Comparison Of 1984 And Contemporary Western Society

In Orwell’s novel, citizens have very limited freedom. Varying from the restriction of falling in love, as Winston explains, “The sexual act, successfully performed,

The novel depicting a negative utopia, 1984, was written in relation to the events happening in the year 1948. The Second World War and the Holocaust were major events that this audience could relate to 1984. While readers of the novel today feel that it holds little relevance to the world in the 21st century, it contains many elements that compare to 2015. 1984 shows relevance today in 2015 through the telescreens, the news, and by the rationing systems. Although 1984 had a lot of relations to the year 1948, it still has a large impact on events happening in today’s world.

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.

Abuse of power and control evidently plays a huge role in the dystopian society described by George Orwell in his startling novel , 1984. The political party in control despises any concepts they can’t control so they try to undermine the feelings of pleasure and love to gain more control over the people they govern. “Big Brother” does not want individuals to be forming relationships and bonds it could not possibly break or control because they fear that it could hinder someone's unconditional loyalty towards the party and it’s ideals. The pleasure and eroticism in sex doesn’t exist in this society; the party believes that all sexual acts should be of benefit for the party and the only reason of intercourse would be to create new party members.

Social aspects in the novel 1984 conforms to the conventions of the dystopian genre. Specifically, fear of the outside world and foreign people is spread to promote reliance on the government. “Then the sheep-face melted into the figure of an Eurasian soldier who seemed to be advancing, huge and terrible, his submachine gun roaring and seeming to spring out of the surface of the screen, so that some of the people in the front row actually flinched backwards in their seats. But then in the same moment, drawing a deep sigh of relief from everybody, the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother…” (Orwell 15). This was Orwell’s description of the climax, when the treacherous Goldstein turns into an Eurasian killing machine by spraying

The book 1984 has recently been the top book that has been ordered on Amazon and a lot of people have been reading it due to its relevance in today’s society. 1984 is a book about a dystopian society and the corruption that is involved in it. In recent times the book has become very popular. This essay will be about why people still read and discuss the book 1984 and why it is still relevant to today's society.

By using the telescreen, a surveillance device located in the homes of all Party members, the Thought Police are able to keep everyone under scrutiny. Winston says, “You had to live-did live, from habit that became instinct -in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and except in darkness, every movement scrutinized” (Orwell, 3). This quotation shows how the intense observation efforts stifle the actions and thoughts of the people in Oceania. An essential component of being human is the ability to communicate freely. Communication has fostered developments in mathematics, literature, science, and every field of learning. The Party deprives their citizens of the human spirit of education by preventing uninhibited conversation. Stephen Ingle’s essay from The Abuse of Power in 1984 reads, “This lack of distinction between a private and public realm is precisely what gives life in Oceania its nightmare quality. Nobody has the recourse to a private world in which he or she may regain self esteem or attempt to control even the smallest part of their destiny: there is no escape from Big Brother” (_______, ____). This excerpt reveals that constant surveillance removes a portion of humanity. Humans need to have havens of refuge where they can lower their defenses against the outside world and have the safety to think and act as they wish. Of course there is the

With telescreens, citizens of Oceania are always being monitored but don’t have any idea when someone actually watches. Since no one knows who watches and when they watch, they have to constantly live on the lookout, “Oceanians are used to living in a constant state of surveillance—either through technology or police patrol” (Orwell ). Oceanians have to learn to not think against the party due to the fact they have to live without privacy for their whole life. If they do think against the party, they won’t risk letting a telescreen catch

“They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself remained impregnable (Orwell, 174.)” There are some citizens who realize that the inner heart and innate essence of the society members are the only things that aren’t able to be damaged by the Party. In the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, the protagonist, Winston Smith, is one of the few citizens who knows it is difficult yet crucial and possible to “stay human,” by preserving the fundamental traits of humanity and resisting the Party’s abuse of those characteristics.

There are many similarities and differences between the government in both George Orwell’s book, 1984, and our present day government. It is the same way with both societies. The government and society in the book is very simple and the rules are straightforward. Our present government and society on the other hand is very complex and usome of the rules have gray areas. What both the society and government from both sides have in common is that they have a significant amount of violence. What makes the societies differ is that in ours more people have more access to resources while in the book people’s resources are very limited.

based on love can rarely exist in the right tense as it use to years

Since America is alarmingly becoming a police state, we thought it would be a good idea to reread the classic dystopian novel 1984. In George Orwell's bleak imagination of what 1984 could look like when power becomes the ultimate goal, it appears to be as relevant today than it was when it was published in 1949 -- if not stranger now. The novel follows Winston Smith, a man who lives in Airstrip One (formally Great Britain). He's a member of the middle class Outer Party, and he lives in a one room flat in what's left of London.

George Orwell’s 1984 explores many different themes, all which present a clear warning against totalitarianism. However, upon further inspection, an equally strong theme can be found in the methods used to sustain this type of government. Throughout the story, the reader notices the methods used by the government system named “The Party”. Although media manipulation and social conditioning are established forms of maintaining control over the public, alienating those who are nonconforming is perhaps the least known but most effective.

The twentieth-century tendency to view human love and sexuality within a dichotomized universe of deviance and normality, genitality and platonic love, is alien to the emotions and attitudes of the nineteenth century and fundamentally distorts the nature of

Set in a totalitarian state and ruled by a government known as the Party, sexuality is heavily regulated. It is the goal of the Party “to remove all pleasure from the sexual act” (Orwell 58). Moreover, marriage only had one purpose, “to beget children for the service of the Party” (Orwell 58). Thus, both men and women found their sexuality being regulated and limited. In “Sexuality as Rebellion in George Orwell’s 1984” Paul Bail states that “the only legitimate purpose of sexuality is for reproduction” (215). Therefore, sex is not an act “in which to take personal pleasure” (Bail 215). Unlike, Edna who lived in a society where sex was no intended to be pleasurable for women, it applied to everyone in Orwell’s novel. However, one woman who this affects, in particular, is Julia. A young woman, Julia is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League, an organization created by the Party to help educate its citizens on their standards regarding sex (Orwell 111). Due to her involvement in this group, Julia is perceived to what Bail’s refers to as a “puritanical anti-sex fanatic” because it is her job to remind her society that sex is an act for the Party and not pleasure (215). Yet, upon meeting the protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, it is revealed that she rejects the same ideas that she