[Robert DeLong]

Yeah but it was so long ago now, that I remember only what the basic premise was, that being totalitarianism, and mass surveillance. Silly me, being the youngster that I was at the time, dismissed in as noting more than fantasy. Boy was I wrong. Goes to show what a visionary Orwell really was it was published it back in 1949. Same thing applies to Animal Farm published in 1945

Of course being born in 1952, I didn't read them when they were published, but probably 20+ years after they were published. My thinking was that if they hadn't come true after all these years, they never would. But then youth always makes you more of an optimist. As you age you become more of a pessimist, at least I did. Besides that I have proven to myself that I wasn't much of a visionary back in my youth. That has changed somewhat, as well, as I aged. 8>)

[DUMBGRUNT]

“In 1984 book, the rats represent Winston’s deepest fears because he is more afraid of them than of anything else. On a deeper level, however, the rats also symbolize the extent of the Party’s control over the people of Oceania.”

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/16124/what-is-the-symbolism-of-rats-in-george-orwells-1984#:~:text=In%201984%20book%2C%20the%20rats,over%20the%20people%20of%20Oceania.