The Folly Power of a Surveillance State
Orwell’s novel, 1984, was written in a tumultuous time during the Cold War where the largest perceived threat to humanity came from an all-powerful, all-conforming government principle. Orwell uses hyperbolic portrayals of the Party’s procedures and degrading comparisons of humans to defects, to show the negative societal effects of a totalitarian government. Ultimately, Orwell argues against totalitarian governments on the basis that they prevent human equality and freedom, and subject humans to inhumane and unjust treatment.
Orwell creates hyperbolic portrayals of the notions of conformity and surveillance to argue against the absolute power of a government and provide a shock factor on the techniques …show more content…
This idea is completely outlandish, but serves to warn the audience against allowing for absolute control of a society to rest in the …show more content…
While in the Ministry of Love, O’Brien remarks that Winston is “a flaw in the pattern… [He is] a stain that must be wiped out” (255). This pessimistic outlook on the human experience demonstrates that an all-powerful government does not view humans as humans, they are viewed only as statistical outliers to be studied and treated to better fit into the norms of the society. The purposeful diction in choosing “flaw” and “stain” to describe a person shows that everyone is expected to neatly conform to the set standards set forth by the government, leaving no room for beneficial traits of creativity or individuality. This detached outlook directly proves to the audience that the way the government has gone about treating these people is morally erroneous, at their core, people are not meant to conform, but to become their own individual. After his liminal experience, Winston comments that, “’What happens to you here is forever,’… There were things, your own acts, from which you could not recover. Something was killed in your breast; burnt out; cauterized out” (290). Using the word “killed” conveys a strong message about the Party’s usage of absolute power; the individuality and conscious thought was murdered and systematically removed from him, this preys on the
Orwell’s novel, 1984, was written in a tumultuous time during the Cold War where the largest perceived threat to humanity came from an all-powerful, all-conforming government principle. Orwell uses hyperbolic portrayals of the Party’s procedures and degrading comparisons of humans to defects, to show the negative societal effects of a totalitarian government. Ultimately, Orwell argues against totalitarian governments on the basis that they prevent human equality and freedom, and subject humans to inhumane and unjust treatment.
Orwell creates hyperbolic portrayals of the notions of conformity and surveillance to argue against the absolute power of a government and provide a shock factor on the techniques …show more content…
This idea is completely outlandish, but serves to warn the audience against allowing for absolute control of a society to rest in the …show more content…
While in the Ministry of Love, O’Brien remarks that Winston is “a flaw in the pattern… [He is] a stain that must be wiped out” (255). This pessimistic outlook on the human experience demonstrates that an all-powerful government does not view humans as humans, they are viewed only as statistical outliers to be studied and treated to better fit into the norms of the society. The purposeful diction in choosing “flaw” and “stain” to describe a person shows that everyone is expected to neatly conform to the set standards set forth by the government, leaving no room for beneficial traits of creativity or individuality. This detached outlook directly proves to the audience that the way the government has gone about treating these people is morally erroneous, at their core, people are not meant to conform, but to become their own individual. After his liminal experience, Winston comments that, “’What happens to you here is forever,’… There were things, your own acts, from which you could not recover. Something was killed in your breast; burnt out; cauterized out” (290). Using the word “killed” conveys a strong message about the Party’s usage of absolute power; the individuality and conscious thought was murdered and systematically removed from him, this preys on the