“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. –George Orwell”
George Orwell, by means of his book 1984, adorned a prophetic role by envisioning a dystopic future. The book was first published on 8th June 1949, but the message of the book still holds good in the current state of affairs.
Orwell paints a very bleak picture of the future, in which the human race would lose all its virtues of compassion, love, grief etc. The only perpetual feeling, humans would be left with would be of anger, hatred and distrust.
The world according to Orwell would be divided into 3 super countries – Eurasia , Eastasia and Oceania, which are constantly at war with one another. The protagonist, in 1984 – Winston, is a member of the outer party of Oceania. He is a middle aged man who tries to question the motives and aspiration of the Socialist regime which governs Oceania. The life he lives is strewn with apathy, and makes him dream beyond the constraints imposed by the ruling party. Winston is an editor who was responsible for historical fallacy; he alters photographs and updates past newspapers so as to concur with the Party’s ever-changing official version of the past; thus making the government of Oceania seem omniscient. He enjoys the challenging aspect of his work, but the continuous falsification of truth makes him question the reality.
As per Orwell the society under the rule of the Party of Oceania, would follow the social hierarchy where Inner Party members (less than 2% of the population) would be ranked higher than the outer party members who in-turn would be above the Proles (contributing to 85% of the population). The supreme leader “The Big Brother” is mentioned at various instances throughout the book. Yet he never makes any appearance through the entire span of the story, making not only Winston, but also the reader, question the very existence of this leader!
The book has various other characters, one of them being Julia. She is Winston’s love interest. Love between to consenting adults was not permitted by the party and was a punishable offence. Hence Winston and Julia had to have a very covert relationship. They both shared a common hatred against the Party and wanted to be part of the resistance or “The Brotherhood” which was planning to bring down the party once and for all. However as the book progresses the situation turns gloomier.
The underlying idea the book is the oppressive social regime, and the ways by which it has blinded the citizens of a nation into believing a manufactured reality. This is the second George Orwell book that I have read (First being Animal farm). He has been critical about socialism and its ideas in both the books, possibly over critical at times (In my opinion). I would rate “1984” – a 4 on 5.
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