Government Surveillance And Totalitarianism In George...

The Correlation of Government Surveillance and Totalitarianism in 1984 During the production of 1984, author George Orwell never envisioned a tangible reality housing the society he constructed. He wrote the novel as a warning, a cautious exposà © showing those what could happen if society lost its sense of humanity; housed in a painfully relevant satire of totalitarian barbarism. In his novel 1984, George Orwell addresses the issue of government surveillance through his strategic use of point of view and tone, ultimately highlighting the main theme of the book: the danger of totalitarianism. One of the ways Orwell addresses government surveillance is through his calculated choice of point of view. 1984 is written in a third person, limited†¦show more content†¦Orwell explores the full range of government surveillance by including both of these types of observation in 1984. For the majority of the book, the reader explores Oceania with Winston under panoptical surveillance. The plot is filled with ways he and Julia try to evade the eyes of the rà ©gime; from Winston finding the one blind spot in his apartment to write, to Julia discovering a patch of unobserved grass far from the inner city to be with Winston. But the reader feels the true betrayal of the surveillance when the surreptitious surveillance is exposed. The hope felt from Winston’s success at evading Big Brother’s eyes, even for small moments, was crushed as the picture was removed from Mr. Charrington’s shop revealing a telescreen. Big Brother ultimately defeated Winston through the enlistment of surreptitious surveillance- they let him believe he was free from observation to see how he would act without constraints. In this instance, it is important that 1984 was written in limited point of view, for if the reader was aware of the trickery from Big Brother prior to the reveal, the betrayal would not have been asShow MoreRelatedGeorge Orwells 19841168 Words   |  5 PagesGeorge Orwell author of 1984 recently made it on Amazon’s list of â€Å"100 books to read before you die† for his widely read novel with thought provoking subjects like: the dangers of totalitarianism, physical control, psychological manipulation, manipulation of information and history, and technology. Through the themes in 1984, George Orwell demonstrates that a dystopian society created by totalitarian rule can infiltrate the minds of its citizens through various mediums. The famous novel falls intoRead MoreEssay on 1984: A Prophesy for the Future?1049 Words   |  5 PagesThe novel 1984 is a story about a future civilization that is ruled by a totalitarian government. 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