tracking an infection.