Analysis Of George Orwell's Big Brother

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The statement “Big Brother is Watching you” certainly is an unsettling one (2). People’s right to privacy is something that throughout history has been cherished and something that was once a commonality. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the escape to a state of truly being alone has been slowly belittled to a point in which it is nearly nonexistent. Modernized society has ensured that they’re very few places in which people can make the claim that they are alone. George Orwell’s 1984 depicted a grave future in which society is overseen by one common entity - Big Brother. It illustrated a place where every move is calculated for a purpose none other than the parties benefit. These actions were fueled by an army of pawns…show more content…
How does the party maintain complete control over its pupils? Constant surveillance and constant conditioning of the parties beliefs. To say that every aspect of our lives was going to be monitored 50 years ago and that we would receive a barrage of virtual information daily, was equivalent to saying pigs will be flying. That once far-fetched claim is trending towards reality as more and more aspects of our lives are constantly monitored. Technological progression, particularly in surveillance and media, is trending towards having a direct influence on people’s actions in a personal way. Technology in its pure form is a connector that bolsters efficiency and ease of communication. Media is the foundation of this communication. The news is the central hub in which all information is received by the public. Print, once being the king of news has become obsolete with television and smartphones being the primary avenue for acquiring information. Although the American society is not based upon a Fascist regime, the media is used throughout the book to influence people’s actions and can be seen today in similar ways. 1984 uses “2 minutes of hate”, during this 2 minutes a day people…show more content…
1942, CCTV cameras made their presence known, acting as a catalyst for technological progression unparalleled throughout history. Surveillance technology has progressed so rapidly that similarly to 1984 we are constantly being watched in every aspect of our life. Privacy has been reduced to a state in which it cannot be bought with a set of curtains. Orwell emphasizes within Goldstein’s book that a society like the one Winston resides has been unattainable partly because “no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance”(206). Today people are under constant observation from the watchful eyes of high ranking organizations such as the NSA. This was all an assumption until classified documents were released to the public by Edward Snowden regarding NSA monitoring, brought validity to what was once an assumption(Shah). This introduced an entirely new dynamic to how people lived their lives as prior to this there were only security cameras in public spaces utilized to deter crime. With the release of this information arose a parallel to 1984 unlike any other to date. Orwell defined it as the telescreen which “could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely” and is something that in its own variation is present in all American lives (2). A study done by Oxford began shortly after the leak of this information conveying a direct

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