Monday, February 23, 2015


                                                1984 by George Orwell                                2/22/15
                                                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.    


                                                                                         










                    

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