Why Was 1984 Banned?
1984 has been banned or restricted for two opposite reasons. In the Soviet Union and other Communist states it was forbidden for decades because its picture of a totalitarian regime was clearly aimed at Stalin's rule. In the United States it has been challenged in schools, most famously in 1981 in Jackson County, Florida, where it was called pro-communist and objected to for its sexual content.
It has appeared for decades on the American Library Association's lists of frequently challenged books.
| Where | Why |
|---|---|
| Soviet Union | Banned for its attack on totalitarianism; allowed only in the late 1980s |
| Other Communist states | Restricted for the same reasons |
| Jackson County, Florida, 1981 | Challenged as pro-communist and for sexual content |
| Other US schools | Challenged over sex, violence and political themes |
| Kindle, 2009 | Unauthorized copies removed by Amazon over a rights issue, not a ban |
Why was 1984 banned in the Soviet Union?
Readers immediately recognized in Big Brother, the Thought Police and the rewriting of history a portrait of Stalin's Soviet Union, with its personality cult, secret police and falsified records. The book was forbidden there and circulated only in secret copies smuggled from abroad. It was not officially published in the Soviet Union until the reforms of the late 1980s under Mikhail Gorbachev.
↑ Back to the topWhy was 1984 challenged in the United States?
In 1981 parents in Jackson County, Florida, challenged the book as pro-communist and as containing explicit sexual material, an objection that surprised many, since Orwell wrote it as a warning against communist dictatorship. Over the years other school districts have challenged it for its sexual scenes, the torture in the Ministry of Love and its bleak view of government. In most cases the book has remained on reading lists.
↑ Back to the topWhat are the main reasons it gets challenged?
The most common reasons are the sexual relationship between Winston and Julia, which the book describes frankly; the violence of the torture scenes; and its political content, which some readers have seen as either too critical of government or, mistakenly, as promoting the system it describes.
↑ Back to the topWas 1984 really deleted from Kindles?
In 2009 Amazon remotely removed copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from customers' Kindles. It was not a ban: the copies had been sold by a publisher without the rights to the books. The irony of deleting 1984 made headlines, and Amazon later apologized and changed its policy.
↑ Back to the topIs 1984 still banned?
Today 1984 is widely available and taught in schools around the world. Its sales jump whenever people worry about surveillance or political truth, and it remains one of the best-known books about the dangers of unchecked power.
↑ Back to the topMore about 1984
Written by Tori Books for readers and students.