Books based on dystopian future are one of my favorites. The outlook of the future through the author’s point of view gives us some very creative and entertaining stories.
But this book, this book is something else.
This book made me think about the probability of this dystopian future being real shown by George Orwell to be hauntingly real.
Story:
The story revolves around how the protagonist Wilston Smith, a hard-working official of the totalitarian country Oceania where everything and everyone is controlled. There is also something called as thought police who arrests you if you are even thinking something that is not allowed by the law. There is a camera in each and every corner and the citizen have to conduct all the activities in the presence of it. You are even monitored when you are familiar. Love and passion are prohibited and sex should be performed only by the pure purpose of reproduction. Any display of affection is prohibited and punished. The history too is completely manipulated and made as the government finds necessary. Wilston hates the government and starts to rebel by falling in love with Julia. After a brief moment of happiness and pleasure, all hell breaks loose when the government catches them.
Review
George is a master storyteller and I was hooked from the first page itself. The best part about the book was it makes you feel the helplessness of Wilston in the totalitarian world. You feel trapped, claustrophobic like a chicken put in a cage who would eventually be massacred for the feast.
The story makes you think about the current world we are living in and how this totalitarian world can be achieved even more easily thanks to the social media, news channel who can manipulate any and everything.
The US election was proof of how every information can be manipulated through social media that made people do something that they would not have done it.
Although the book was written in 1949, it feels fresh and relevant even today. While reading the book, I was immediately reminded of North Korea where it is almost the same scenario of totalitarianism and that broke my heart.
If it can happen in North Korea, it can happen anywhere.
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the dystopian book. It is one of the best and it will leave you thinking.
This is a must-read.
