’’Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows’’
Quite a few people will consider this statement as hilarious or maybe childish but not after reading 1984, George Orwell’s masterpiece. The novel was written in 1949 and is the story of Winston Smith, a simple person living in London in 1984. In 1984, there were only three large countries left - Eastasia, Eurasia, Oceania which were constantly at war with one another. London was a part of Oceania governed by The Party with Big Brother at its helm. It is a totalitarian government which controls not only people’s actions but also their minds. Everywhere there are huge posters of Big Brother staring down with the caption Big Brother is Watching You. Every home has a telescreen, a gadget similar to television. Telescreen is the most important propaganda machine of The Party. It cannot be turned off and continuously plays patriotic music, songs and news. Moreover, it is two way transmit i.e. it can transmit images and voices from one’s home to the Thought Police.Thought Police is the security arm of The Party as even a thought against the Party is a crime (Thought Crime), the Thought Police exists to punish such criminals identified through their gestures, facial expressions etc.
Another more potent instrument is the language NEWSPEAK instead of English (OLDSPEAK). The purpose of NEWSPEAK was the constraint the thinking of people by not allowing them words to think rebelliously. This was done by limiting the vocabulary of the language through elimination of undesirable words. This shall be further clear by the following example
A word contains its opposite in itself. Take ’good’ for example. If you have a word like good, what is the need for a word like ’bad’. Instead we have ’ungood’. Similarly, for a stronger version of ’good’, instead of ’excellent’, ’splendid’ we have ’plusgood’ or ’doublyplusgood’. The complete spectrum of good and bad can be covered in a single word itself.
Here, I won’t be discussing the worst instrument of The Party and allow future readers to experience the shock themselves.
I went through a range of emotions while reading this book from comic in the beginning to disbelieving in the middle to pure horror in the end. This book is supposed to be a satire on totalitarianism but the fun disappears once you consider if such a society is truly possible. Just 250 pages of this book are enough to shake a person’s belief in system, society and written history. I request fellow readers to treat it not as a satire but as a non-fiction to experience its complete impact.
PS:- Please go through the appendix on NEWSPEAK before reading the book