1984 By George Orwell Essay

Throughout the course of history, human kind has always been driven to expand the borders of our knowledge and improve technology as it comes and goes. The 21st century has been filled with enormous leaps forward in many different fields of research, but with these advances there are also problems that have started to arise in regard to human rights and privacy. George Orwell’s 1984 has become extremely relevant, in the sense that the direction society has taken is eerily similar to that which is represented in the novel. Not only has the government changed hands and begun to show some behaviors that are similar to the representation of Big Brother in 1984, but the technology used within the book to keep tabs on the upper-class population is

While often used to transmit radio information to the population about news and other ‘relevant’ facts, they also “received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard” (Orwell, 4). Therefore, not only are they promoting the false facts that are spread using the telescreen, they have the ability to know exactly what is going on within the homes of inner and outer party members. This kind of surveillance has allowed them to “[watch] everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized” (5). This allows the police to eliminate anyone that shows any signs of disobeying the ideas of the party. By stripping people of any privacy, it has made the art of changing their thoughts and behaviours much easier and more efficient, since they are unable to hide from the party. Instead of technology being used to inform people and encourage connections between people, it is simply another tool of repression used by the party to ensure the submission of the