1984 Life Lessons Essay

Words: 441
Pages: 2

1984 by George Orwell is an excellent novel that should remain in the high school curriculum because there are many life lessons for teenagers in this book. Even if the lessons are shown a bit to the extreme in the book, they are important and greatly effect high school students. The main three lessons are that language controls thoughts, privacy is important, and some fears can change one’s life completely. The first lesson is language controlling thoughts which is connected to teenagers going to high school to learn. Thoughts are based on knowledge, so acquiring the right knowledge is important. In the book, Syme said “Don’t you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought” (55). By controlling language, they were controlling what people could …show more content…
The camera and the microphone were built in with a television and were in every party member’s home. They were called telescreens and they “received and transmitted simultaneously” (4). Telescreens are similar to cell phones in today’s world. Vast majority of teenagers have cell phones which they use extremely frequently. The use of cell phones is mainly for socializing. When socializing on social media, privacy of one’s self or other people can be sometimes invaded. It could happen purposely or accidentally. The lesson from the book is that privacy should be kept private. Never share your privacy and never take other peoples privacy. Since when you exploit your own privacy, other people can know what you fear. The third lesson is that some fears can change one’s life completely. In the book, O’Brien explained “The worst thing in the world … varies from individual to individual” (296). For Winston, his worst fear was a fear for rats. After he was tortured with rats, his life had changed because he had betrayed Julia. For teenagers, life changing fear is connected to bullying. Bullying is one of the most common incidents in high