1984 / George Orwell Perhaps one of the haunting books I’ve read that sends chills throughout the body and the mind although the genre is far from Edgar Allan Poe’s writings nor the modern-day master or horror, Stephen King. The fact that it spoke not only about politics, but as well as the possible fate of humankind (even giving out the year, 2050, where these changes would be fully visible) is scary enough to imagine. We have the character of Winston Smith—freedom fighter as we may call it—the silent rebel who works in a high position, respected by others because he does so well in his job, lives the good life, but is secretly against the governing body called ‘the party’. Here, we see the struggle faced by those who wanted authentic freedom personified in Winston; the enlightened figure among those enslaved by the government and was forced to think that everything was right. It was a complete brainwash from which there is no escape. What will make readers feel the vibe of how 1984 instills the chains as mark of slavery on its characters are the ways The Party carried out laws: to reduce vocabulary and language hence control freedom of communication, to watch over every movement even if one is sleeping hence the control of privacy, to allow sexual act ONLY for the sake of bearing children and remove all physical pleasure, and lastly, which I made an impact on me on this book, was to control the minds of the people in this particular nation (Oceania) hence forcing its rebels to renounce their beliefs of liberty and equality only to ‘put a bullet to the head’ after they have been ‘converted’. And where was religion in this story? Diminished. There is only one god in this book, the one The Party and the people praises (Big Brother) which, I think, states the oneness of Church and State in such a negative connotation the god becomes ultimately the idol of those who believed in such cruel ruling. It’s a rollercoaster ride of thrills on who betrays who, what could be the next move of Winston Smith and the others like him, but it also makes the reader think on the future of the nation he lives in—the whole world, actually. Although Orwell’s 1984 is a fictional work, the harrowing questions strike us: what is the fate of the future? If not exactly the way described in 1984, then how cruel can the world be by the time year 2050 arrives?
