Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Reality of Orwell’s 1984

Abstract

Are we currently living in the reality of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four? The novel has a definite ring due to the many Orwellian words and concepts that have become part of our parlance, especially the political vocabulary – terms like “Big Brother”, “Doublethink” and “Newspeak” that have gained enormous significance in the present dispensation. The central theme of Nineteen Eighty-Four is the State’s imposition of will upon thought and truth. The world that Orwell envisages does not allow privacy for the individual and does not allow the individual to have a personal identity and also aspires to falsify history. The novel in essence raises disturbing nevertheless pertinent questions with regard to power structure, motives behind the moves of the governments, war, and class distinctions based on economic criteria. There is an invasion on our privacy as the Government is closely monitoring us constantly and more so with the advent of Aadhaar card and the seeding of bank accounts, Pan cards, etc. And quite significantly, we perceive the exact scenario that has been portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel has elements of postmodernism because the reader is left in a quandary questioning, whether “Big Brother is real?” and “what apparently is real and what is not”, as a matter of fact, perceptible realities are only social constructs. This paper proposes to revisit Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four by highlighting these pertinent questions of the past– with special reference to the power structure, Big Brother”, “Doublethink” and “Newspeak” and its contemporary significance to today’s society.