1984 By George Orwell: A Comparative Analysis

In 1984, George Orwell writes about a dystopian society called Oceania with a totalitarian government. Winston, the main character, is an Outer Party member and works for the government who is under the rule of “Big Brother” and the Inner Party. The Party’s purpose is to rule Oceania with absolutism and have control over its citizens by using propaganda, censorship, and the brainwashing of children. Today, many modern-day countries use these techniques to maintain their power including: North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Nazi Germany.

First, North Korea and Oceania use propaganda to encourage patriotism to make themselves look better to citizens in order to keep a totalitarian rule. In both countries, there are posters everywhere that focus on

Censorship is used to keep information away from citizens that can be used against the government and make them look bad. Saudi Arabia is one of the most censored countries in the world. Books, newspapers, magazines, broadcast media and Internet access are all censored in Saudi Arabia. You cannot say blasphemy about the royal family or Islam in Saudi Arabia, or else there will be punishment, just like in Oceania how one cannot say anything against Big Brother. In 2014 Saudi Arabian writer Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for insulting Islam. In Saudi Arabia, nudity and pornography are illegal in the kingdom. This corresponds to pornosec in Oceania, where no Party member can look at porn except for the workers who are handling the materials. Winston’s job is to change headlines in newspapers and information in articles so it makes the Party look good. Saudi Arabia has programs that censor out “immoral” websites and only make certain websites available for their citizens and make only certain headlines and articles readable. Censorship is necessary in order to maintain power because it makes a government look good to their citizens and will trick them into thinking that they live in the greatest country out there and will be fiercely

In Nazi Germany, books were removed from classrooms by censors and textbooks were rewritten, after-school meetings of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls trained children to be faithful to the Nazi party. In both countries, teachers taught students blind obedience to the party, love for Hitler & Big Brother (who were both dictators), and anti semitism. In school and out, young people celebrated such occasions as their ruler’s birthday and the anniversary of his taking power. Corrupting children is a key component for a government to stay in power because when the corrupted children grow up , they will grow up to be trained to be obedient to the government and tell the police if they witnessed any crimes. For example, Winston’s next door neighbor, Parsons; had children who were trained by the government to report any suspicious activity and to have blind obedience to the Party. Parsons’s children complained when they couldn’t see the hanging of war prisoners in the town square and Parsons’s daughter ratted her own father to the Thought Police out for muttering to himself “Down with Big Brother”; because this is what she was trained to do, and it is now drilled into her brain. Propaganda in North Korea is used to encourage patriotism and make their government look better to citizens, censorship in Saudi Arabia is used to block any information