To start with, 1984 written by George Orwell has been one of my favorite reads since I have been in school thus far. The book really emphasized many different themes that had to do with power, mind control and the control of a government. Much like the world we are living in now, Winston Smith lives his life day to day, working and staying out of trouble. The world that Orwell places Winston Smith in seems to be more extreme than the world that we live in today, although there are many similarities in the two. I believe that nineteen eighty-four Oceania is set up much like present America, except to the extreme. George Orwell’s 1984 is centered on a man named Winston who works for the ruling party under Big Brother. Winston is highly opposed
…show more content…
On the other hand, if we look at the real world that we, the readers of the novel, are surrounded by, we are not going to find a vast number of differences from nineteen eighty-four Oceania. Nineteen eighty-four Oceania displays many absurdities when it comes to governmental control and power. For example, the job that the novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, withholds is to rewrite news as a way to keep the citizens of Oceania on the team of Big Brother by writing about how great Big Brother is. This job is given to him by the ruling party of Big Brother. Big Brother also has the ability to make people “evaporate” or disappear without any trace of their existence. As crazy as that may sound, how do we know that these concepts are not concepts of reality? Now, the actions explained in the novel are more extreme than they are in reality, but the dictatorship of the novel and the democracy of our reality show more similarities than we may think. As an example, how do we know that what we are being taught actually happened? Who’s to say history happened the way we are taught it happened? The material that the people of modern day America are taught, come from their school teachers, who are given a curriculum of information they are supposed to pass on by the government of the United States of America. As students, we are not able to determine the facts from the alternative facts because we have no reason to believe that our teachers would lie to us. That is exactly how Big Brother keeps power. The ruling party makes certain that everything they are teaching to the citizens of Oceania is believed as facts and that there is no possibility of believing
On the other hand, if we look at the real world that we, the readers of the novel, are surrounded by, we are not going to find a vast number of differences from nineteen eighty-four Oceania. Nineteen eighty-four Oceania displays many absurdities when it comes to governmental control and power. For example, the job that the novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, withholds is to rewrite news as a way to keep the citizens of Oceania on the team of Big Brother by writing about how great Big Brother is. This job is given to him by the ruling party of Big Brother. Big Brother also has the ability to make people “evaporate” or disappear without any trace of their existence. As crazy as that may sound, how do we know that these concepts are not concepts of reality? Now, the actions explained in the novel are more extreme than they are in reality, but the dictatorship of the novel and the democracy of our reality show more similarities than we may think. As an example, how do we know that what we are being taught actually happened? Who’s to say history happened the way we are taught it happened? The material that the people of modern day America are taught, come from their school teachers, who are given a curriculum of information they are supposed to pass on by the government of the United States of America. As students, we are not able to determine the facts from the alternative facts because we have no reason to believe that our teachers would lie to us. That is exactly how Big Brother keeps power. The ruling party makes certain that everything they are teaching to the citizens of Oceania is believed as facts and that there is no possibility of believing