Government Control in 1984 Essay Example

📌Category: 1984, Books, Orwell, Writers
📌Words: 993
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 06 September 2021

Having a Government is perceived as vital, as it controls the nation or society. But governments can play a role in affecting and controlling the lives of people that use it. This ideology is portrayed through the story “1984” written by George Orwell. This story generally discusses the impacts of having a government that possesses a lot of power to be able to control the lives of its citizens . During the book, the author explores the dangerous effects of a powerful government, where the they uses advanced systems to monitor its citizen's everyday movements and conversations,  for the use of limiting people's imagination, and lastly for the torture and harm of its citzens, which are exemplified by the government of Oceania. 

To begin with, the Government of Oceania had set up advanced systems all over Oceania. As people were leaving, the telescreens had been monitoring their actions. Winston said the telescreens meant that there were "Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors, or out of doors, in the bath or bed-no escape. People were uncomfortable as they were constantly being watched. The party had the power to invent many kinds of technology that was able to track the activities that people were performing.  The telescreens captured the actions of people. In addition, the adoption of technology helped gain the power for the party to ensure the supremacy of totalitarianism. But, people saw advanced surveillance cameras as an invasion of their privacy. The government of Oceania saw it as a great invention.  Secondly, the government shows misuse of technology by using microphones, which were embedded into the telescreens. The government installed microphones to listen in on conversations that people were having with one another.  The government had installed microphones all around Oceania, leaving no area without microphones. “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it.” (Orwell 3) People felt that this was a lack of privacy. They felt that the government was invading their space too much. Ultimately, if that was not enough. The Oceania government had even installed telescreens into every home. As a result, people were forced to stay calm at all times. As well as being forced not to disobey any rules or regulations that were put in place by the government. The Oceania government installed both telescreens, which could serve as both a security camera and a microphone to control and monitor their people.

Furthermore, big brother invented a machine called the dictator. This machine is able to create and produce songs. This means that the words of the song are not composed by humans. The Oceania government made a machine that could create and produce songs, so that people would not have to use their creative thinking in the process. “The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention on an instrument known as a versificator.” Winston sets forth the idea that the government wants to attempt to destroy any and all mental and physical opposition to their beliefs. In addition, Orwell makes it clear that even pornographics stories were generated by the versifcator. Additionally, Winston mentions a novel writing machine, which creates books, so the citizens don’t have too. As a result this novel writing machine limits people from thinking creatively about the books they would like to create. The government is trying to control our minds, as it says “thought crime does not entail death; thoughtcrime is death.” (Orwell 27). The government highlights how it attempts to control the minds and bodies of its citizens through its misuse of technology. 

Moreover, the harm and torture that the Oceania citiziens went throught was another indication of how bad the misuse of technology was and how it had impacted ther lives. Creating and posting both telesecreens and the versificator everywhere the government then resulted to using the technology for the harm and torture of its citizens. When citizens either did something bad or they had not followed the rules and regulations put in place by the government, they were eliminated or  disciplined, not by serving time in jail. But by using doublethink. Doublethink is a mental discipline. Winston was separated from julia. He finds himself in. Secondly, the government has the power to vaporize it’s  people. Winston’s friend and colleague Syme was wanted by the party to be vapourizers. The party wanted to vaporize Syme because of his intelligence. Winston thinks various times that “Syme will be vaporized” (Orwell 56) He believes that "He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The party does not like such people. One day he will disappear." (Orwell 56). Syme seems to believe in all of the party's ideologies and works hard to achieve Big Brother's goals in perfecting Newspeak and eventually eliminating individual thought, Because Syme is so intelligent he is a threat to the party The Thought Police remove from the society, deleting all records that relate to his existence.  Lastly, O’Brien then takes Winston to room 101, when prisoners meet their greatest fears. Winston's greatest fear was rats. So in order for Winron ro not get rats dropped onto his face, he decided to agree with O’Brien that 2+2 is 5. Instead of rebelling against him, O’Brien wanted Winston to love big brother. So out of fear Winton did so. And he is now a changed man 

In the story “1984,” George Orwell highlights the impacts of having a government that possesses a lot of power in its hands and how it can negatively influence someone's life. To begin, the Oceania government used telescreens to monitor its peoples' movements. They also used microphones that were embedded into the telescreens to listen in on the discussions people were having with others. Secondly,  the government used technology to harm and torture its citizens. They used technology to torture them as a method of discipline. And lastly, the government created technology that was used to limit people's imaginations. To stop thinking creatively.  The versificator was a machine that created and produced things like songs so that the Party member would not have to use any creative thing in the process of making or producing something for the people to enjoy. In conclusion, as we can see from the story “1984,” the power of  government can dramatically change and damage the lives of people.

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