Essay by Gabriel Kalb 711
1984,
by George Orwell is a story about a Totalitarian government, which seeks
complete control over the public and private lives of their people. Big Brother, the only political party, rules this
society. The government seeks to quash any formulation of individuality, or
free thinking. Winston Smith, a 35-year-old man, is an individual who sought to
question the oppression of his government. He was later tortured, and brainwashed.
This story is not fair because the government deprives the people of rights they
should have. For example, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and privacy.
One
reason the story, 1984, is not fair is because people do not have freedom of speech.
Newspeak was a made up language invented by Big Brother. In this language, all
words relating to political defiance are eliminated, and non-existing in the
language. This is Big Brother’s attempt at disposing rebellious thought towards
the party altogether. For example, the
word “free” can only be used in the context of ridding something from someone:
“the dog was free of lice.” Not in the context of being free intellectually or
politically. For example, “I am free to
vote for whichever president I want to.” If a person speaks any differently,
they would be punished severely. This demonstrates how in 1984, people do not
have freedom of speech thus, making the book not fair. Moreover, Big brother (the government)
controlled the freedom of speech through the manipulation and control of the
press and media. “Even the catholic
church of the middle ages was tolerant by modern standards. Part of the reason for this was the in the
past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. The invention of print, however, made it
easier to manipulate public opinion and the film and radio carried the process
further. With the development of
television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and
transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an
end.” Part 2, Chapter 9. By dictating the content of the media, the
government was able to control the information that the people were receiving
and thusly depriving the media of the freedom of speech. The Television served as a telescreen as
well. This allows the government to
monitor the people as they are watching television. Consequently, the story, 1984 is not fair
because people are deprived of freedom of speech.
Another
reason the story, 1984, is not fair is because people do not have freedom of
thought. The government attempts to
control the minds of the people through the use of their “thought police” to
prevent people from conspiring and/or rebelling against the government. The
thought police are undercover police that use both force and psychology to spy,
find and imprison members of society who commit thought crime, which is when
someone thinks about something rebellious. (This is illegal and is punishable
with imprisonment). The Thought Police are a prime example of how the
government forcibly suppresses the thoughts and ideas of its citizens and
deprives its citizens of the freedom of thought. As Winston explains the
dangers and risks of letting your thoughts wander daily he says, “it was
terribly dangerous to let your thought wander when you were in a public place
or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A
nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, and a habit of muttering to
yourself- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of
having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your
face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself
a punishable offense. There was even a
word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.” This demonstrates the minuscular actions
that can lead to large-scale consequences, in this Totalitarian society of
London, 1984. It further reveals how something as little as a thought, can put
you in jail because, people in this book do not have freedom of thought.
Sinless and guilt-free people in this book are getting tortured, just because
they thought about something they weren’t supposed to. This is another reason
the story, 1984, is not fair.
A third
reason this story isn’t fair is because people have no privacy. Telescreens are
surveillance devices the party (Big Brother) uses to spy on it’s subjects,
making sure no one is secretly conspiring against the party or, committing
Thought Crime. These spying devices are omnipresent, meaning they are
everywhere. They are in each and every house and street. In the story, Winston spends the majority of
his time in the corner of his house. This is the only place the telescreen
cannot see him. This is evidences an
invasion of privacy where Winston doesn’t even feel comfortable in his own
household. Additionally, the government invaded the
privacy of the family unit by using the children to serve as spies on their own
parents. “Nearly all children nowadays
were horrible. What was worst of all was
that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically
turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no
tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and
everything connected with it…all their ferocity was turned outwards, against
the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, and saboteurs, thought
criminals. It was almost normal for
people over thirty to be frightened of their own children”. Book 1, Chapter 2. This shows how the government infringed
upon the peoples rights of privacy through the manipulation of their
children. This further exhibits how the
government (big brother) used it’s power and influent to control the
people. In summary, the story, 1984, is
not fair because people lack the basic rights of privacy, due to their
controlling government.
In
conclusion, 1984 depicts the unfairness of a government that deprives its
people of their basic liberties. We
learn this through the deprivation of speech, thought and privacy.
