Class 12 English — Chapter 14: Freedom

What you'll learn

• ▸The Illusion of Absolute Freedom and Natural Slavery
• ▸The Origin of Unnatural Slavery: Man's Enslavement of Man
• ▸Critique of Government and 'Wage Slavery'
• ▸The Fallacy of Democratic Freedom
• ▸The Distinction Between Natural and Unnatural Slavery
• ▸Ideological Control and Historical Propaganda
• ▸The Delusion of the Master Class

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- Non-fiction INTRODUCTION Non-fiction is virtually everything that we read as literature but that does not come under the categories of novel, short story, play or poem. Non- fiction, then, is writing that is factually true. It can include articles, editorials, reports, critical essays and interviews, humorous sketches, biographies and autobiographies, lectures, speeches and sermons. This section contains six non-fiction pieces, three by established writers of the canon: George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence; one each by Ingmar Bergman, Amartya Sen and Isaac Asimov. The themes are: freedom, stream of consciousness, importance of the novel as a creative form, the details that make film-making a creative art and the argumentative tradition in Indian culture based on the famous dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Asimov's piece talks of the universe of science fiction, correlating it to accounts of mythical superhuman beings in the p…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

Tap "Get Solution" on any question to ask our AI tutor.

1. Define true freedom simply. Get Solution →
2. Explain historical forms of human slavery. Get Solution →
3. Analyze government's role in freedom. Get Solution →
4. According to G.B. Shaw, what is a perfectly free person? Get Solution →
5. What fraction of a lifetime does Shaw state we must all spend sleeping? Get Solution →
6. Who does Shaw name as 'the latest of the great Jewish prophets'? Get Solution →
7. What does Shaw call the continual war between slaves and their masters? Get Solution →
8. According to the text, what is the opposite of 'natural slavery'? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 Ant colonies sometimes "enslave" ants from other species to do their chores.
• 💡 Whales and dolphins often travel thousands of miles across oceans, embodying natural freedom.
• 💡 Ancient Roman slaves could sometimes earn money and buy their own freedom.
• 💡 Magna Carta, signed in 1215, limited the king's power, a step towards freedom.
• 💡 Child labor was common in factories until stricter laws were established in the 19th century.

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