1984 Dictatorship

The novel 1984 is based on totalitarianism and dictatorship. Big Brother rules Oceania, where the people are forced to listen to him and follow his rules. There are surveillance cameras and microphones set-up everywhere so that Big Brother can keep an eye on everyone and know about everything that’s happening. There is no secret in this society, and one wrong move can get you killed with no one knowing, one day everything about you will be erased and you’ll eventually be forgotten. Children are taught that if they see anyone suspicious they are to immediately turn them in, even if it is their parents.
There are things like thought polices, who patrol around the area to look for anyone suspicious, or anyone who has “thoughts”. The reason I am telling you about this is because I believe there is some of that happening in our society today to a certain extent. We have laws and rules given to us by the government that we have to keep, of course it is for us, but that is what the people Oceania are told, that the rules and regulations they are given is to benefit them. We have policemen and people from the government around us; patrolling the streets to make sure we don’t break the rules we are given.
If we view this in a different perspective we are being watched and ruled by the government, just like the people of Oceania. Not only do governments influence us, but so do businesses. Governments and businesses tells us what to buy, what to do, where to go, what to eat, what to believe… 1984 is relevant to the government and war because it is the first book which drew an image about a government that would use the societies freedom as a price for their security. The people of Oceania live their lives without much difficulty, they are use to their life styles and have accepted the fact that that is how they are to live their lives.

George Orwell has written this book as a view of the future, how he saw the future, This was seen as a threat to the society at the time. It is surprising to see that the language can be changed so easily. The Newspeak dictionary aims to cut down on the language, from good, brilliant, excellent to good, good good, good good good. To us this obviously makes no sense but to the new generations of Oceania this was their language, When the older generations of Oceania die, the old language would be forgotten, and the new language would be the language of the people. Same goes for the history.
The present generation would change the history, modify them so that Oceania would seem like the hero and this history is thought to the children as well so that as they grow us they learn the modified history and from then on the modified past would be the present past. The modified past would obviously changed again so that the truth would be forgotten. The story is told from Winston’s point of view, where he views the society as a prison, because the story is told from Winston’s point of view the story may seen bias, and can be different to what other people thought at the time.
In a way, as a reader we are manipulated to view things the way Winston does. After reading 1984, you realise how different life would be without freedom, you learn to respect your freedom and dignity. You also learn the threat the government can have on you, and the impact they can have. The only problem about wars isn’t the death of the innocent soldiers but the impact it would have within one country, the chances it may turn into a totalitarian country.