Totalitarian Government In George Orwell's Big Brother Is Watching You

With the power hungry Party and the most acknowledged face of Big Brother watching and monitoring everybody, the story of “1984” by George Orwell expresses the utmost control over their people and have the absolute power with their country Oceania. The Party believes that Big Brother will live on forever, because of the constant removal of those who are unfaithful and the rewriting of history. However, with the example of the main character showing disobedience against the Party, there is a chance for this type of ruling to fail and be destroyed by the people. The main possible cause of the fall of Big Brother is most likely the underestimation of the power of the people.

Today’s society is predicted as living in a world George Orwell envisioned in 1984. The system Orwell invented is compared to what the United States government is capable of doing. Government control of society is an essential subject due to the current mind set of the world today. In 1984, George Orwell represents how Big Brother is compared to today’s government, showing the consequences and dangers of a government with unlimited surveillance power.

Following the conclusion of the alarming innovations of the tyrannies in World War II, author George Orwell took immediate action. In 1949, Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece made its breakthrough in his best-selling novel “1984”. The novel itself depicts a totalitarian regime, named “Big Brother”, that controls not just its citizens’ actions, but their very thoughts. Through Orwell’s narrative, one can apply a moral/philosophical approach to the aspects of the characters and events of the novel. Therefore, through a moral/philosophical approach, one can see the several warnings that are conveyed through satirizing a totalitarian government, the ability to alter the past, and the true ability of non-party members in society.

“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

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 presents the perspective of totalitarian government from a citizen, unveiling the hardships that could be hidden by a dictator’s views (SparkNotes). Winston describes the feeling of being constantly watched and never having personal freedom by saying "there was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment (4)” (eNotes). The people of Oceania are constantly bombarded with posters of Big Brother with the slogan “Big Brother is watching you” (3). Within every home, there are mandatory telescreens, which the Party watches its followers through.

Imagine how terrifying it would be for the government to watch and control everything you do. In 1984, George Orwell creates what he called a ‘negative dystopia’ of the future. Instead of living in a free country, the people of Oceania are under the control of the Party. They live in constant fear of being executed by the thought police for doing anything that could be seen as being disloyal to the Party. George Orwell uses theme and irony to fully convey his ideas of totalitarianism in his book 1984.

Totalitarianism is a system where the state recognizes no boundaries for its authority and tries to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever doable. In 1984, written by George Orwell, Winston the main character struggles and conforms his life to adapt to the presence of the “Big Brother.” The big brother in this case is the symbol of the oppressive government in Oceania. Orwell within the book talks about the problems associated with having a totalitarianism government and the negative aspects attached to it. Throughout 1984 as well as other literary pieces, the writers show how a totalitarianism government stifles individuality and ultimately shows how easy it is to manipulate human beings.

Published in 1948 and set a mere to 36 years into the future, ‘1984’ unfold of George Orwell ‘s cynical foreshadowing of the impending threat to democracy in apprehensive post-World War II period. 1984 is set in the oppressive, dystopian society of Oceania, where the state, led by omnipotent figurehead of ‘Big Brother’, governs the lives of the individuals in order to influentially fashion a community of conformism. Orwell successfully illustrates the tension within power through the lens of a frail protagonist, reminiscent setting, and narrative suspense. Themes are explored that exemplify the interplay of power in terms of political work: fabrication of history, the practice of totalitarian government, and most importantly the elimination of language. Significant symbols and motifs, such as ‘Newspeak’, and Big Brother, also efficiently aid in demonstrating the concept of power in political terms.

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength” (Orwell). This may seem like a list of paradoxes, useless and arbitrary in the context of any government, but these three statements help establish the foundation of the world in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The novel is set in an alternate version of the year 1984, imagined by George Orwell in the 1940s. The world had split into three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. The main character, Winston Smith, lives in Oceania where the entire superstate is run by an all powerful government, lead by the divine and immortal Big Brother. This is a government in which all love and individual thought is outlawed. This is reinforced by constant surveillance either by telescreen or the Thought Police. The existence of such a controlling and terrifying government is questioned by many readers of the novel today. People have contemplated both the motives and strategies of those in charge of totalitarian governments throughout all of history. These debates often lead to two main topics: why people crave control and why people do or do not crave liberty. George Orwell establishes his totalitarian government in his novel 1984 by replicating the psychological history of the greed for absolute power and the strength of mass suggestion and isolation.

In a future eerily imaginable when looking at the current state of humanity, there is no laughter, love, or loyalty, but only languor, loss, and lunacy, and resistance from the chokehold of oppression is a futile cause. For more insight on this frighteningly plausible fate, look no further than George Orwell’s 1984, a novel at the pinnacle of dystopian literature. Set in the superstate of Oceania, 1984 depicts the life of Winston Smith, a middle class man who struggles to stay credulous and mindlessly obedient in a society in which the Party, a deceptive and megalomaniacal oligarchy that operates under a potentially mythical leader by the name of Big Brother, heavily scrutinizes each person’s every move and does all that it can to regulate every possible aspect of everyone’s life. The Party employs a series of devices to exert control over its citizens, such as rewriting actual events, rationing, and two-minutes of daily hate, but by far, the most useful method that the Party utilizes to

In 1984 by George Orwell, Big Brother, as an individual entity, survives solely on the deception of the people of Oceania; it attempts to achieve self-preservation through totalitarian government control at the expense of the lives of the rest of society. Specifically in the concept of reality, Big Brother deceives the people through extensive manipulation of facts from the past and the present through the creation of paradoxical ministries and the use of telescreens and extreme laws to maintain a watchful eye on the citizens of Oceania at all times.

Both “parties” operated as totalitarian governments; using power to control every aspect of their citizens lives. While Winston is being interrogated by O’Brien, O’Brien states “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others” (Orwell 185). O’Brien admits that the Inner party just wants to possess power. Hitler, and the Nazi party, acted in the same way; using their already existent power to gain more via force. During the interrogation process O’Brien explains the party’s reasoning for seeking so much power. “Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship...The object of power is power” (Orwell 185). In 1918, just after WWI, the German revolution took place. Shortly after, in 1919, Adolf Hitler joined the german political party DAP; this party was later renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party or the Nazi party. “One makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship” the German Revolution lead to Hitler’s rise to power and his eventual reign as Fuhrer, similarly to what happened in 1984. Aspects of 1984, and more specifically characteristics of the Inner Party are based off of Hitler’s Third Reich or Nazi

Constant monitoring of citizens is a strategy of totalitarian states employed to create an environment of crushing fear which enforces obedience in its people. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the symbolic figurehead of the party acts as a reminder of the immoderate surveillance orchestrated as a method of intimidation. Big Brother is the face that watches over all the citizens of Oceania, appearing “on coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters – everywhere.” While Big Brother himself is not a mechanism of surveillance, he essentially embodies the surveillance state the monitors citizens at every moment, reminding them that, “Big brother is watching.” There is a lack of privacy even within their private homes due to the innovative

A totalitarian government depends on subservience because its citizens are completely controlled of mind and body. History is constantly revised and edited to keep its citizens ignorant, and simple truths are easily ignored by the populace if told to do so. Constant war is waged by totalitarian governments to have a reason to use up its resources and keep its citizens in a suppressed state. The citizens of totalitarian governments are under constant monitoring, even by their own family members. The totalitarian state is dependent on all of these factors, and because of that, no freedoms can be given. Orwell’s book 1984 serves as an insight and warning for generations to come, as once a totalitarian government is established,