Freedom is precious......... Review on 1984 - George Orwell

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.

--Sir Winston Churchill

How comfortable are we with someone scrutinizing us at all times?

How nice a feeling is it to have to conform to a particular religion, a particular lifestyle and a particular political ideology?

And all this comes at a price-Love.

Yeah a world where history plays dormant role because it no longer stands witness to whatever goes on in the nation, in a family and hence society at large. It can be manipulated; it can be recreated to suit everyone?s perceptions, dreams of an ideal world.

Picture this-

You get up early in the morning wanting to make coffee collecting the newspaper at the doorstep and meanwhile switching on TV for the latest, may be in a while wake up your hubby dear in a while and enjoy the morning sunlight while discussing the latest events-be it stock indices or Page 3 depending on one?s tastes. Beautiful, isn?t it?

But somehow, these seemingly normal moments are tantamount to committing the most heinous crimes. You might ask how and why? You?ll find these shocking instances and a mind numbing ideology in an incisively startling book called 1984 by George Orwell.

Background

Set against a backdrop of a time when an omnipotent and omnipresent presence of Big Brother- a rather elusive character who believes in oppression and autocracy of the highest order where human emotions when displayed in public can lead one to get brutally persecuted. Big Brother is the Chief who decides the kind of economy which in turns implies that rationing of every essential item that the citizenry might need.

Those aware of the quota regime we have had in the past would get a feeling of déjà vu and one of relief that our government had the good sense to do away with; for one, the fact that the system was a lot milder than what happens in this nation and secondly, our government dispensed with that ideology in a manner that has made people devote paeans to the success of India as a nation. How correct or well timed was the step is topic of another debate.

Anyway, so there is this nation far into future that believes in three governing principles of

War is Peace.

Ignorance is strength.

So heavily indoctrinated are the natives of this place that the very idea of anything remotely human or humane is considered ridiculous. Whatever news gets telecasted has pass through a zillion filters where its keeps getting refined as per the ?norms?. Marriage is an institution that performs just one function of reproduction and if that does not happen, the prevailing government annuls it immediately.

Characters

The protagonist has been portrayed as one who does not subscribe to the values, views and norms of this era; one who has seen the better part of human history and is desperately trying to record gruesome details while trying to steer clear of depressing thoughts of having witnessed his parents? persecution and wife?s as well. There are many such incidents when he find people ignorant and enslaved in mind numbingly moronic opinions about how humans ought to behave.

I would not want to name the characters because as the story progresses, he finds true love in a very strange but beautiful way, gets caught while trying to rebel, is finally charged with treason all orchestrated by another character, the protagonist committed the blunder of placing his trust in. What happens finally is something that has to be read by oneself, experienced and somehow deep within treasured for it?s a resounding slap on the face of every person who feels that our nation and world at large is falling into an abyss.

The conclusion I was happy to draw after reading the book was that of relief and conviction in what we as a nation believe in. Freedom will never be valued the same way after you have read this book is all I want to say.

If I compare it with one of my all time favourites-Animal Farm written by the same author, I would say this equals the former in terms of lucidity as well as originality.The theme is similar as well.You might find the author's viewpoints extreme be it about communism or sovereignity but you cannot ignore it or call it completely irrational.

So go ahead. Feel free and feel good for being able to read such a book and criticize the plot thereafter. Trust me if the Big Brother were watching you, you couldn?t visualize a day when you can lay back and do what you want, forget about reading a poignant account of His times.

Keerti