Big brother has too much control, and uses his power to create a dystopian world where nobody can have their own opinions or be themselves. Technology is constantly being updated and changed, as is the techniques used to enforce the law, thus allowing Big Brother to increase the level of surveillance on the people of Oceania. Big Brother is constantly giving the people of Oceania something to hate so they can be distracted from the truth that they are being treated like dirt. The individuality of the people of Oceania is stripped from them when they are forced to speak a different version of English called new speak. Fear is stricken into the heart of every citizen that lives in Oceana when Big Brother forces their individuality away, by showing examples of what happens to people who rebel against Big Brother. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, Orwell illustrates that the danger of a totalitarian society is that there is no space for individuality.
In the novel 1984 technology is used to control the people of Oceania by preventing individuality. In the modern day, everyone expresses their individuality through their rights. For example, we have the right of freedom of speech and this freedom allows us to express our opinions and thoughts and express our unique individuality. However, in 1984 the citizens of Oceania do not have these rights and cannot express their individuality. The laws set down by Big Brother have been reinforced by the creation of telescreens. Telescreens are an invasion of peoples privacy, and restrict people from doing the littlest of things. Big Brother destroys individuality when he installs the telescreens because they force everybody to do the same thing over and over, creating a world that repeats itself every day. Big Brother does not only invent the telescreens but he invents the Thought Police. The Thought Police are a whole new league of law enforcement compared to the telescreens because they study your facial expressions, and there was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment (6). However, there are also dangers that exist when you run a society the way Big Brother does.
The development of technology in the novel is used to monitor every movement taken by the outer party. The government does not trust their people and relies on the Thought Police and telescreens to catch people who are against the party or acting against the rules. In the novel Winston is a very fatailistic person and believes his future has already been written and has no choice in what his future holds. Big Brother has created a society where everyones decisions are made for them. This creates a generation of people that cannot make decisions for themselves. They also lose their individuality. In the novel the children are influenced by Big Brother to become spies that report their parents to the Thought Police. In the modern day you would think parents could shield their kids away from psychological manipulation and raise them to be good kids. In 1984 the parents are not able to make the right decisions to choose what their kids are influenced by the Party. Telescreens are just as manipulative as Big Brother, when he creates false information and announces it as truth.
Big Brother is able to make all the people of Oceania believe the same thing through group mentality. Group mentality creates a space where there is no room for individuality. There are thousands of people in Oceania and if they all believe the same thing it is very hard for somebody to think otherwise. Big Brother starts to brainwash everybody when they are born so they never think that they are treated wrong because they have never been treated differently. The people of Oceania are basically a group of people who had never learned to think(135). Big Brother is constantly at war with other countries, and this gives the people something to hate. Instead of being angry at Big Brother, they are angry at counties like Eastasia because that is what they are tricked into believing. Winston catches the party members in a lie when he comes upon a photograph that proved that the party members had been in New York at the time they were allegedly committing treason in Eurasia. If Winston were to try and convince someone that everything they are being told is a lie, they would probably just think he was crazy because of the vast amount of people that truly beleave Big Brother is honest and always looks out for his people. When thousands of people believe the same thing you begin to doubt your own thoughts. You begin to assume that everyone else cannot be wrong so you begin to change your thinking so you can join them and follow along. No one likes to stand alone with an idea different from everyone else, particularly if there are consequences to these actions.
However, every society needs a source of information, but Big Brother chooses to create a distorted truth, therefore taking away everyones ability to be objective and form an opinion based on true facts. In the novel when people complain that they dont have enough food, Big Brother will make up something saying that they are actually getting more food than usual because if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became the truth(32). Since the people of Oceania truly believe that Big Brother is always making their lives better, they will not argue and will just accept the false facts as truths. Orwell illustrates, that when the party controls history, it forces its members to live in uncertainty and must rely upon the party for all of the information necessary to function. This is not the way to run a society. Instead, a society should learn from mistakes, but unfortunately the past has been rewritten into a flawless society; therefore Big Brother cannot create a world where people can be happy. Big Brother cannot be proven that they have made mistakes in the past, because the party could show documentary evidence to have been correct(84). The danger of a totalitarian society is that there is no space for individuality. The Party does not allow individuals to keep memorys from their past, such as photographs and documents. These memories would cause the Party to lose some of the control it has over information and history. This means that the only true record of the past resides in people's memories. Information controls how people act, but individuality is mostly expressed by how people speak and communicate.
The English language in 1984 is slowly being changed into a new version called new speak. This new version is used to get rid of words that have more than one meaning like fantastic, great, and awesome, which could be summarised with one word. Theses variations allow the modern day people to choose how they want to express themselves. In 1984, individuality is hard to express without using these words. The words do not adequately express an individuals feelings and thoughts. The Partys ultimate goal is that no one will be capable of committing a thought crime. However, the Party is trying to eliminate free thought, and is able to control the minds of the people by using language as mind control. ".. the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of free thought" (125). Individuality is not the only reason why newspeak is a bad idea.
The modern day people express themselves by speaking and communicating with others, but if your language is limited to only a select few words, you are unable to express how you feel and it becomes hard to communicate. Communication is an important aspect of a society because if you can not communicate and interact with others you become afraid and alone. This is exactly what Big Brother wants because it shields the people of Oceania away from others opinions. If you believe that Big Brother is treating you poorly, you are stuck with only your opinion, and you will not rebel unless you have solid evidence or if you can communicate with others to get different opinions.
Big Brother continues to restrict individuality by forcing the people of Oceania to live in fear.
In the modern day, governments are afraid of their people, but in 1984 the people are afraid of their government. Big Brother destroys individuality by forcing the people of Oceania to fear war and support the Party. The fear of being at war causes the people to rely and be thankful for what they are told and thus, creating people that cannot make decisions for themselves. In the world today some people dislike their government but express their opinion because they are not punished for disliking them, but in 1984 it would be an example of a thought crime. A persons actions and reactions are sometimes ruled by fear, and if they are constantly in fear, there is no room for individuality. Fear is needed to enforce laws and regulations, but in 1984 Big Brother takes fear to the next level by threatening to torture and kill anyone who disobeys the law. Big Brother does
not say that they will kill you if you break the law, but the message is that people simply disappear(9) . When somebody is scared they are unable to make their own decisions and do will do what ever it takes to escape that fear. When Winston is about to be tortured in room 101 by the rats, he breaks a promise to Julia when he says, Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I dont care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me! (236) Fear restricts individuality by forcing them to act in a why they might not have wanted to. It also restricts how a civil society can function.
Ruling a society with fear can cause many problems to the human psyche, and the society itself. Big Brother establishes control by making people afraid of themselves because your worst enemy was your nervous system.(64). Big Brother is afraid that if the people of Oceania are not afraid, they will not obey his laws. When ever somebody is forced to be afraid of their own facial expression you know there is something wrong with the way society is run. Unfortunately the Oceanians grew up into this dystopian world, and do not know any different from the way they are being treated or were brought up to believe.
The people of Oceania live in uncertainty and have no choice but to rely upon the Party for all information necessary to function in this dystopian world. The only power Big Brother has on the people of Oceania is fear. Once somebody is no longer afraid, Big Brother believes it cannot control and manipulate them. Big Brother does not allow individuality and uses many methods of enforcing his ideas. Creating telescreens that monitor your every movement is just one method that does not allow room for individuality. The decisions that Big Brother makes to restrict individuality create a dystopian world where the rights and freedoms of the people of Oceania do not exist.
Already have an account? Log In Now
5270