I am more then halfway through the book and I felt compelled to write what I thought of it thus far. The book reminds me of Anthem in many ways. It's almost like a pre-Anthem society that tells a very similar tale. Controlled society, man rebels, man meets girl, girl adores man and also rebels, etc. This story is a bit more involved though, especially regarding the Brotherhood and how there is not just one man against many, but an entire group rebelling (underground). Anthem's message skimmed the surface but so far 1984 has broken it down and analyzed it more, which I am really enjoying. This also makes me feel more connected to the story.One of the thoughts that came to my head was: To fight against control, one must be controlled. The brotherhood controls the ones fighting against the Ministry (Big Brother), therefor using control to gain freedom from control. Dying for freedom is a scary thought but a big theme in the book which has awakened me to an understanding of survival of self vs. survival of the human race. So far the story is extremely entertaining, thought provoking and slightly scary. After finishing the book, one word describes how I felt: Hopeless(ness). I cried a bit at the end but not from a loss of a character or from any tragic event but from a feeling of absolute hopelessness. My friend had said how he hated the ending, and I disagreed... I loved it because it created the strongest emotions from the message the author was trying to convey. If the ending had been victorious the feeling wouldn't have been as strong and the tone would have been completely wrong (in my opinion).
