Words. Dictionary. Language.
At a time when English dictionaries across the globe are expanding by imbibing the newly created words and embracing commonly used words from other languages, can you imagine how it would be if things were the opposite. How would you express passion if you didn’t have a word for it? How would you describe Petrichor, the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil, if there were no such word? Would losing the ability to explain a feeling mean losing the feeling itself?
Reading this novel after 70 years of its creation, i found it to be a nearly accurate account on the current state of affairs in our society, rather than a grim futuristic novel. Big Brother is watching you, Thought crime, Thought policing, Mass surveillance,aren’t just words we have heard, but a reality we are witnessing in many places across the world. And this makes me marvel at the sheer brilliance of George Orwell to have foreseen the path the future was going to take. His words written 70 years back bear a striking similarity to our dystopian present.
Welcome to INGSOC– a place where feelings are forbidden, pleasure is a crime and words uttered unconsciously during sleep can result in your death. Keeping the masses ignorant and backward so that they pose no threat to you and deeming everyone else is guilty of thought crime unless proven otherwise, brainwashing young children and instigating them to spy on their own parents and abolishing words so you have no way to express your dissent is just a glimpse of how INGSOC operates. In addition, its use of fervent patriotism to support a meaningless war, its use of war to sustain social hierarchy and ensure permanent inequality, its fear of people being too educated, too aware, too conscious, are all typical characteristics we have seen being used by even by democratically elected governments over the last 70 years, since the novel’s publication. Nevertheless, the never dying spirit in one man is sufficient to awaken the conscious of an entire population. Or is it?
1984 is not merely a dystopian novel. It lays down the basis for freedom in a society, the freedom to read, to write, to speak, to know the truth, to be aware of the past and most importantly, to think. In writing about the dangers of living in a totalitarian regime, Orwell educates us of the freedom we should strive for. By sending shudders down our spine with his detailed description of life in a surveillance state, Orwell urges us to find the courage to fight for that freedom. Orwell’s in depth knowledge of history, politics, social structure and human psychology shines through the entire novel. Moreover, his use of the English language is impeccable. He has has shown us a world where truth and rationale give way to state’s absolute control of our mind and thoughts, and thereby our reality. The question now is, do we want to live in such a society, or are we already living in it?
At a time when English dictionaries across the globe are expanding by imbibing the newly created words and embracing commonly used words from other languages, can you imagine how it would be if things were the opposite. How would you express passion if you didn’t have a word for it? How would you describe Petrichor, the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil, if there were no such word? Would losing the ability to explain a feeling mean losing the feeling itself?
Reading this novel after 70 years of its creation, i found it to be a nearly accurate account on the current state of affairs in our society, rather than a grim futuristic novel. Big Brother is watching you, Thought crime, Thought policing, Mass surveillance,aren’t just words we have heard, but a reality we are witnessing in many places across the world. And this makes me marvel at the sheer brilliance of George Orwell to have foreseen the path the future was going to take. His words written 70 years back bear a striking similarity to our dystopian present.
Welcome to INGSOC– a place where feelings are forbidden, pleasure is a crime and words uttered unconsciously during sleep can result in your death. Keeping the masses ignorant and backward so that they pose no threat to you and deeming everyone else is guilty of thought crime unless proven otherwise, brainwashing young children and instigating them to spy on their own parents and abolishing words so you have no way to express your dissent is just a glimpse of how INGSOC operates. In addition, its use of fervent patriotism to support a meaningless war, its use of war to sustain social hierarchy and ensure permanent inequality, its fear of people being too educated, too aware, too conscious, are all typical characteristics we have seen being used by even by democratically elected governments over the last 70 years, since the novel’s publication. Nevertheless, the never dying spirit in one man is sufficient to awaken the conscious of an entire population. Or is it?
1984 is not merely a dystopian novel. It lays down the basis for freedom in a society, the freedom to read, to write, to speak, to know the truth, to be aware of the past and most importantly, to think. In writing about the dangers of living in a totalitarian regime, Orwell educates us of the freedom we should strive for. By sending shudders down our spine with his detailed description of life in a surveillance state, Orwell urges us to find the courage to fight for that freedom. Orwell’s in depth knowledge of history, politics, social structure and human psychology shines through the entire novel. Moreover, his use of the English language is impeccable. He has has shown us a world where truth and rationale give way to state’s absolute control of our mind and thoughts, and thereby our reality. The question now is, do we want to live in such a society, or are we already living in it?
