The Party's Use Of Surveillance In 1984 By George Orwell

Superior Essays
In George Orwell’s 1984, the immoderate amount of technology employed to watch the citizens is inconceivable. The principal use of surveillance in the novel is to keep the Party in control, and eliminate any threats to the society. Through the Party’s use of surveillance in Oceania, the citizens live in constant fear of watched and observed invariably. On the other hand, modern day technology and surveillance varies tremendously from 1984. The United States government uses surveillance in contemporary society to keep citizens safe and protected. This should also be the purpose of surveillance in 1984, but clearly this is not the case. The uses of surveillance in Oceania results in citizens living in sustained agitation, but this does not translate …show more content…
The United States uses surveillance for the benefit of the citizens. Cameras serve as a dominant form of surveillance which is extremely advantageous when it comes to crimes and safety of the people. At Boulevard Houses in East New York, a seven year old girl named Mikayla Capers was hospitalized. Also, a six year old boy named Joshua Avitto is now dead due to a murderer stabbing the children in an elevator in June of 2014. In addition, it was reported that only two days before, Tanaya Copeland, an eighteen year old woman, was stabbed to death on Staley Avenue, a street near the Boulevard Houses development. These cases were similar because they both involve a kitchen knife being used, and the proximity of the cases draws the conclusion that the cases were related to each other. As stated in the article, “residents of the Brooklyn housing project saw a man fleeing through the development after the attack [...] the search made more difficult because the building has no surveillance cameras” (Yee and Santora). Citizens that live in the resident complained that the housing has “been too slow to install the cameras” (Yee and Santora) and that “each building should have cameras in elevators” (Yee and Santora). In a case like this, cameras serve as a beneficial tool to solving a problem. Without the use of surveillance through the form of cameras, crimes become exceedingly hard to solve, resulting in the danger of people 's safety. Given the world that exists today, surveillance through the use of cameras is beneficial to citizens because it provides crucial evidence in the solving of crimes and attacks which benefits our

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