1984

In a world swarmed with fake news, claims of advertising used to mislead huge mass of people, leaders leaning towards pugnacious use of political power, omniscience of machines and increasing unrest of the common man – George Orwell’s classic novel serves as an effective mirror – even after 6 decades of its first publication.

Book is centered around story of Winston Smith who is a member in a government’s department called “Ministry of Truth” – their work is to carefully twist facts and purge anything that contradicts government’s current propaganda. Winston is a hard-working member of his team; however, he does have a small defect; he is prone to have secret thoughts – and is even courageous enough to record them in a small diary! This defect of his is considered a serious crime in his nation and is frowned upon with utmost disgust. Term for this defect is – thought crime.

In Oceania, Government controls every aspect of life of all its citizens. Where even thoughts are scanned and assessed for their loyalty to the ruling party, any kind of deviation is strictly dealt with. Perpetual presence of Big Brother – and his watch over its people - make it very difficult for Winston to continue his journey of thoughts. In a world where none of his friends see or even feel the oppression that Winston is fighting, makes his battle for freedom rather poignant.

Julia – Winston’s love is also a partner in crime with him against Big Brother’s tyranny. She initially sends him a note expressing her love and it is indeed her candid expressions that validate Winston’s own desires against the indoctrination of the party.

Their love affair is a passionate one, and indicates how even the strongest means of propaganda fail to reach most intimate areas of human minds. They continue to breach the Big Brother’s regulations and meet each other stealthily. As their love for each other grows, they try to increase the reach of their rebellion and explore if there are other people in Oceania feeling the kind of discontent they have felt.

In this attempt they run into O’Brien, a member who calls himself to be aligned to brotherhood – an alternative ideology to that of Big Brother. O’Brien’s character is marvelously multi-layered, and it is only in the end that readers come to know him as an ally of Big brother who had been spying on Winston and Julia since long time.

When   they get caught – Winston and Julia are taken to the Ministry of Love – what ensues thereafter is a gut-wrenching torture and indoctrination of both the lovers. They are tortured with their worst fears, and that too continuously – it reaches to such an extreme where Winston – with his face covered with hungry rats - confesses to torture Julia instead of himself.  “Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me.”

After the torture – Winston and Julia are back to being loyal members of the party, they have forgotten about their emotions and ideas – even ones that they thought were outside the reach of the government. Their love and freedom, shine only briefly during the book and overall backdrop remains despotic, dark and dubious.

As a romantic supporter of democracy, I fancy a different end to this story. I imagine, somewhere even after the atrocities of Big Brother, there would be always more Winstons and Julias rooting to taste the freedom from ever expanding propaganda – and more and more of those would find ways to successfully come out of Big brother’s shackles.