“After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take ‘good’, for instance. If you have a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well – – better because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not.”
-1984, George Orwell
The book needs no introduction but it is paragraphs such as the one above that make it all the more necessary to speak about the brainwashed and regulated characters in the world of George Orwell’s novel 1984.
The slogans from the book- “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING You” and “WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” – are used to define the novel but they fail to capture the true essence-hopelessness. It makes us believe that hordes human beings will rise against an oppressive regime. Not out of bravery but as an inbuilt ‘rejection to oppression’ mechanism that we believe we have.
Sure there is the fear of being executed but the number of agreeable people -believers in the ideology of the ‘Party’ and ‘BIG BROTHER’ – is far greater than the rebellion or rejecters.
The character ‘Syme’ is working on the dictionary for Newspeak. Standard English is referred to as Oldspeak.
George Orwell’s protagonist describes Syme as a specialist in Newspeak and also “… venomously orthodox in an intellectual way”. This trait sounds familiar and quite common to say that the world we live cannot be made up of people who are not like Syme.
We have destroyed words and worlds alike. It is we-humanity- who has curated the world as we seem perfect.
Kattyayani's Travelling Circus 