1984 Privacy

“BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”(Orwell 2), is a saying that surrounds society in the classic novel 1984. The author, George Orwell provides his audience with an abundant amount of themes throughout his writing. One very prominent one is Orwell’s psychological manipulation of his characters. As characters within this society are constantly surrounded by sayings such as, “WAR IS PEACE”, “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY”, and “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”(Orwell 4), Orwell shows the ultimate type of control within his characters. Orwell is able to achieve such psychological manipulation in his characters through physical control and the abundance of technology. Without Orwell’s use of telescreens, his characters would be able to have their

1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.

In the brainwashed society of Oceania in 1984, by George Orwell, led by a totalitarian government in the name of a leader known as Big Brother, citizens are placed under constant surveillance from the government, preventing them from having individuality and freedom of thought. Although written in a fictional setting, the book strikes analogous similarities to the United States in today’s world. Due to a growth in surveillance, personal information and privacy are being intervened, however, not violated. While technological advances are increasing and crimes such as hacking and terrorism are becoming more prominent in society, government surveillance is becoming largely needed to ensure the protection

Similar to how telescreens work in 1984, our society has personal information analyzed and recorded by the government. Data collection is a turning more to privacy taken away from citizens. If people are constantly being under surveillance, people start to lose their individuality because people transform into automatons. On (1.5.65) Winston says, "It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away." This quote explains the significance of privacy, as even the smallest things in society matter. Orwell is foreshadowing the increasingly tighter surveillance on citizens and that affects society today because our society today is becoming more similar to the one portrayed in

“1984” is a chilling dystopian novel written by George Orwell, set in the 1980’s, in London, in the continent Oceania. Oceania is ruled by the Party, and their dictator Big Brother. Big Brother controls Oceania through four ministries, Love, Truth, Peace and Plenty. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he changes the dates, articles and photos of things to match up with what Big Brother is saying. Big Brother watches everyone through telescreens, which are in every room, and anyone who speaks out, or thinks to rebel, or even doesn’t get to their house at the right time, vanishes. “Big Brother is watching you” is the Party’s slogan, and is plastered all across London. In their society, the ideas of individuality, freedom and opinions

“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves”(Reagan). In the book, 1984, Winston recognizes the power the government has over the citizens of Oceania. The citizens lack privacy from the government. George Orwell warns society about a government with total control in 1984. Based on Dana Hawkin’s article, “Cheap Video Cameras Are Monitoring Our Every Move”, as well as Beech Etal’s, “The Other Side of the Great Firewall”, society may truly have something to fear in the form of surveillance and information manipulation.

1984 by George Orwell is a novel set in a dystopian near-future London, the chief city of Airstrip One, Oceania. The people in Oceania are under the control of the Party. Big Brother, or BB, is the face of the Party and the leader of this great power that rules over Oceania. He is a dominant figure who acts as a trustworthy entity for the people he governs, but ironically is their worst enemy in many ways. His posters, captioned “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”, can be seen everywhere in the streets of London. These posters give the reader a physical description of what one can imagine Big Brother to look like. He is a man of about forty-five with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features that make him look scary but leader-like. Most people in this society are unaware of how they are brainwashed and controlled by the Party. Big Brother controls Oceania with various carefully designed techniques, some of which are: keeping the Outer Party in control with the 24-hour surveillance, Reality Control and by controlling the proles -- by keeping them ignorant and luring them through privileges.

1984 was primarily written to bring light to the dehumanization a totalitarian government may provoke. There were many cases in this novel where the citizens of Oceania were exploited to promote the Party’s own agenda. Propaganda being one of these exploitations, the man with the mustachioed face, also known as Big Brother. The people of Oceania may see this and think of the name Big Brother, a family member, someone who will protect and care for their family’s wellbeing. Yet the posters read “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” a scary thought indeed. The Party is manipulating its people

In 1984 George Orwell describes how no matter where you go in Oceania there is

The fourth amendment protects personal privacy and prohibits unreasonable searches unless probable cause or with a warrant present. Throughout the years it has decreased in the U.S. The surveillance in the book 1984 invades everyone's privacy and even their thoughts, there is no such thing as privacy in Oceania. Whereas in the U.S. they use surveillance to find people specifically but are able to at anyones information.

The books 1984  by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are both connected in the way society controls people. Both these books illustrate control over their citizens through government intervention. People are constantly being watched either by telescreens or neighbors in 1984 while there is no privacy in Brave New World at all. In 1984, children are in a league of youth spies and send people to jail because they look suspicious. Brave New World’s children are created to be controlled for the sake of society. Sex is bad in 1984  because it promotes the idea of pleasure or selfish needs while Brave New World embraces sex to promote happiness. 1984  and Brave New World both control the people of society through privacy, sex, and children.

In Orwell’s novel, a main issue is how the people of Oceania are under constant surveillance. Big Brother monitors their every move with the use of a telescreen, a device that can see and receive every sound in a room. While many of the citizens accepted the telescreen into their lives, others tried to avoid it completely. As an attempt to outsmart the government, Winston and Julia chose to spend their time in a room that was free of

Within this past year, there has been national outrage and call for reform in the United States regarding towards privacy rights. George Orwell's’ 1984 is a prediction for the soon future. The novel opens up on an ordinary man, Winston, who is resentful towards his government regulated life. Throughout the novel Winston begins to challenge his lack of privacy by rebelling against the government. Erich Fromm is correct when he claims in the “Afterword” of Orwell’s 1984 when he claims that 1984 “means us, too”(326), as the United States’ lack of respect for civilian privacy and individuality has adversely affected the citizens of our nation for the past few decades.

The book 1984 depicts a society unimaginable to most; however, a further look shows us that we actually do live in an Orwellian society. Orwell describes a country called Oceania made of multiple continents which is ruled by the dictatorial “Big Brother” who uses different systems like the “thought police” and “telescreens” in order to have full control over the country. Our democratic government, through organizations such as the NSA and NGI, can look through our most private conversations and moments using spyware. Due to the secrecy of the government, citizens in 1984, as well as those in our society, fear the government.

In the novel 1984, author George Orwell had an idea to have the concept of totalitarianism as a danger that poses in society. In the book, the citizens of Oceania were ruled by a nonexistent figure they call Big Brother. The population of Oceania either does not realize what Big Brother actually is and what is occurring or they would rather ignore it because it would be to futile to say anything about it. The government has a technology advanced world for their people and it created control for the Party and Oceania described by Orwell and the novel itself. The concept of a Big Brother constantly watching the people of Oceania is supposed to make them feel safe, but instead implant fear in some of the citizens, Winston and Julia realized to