1984: novel by George Orwell

Although it was written back in 1949, the story is set in a dystopian April 1984, nearly 40 years after the end of the second world war, and a few years after the so-called Atomic Wars. Winston Smith is a middle-aged man who endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police.Totalitarianism is one of the major themes of the novel, 1984. It presents the type of government where even the head of the government is unknown to the public. This theme serves as a warning to the people because such a regime unleashes propaganda to make people believe in lies presented by the government.

 (Dorrancepublishing.com)

Every move and thought of the people is closely monitored by the thought police and no-one is allowed to think anything different to the government's propaganda. Jobs, free time and relationships are all closely controlled. People can be arrested for stepping out of line and they usually disappear (sent to a remote labour camp) or are tortured in prison.

The novel 1984 has repeatedly been banned and censored for being “offensive” and “vulgar” due to its language and characterization and for its social and political themes, as well as for sexual content.. Here are a few examples:

Winston, the protagonist, frustrated because he cannot go to bed with Julia, an attractive young girl, imagines "..he would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon; he would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows ......he would ravish her and slit her throat at the moment of climax...."  He thinks he might "smash her head in with a cobbblestone" and later, when he finally gets to kiss her and tells her "I hated you. I wanted to rape you, then kill you and smash your head in..."  "...she laughed delightedly".

 Julia's first sexual encounter took place when she was 16 yrs old and the man involved was 60 years of age.Winston is happy to hear that Julia ".... has had sex hundreds/scores of times with party members because anything to do with corruption always filled him with a wild hope". He fantasizes about the pleasure of  "...infecting the whole lot of them with syphillus or leprosy." "The more men you've had,the more I love you..... I hate purity I hate goodness. I don't want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones" says Winston. Later, he officially admits he is willing "to disseminate venereal diseases, to encourage prostituion, to murder and to corrupt children" in order to weaken the power of the party.

Julia and Winston spend much time debating sexual issues and its relation to party politics. 

 Fornication and prostitution are talked of and accepted." Eroticism ......and sexual intercourse within marriage were to be despised ". Marriage itself is scorned and prostitutes are viewed as sub-human. Sexual scenes between Winston and his wife, Winston and a prostitute and Winston and the girl are described, sometimes in detail. A connection is made between violence and sex. Winston describes how he had once contemplated throwing his wife over the cliff.

 Winston carelessly kicks away a severed hand, after a bomb attack and descriptions of torture in the first part of the book involve cracked teeth, broken bones, bloody clumps of hair, and progress in severity in the later part, to include kicking and smashing of fists in the face, fingers broken by a boot, face, groin, testicles etc smashed with  trungeons, iron rods and boots, bones twisted out of shape and electrocutioin of the body in room 101 torture chamber.

Verdict: This is an adult book, too graphic for school-going young people. The interesting backdrop to the story, and the "relevance" of government involvement in our present lives, does not justify exposing young, impressionable teens to sexual and physical vioence, cruelty, gore and vitriol.