1984- George Orwell.
Genre- Utopian and Dystopian fiction.
Genre- Utopian and Dystopian fiction.
Since time
immemorial, humans have yearned to learn about the future in the present
itself. That is because, there is a certain kind of curiosity attached with the
knowledge of the future owing to it’s mysterious nature. Now don’t you think
that someone might have already cracked this mystery? A certain person could
have predicted the future of the mankind just right?
Eminent scientists like Einstein and Stephen Hawkings had predicted the takeover of artificial intelligence over the natural. Orwell in this book, has tried to express the same worry through a story- such unpredictable and much alluring.
Now imagine a
world, where every movement of yours is recorded. There is a certain
someone/something keeping a watch on everything that you do day and night. You
are not even left alone for a moment. This world, where the Tele screen (which keeps
a watch on you) is the reality and the concept of ‘privacy’ is passé. Now to
give you an idea of how the tele screen works, you can take the reference of
the reality shows- Big Boss and Big Brother; only difference is that you don’t
get any brownie points for living a life like that. You have to live like that
under constant surveillance, so that you obey every order of the ultimate figure
in authority- The Big Brother. The only person to whom you can show any love,
loyalty or respect is the big brother, whose existence by the way isn’t
specified but isn’t questioned either. Now would you survive in a world like
that? Let me answer that for you- You certainly won’t. But guess what the catch
is? You will have to live anyway,
The Big Brother
is the focusing point for love, reverence, and emotions. Below him, comes the
inner party- number limited to 6 million. And below that, comes the Outer
Party. If the Inner Party can be regarded as the ‘brain’ of the state, then the
Outer Party might as well be referred to as it’s hands. And the speck of dust
at the feet of this structure, can be regarded as the Proles- the relatively
submissive and ‘dumb’ section consisting of 85% of the entire population.
Winston Smith, the protagonist of the story is one such
rebel who wishes to gain his freedom. According to him, “Freedom is the freedom
to say that two plus two equals to four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
All he wanted was a world in which he could live the way he wished to, without
facing any objection. He believed that he could construct a world like that for
himself by using his luck, cunningness and boldness. Now what lies at his receiving
end- success or failure? That is something you ponder on while reading the story,
whose answer you get only by the end.
Why should you read this book?
-One can assert complete control over you and your life by keeping
a track of everything that you do. That is the underlying philosophy practiced by
the Big Brother and his party. In today’s world where our likes and dislikes, transactions,
whereabouts can be tracked by technology easily, we surely have a reason to worry.
It won’t be long until the idea of Big Brother is incorporated not only in reality
TV shows, but in our real life too. You never know! *grins*
Overall, I would rate the book 4/5.
