All Eyes and Ears: A Surveillance study of Saikat Mazumdar’s The Firebird

Abstract

The paper attempts to critically analyze the act of surveillance that is subtly operated in the society in order to make people discipline. It further investigates how the perpetual surveillance at home, voyeuristic gaze of the neighbors and the psychotic persuasion of certain individuals can push someone on the verge of paranoia. The authority manipulates the people in the society by promising that the act of surveillance is carried out for the people but actually it ended up by observing the people. Surveillance helps the authority to exercise power and maintain discipline by suppressing people’s voice. Saikat Mazumdar’s The Firebird has been taken up to inspect how every individual is being watched out in our society by everyone else be it in the family or outside, and the novel bears a testimony that technology is not the only means through which the act of surveillance can be operated.