1984- George Orwell
Disclaimer: This is not actually a book review per se, but more of what I thought of the book.
No spoilers ahead!
1984 is basically a dystopian novel that describes a totalitarian society where everything, starting from your everyday life to the history of the world, and even your own thoughts are controlled by the government. If you are looking for a happy and feel-good book to read, this definitely isn’t it. There is a lot of heavy themes that prompt many serious thoughts and discussions.
Numerous people had recommended me this book and I finally got around to reading it. Orwell had published the book in 1949, only a few years after World War II and during the Cold War. The world had been divided into different parts based on different ideologies and such conditions might have been the inspiration for his novel.
A psychological thriller?
1984 is considered to be a political or social science fiction. However, I think for me, it could have easily passed as a psychological thriller. It’s scarier than any supernatural books I’ve ever read. Although most of the story is imagined, it could have been and maybe is the state of some countries in the world today. That is the scariest part of the book, how easily it could have been our reality.
Setting:
The book is set in Oceania, fictional superstate consisting of Britain, the Americas, and several other countries. People living in this state are basically divided into three categories: The Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. The Inner Party is made up of the rulers of the decision makers whereas the Outer Party is the people who are administrators and workers in the ministries ran by the Inner Party and the Proles were the rest of the people, the commoners. This could be compared to our present day Cabinet, ministry workers, and common citizens.
Big Brother:
“Big Brother is watching you” is a slogan that is everywhere from posters to television. Big Brother is the leader of Oceania, yet someone who has never been seen by anyone. It is highly likely that he doesn’t exist but is a symbol of the Party for Big Brother would exist for as long as the Party exists.
He symbolizes the power of the Party and total government surveillance over a country. Such a symbol must exist as a face of the government for the people to trust or to fear the Party.
The name of the reality tv show “Big Brother”, and it’s Indian version “Bigg Boss”, could have been a 1984 reference.
Doublethink:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The above is the slogan of the Party and statements that most people in Oceania believe to be true or at least pretend to believe. These are contradictory ideas brought together that if presented to anybody in today’s modern society would never choose to believe. However, this is the essence of doublethink: being able to hold two contradictory thoughts simultaneously.
Selfishness and Betrayal:
It is human nature to put yourself first sometimes even unintentionally. No matter how much you love someone or how much you would try to be selfless, it is our natural instinct to love ourselves more.
Most books and movies, especially when it comes to romance, display selflessness and unconditional love. However, I think that is quite unrealistic. 1984 shows the raw human instinct to be insanely selfish.
Concluding thoughts:
To be honest, the book was quite depressing but it did leave me many thought provoking ideas. I’ve thought about totalitarian and communist societies and thought about what it would be like to live in such a society. It would be my worst nightmare if someone would get into my mind and knew my insane thoughts. However, “the Party” didn’t just get into the people’s heads but were even controlling what people thought about. The school curriculum, the newspapers, and television were directing people’s thought processes. Although not to that extent, but it could be compared to the kind of media and world we are brought up in. It’s amazing how much the human mind can be made to believe if trained to do so.
To come to think of it, the world today, is not all that different from Oceania. With social media and cellphones, our information is all out there for anybody to see. It really would not be that hard for "Big Brother" to be watching us. By filtering the kind of information or the kind of television we watch, our minds could actually be controlled to think a certain way without any of us even figuring it out.