1984 by George Orwell has become one of the most controversial and illuminating novels of the century due to its catchy and striking plot. The author through this narrative presents us several issues related to culture, politics and society which are very close to ours… Actually are pretty similar ones.
Something that have called my attention regarding this novel and the things learned in classes is the way in which we are living now and how some characteristics from the novel are presented in our life. That’s why, I believe that even though we are not living in a totalitarian society we have some aspects that make me questioned if we are living in a kind of oppressive society.
To begin with, nowadays we are being dominated by an unseen source of power, which is bigger than the governments and it goes further. Unfortunately, it is something that is present in every aspect of our lives, therefore affects our way of living. Besides, does not allow us to act, think or behave freely. Are we absolutely free? I do not think so…
From my point of view, people believe that nowadays we are living in a super and completely free society, however we are free up to the parameters that this huge and impaired system sells.
Moving on, even though we do not dress equally as in the novel, we act quite similar regarding different situations in our daily life and we follow the parameters imposed by society. For instance, what people consider beauty has to do with the canons of beauty that are determined by the system.
In the case, if we think differently and do not take for granted those parameters we suffer certain consequences, such as the rejection by the rest of society, as if you were odd. But, why people turn down the different things? I came up with the idea that this is because of fear, they are afraid of the new, and this is only because of the fear which has been imposed over the years. Consequently, the party keeps watch over everybody and what methods it uses to keep individuals in line.(Reed, 1984)
To continue with, as we may know in the society of 1984 there are certain ministers. The one that called my attention was the Ministry of Truth. According to what we learned in classes, this minister is the one which is dedicated to eliminate all the documents of the history that has no relation at all to the lifestyle that people are living. Moreover, they take over all the papers that flatly contradict to the parameters that they imposed or even information that they do not want to reveal in order to keep calm society. In other words, they omitted information.
When our professor explained this in classes, immediately came to my mind the way in which the books used by students in our country are structured. Those books only contain information that is better for them that we become acquainted, just because of ideological reasons.
Due to this, sometimes the reality is disguises for the sake of maintaining the power and control over us as well as the Party did in the novel. “People are only permitted to think what the Party tells them to think, which leads to what Syme refers to as "duckspeak." Independent thought can be dangerous, as it might lead to rebellion.” (http://www.gradesaver.com/1984/study-guide/themes)
All in all, this kind of novel has opened our eyes regarding how do we live and about the different pivotal issues that we just take for granted. Furthermore, even though this novel is from other period of time, describes perfectly the way nowadays we are living.
References
Reed, K. (1984). George Orwell's 1984. Barron´s Educational Series, Inc.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell
http://www.gradesaver.com/1984/study-guide/themes
Your way of thinking does concur with mine. I do believe that the powers that are taking control of our society are bigger than the goverment itself. I think that during the different episodes that had happened around the world, there is still something that does not allow people to continue this fight( that already started centuries ago) against the unseen powers that control us. I do not know if it is the fear that historical moments have leave around us that makes people not to stand for their ideals, beliefs, etc, or it just the fact that we as a society are so immersed in this world made of machines and based on the marked that have made us blind, and no longe able to think critically on the things that are happening around us. Of course there are more factors, but that really calls my attention, what has happened to humanity? why we seems to stay in the same position and do not even do anything?
ResponderEliminarFrom my point of view, people sometimes prefer no to be conscious about these kind of situations because when you are aware of that your life is completely different, you start thinking about every single thing and at the same time you may suffer because of the unfair situations that exist.
ResponderEliminarI totally agree with you caro as although we don not live in a totalitarian regimen our society also oppressess us in many ways. The means of communication control the information and manipulate it to their convenience,and many times hide important information in order to prevent us from thinking and criticizing what is happening around the world.Another important issue is that human beings do not learn anout their mistakes and continue doing the same atrocious things,so we are condems to repeat over and over again the same until we learn by those mistakes and fix them.
ResponderEliminarCaro, I strongly agree with you when talkign about that we are not free at all. As I wrote in one of my post, we think we are free since we tend to compare our reality with the one people lived during , for instance, the persecution on the years of Fascism and Nazism. When we think about these times we imagine punished people because of what they believed and thought. Therefore, if we compare those times with ours we consider we are super free as we can express our opinions and beliefs. We can show the world our identity in terms of religion we follow, our sexuality, our political option, etc. But is that freedom? In my humble opinion we are free up to the parameters that the system sets. Actually, there is no way in which we can feel really free, because there is a lot of rules that already exist and we don’t live alone to be free. Even if we don’t want to respect some rules, in the end, there is always someone or something that limits us.
ResponderEliminarMaryorie, my ideas are pretty similar to yours.. I absolutely agree with the fact that we are not completely free.. that we always would have to follow certain rules that cannot be eliminated or just stop following them. Therefore, as someone wrote in one post maybe freedom is utopic.
ResponderEliminar