Theme Of Government Control In 1984

Government Control Gov•ern•ment (noun) the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, or states. The government plays many roles in a society. They have control over rules and can set restrictions on whatever they would like to. Government control causes problems is societies because they limit the freedom of the people by creating strict rules and regulations, and limit diversity between them by requiring them to conform to a particular way of life. There are many examples of government control in our society today. North Korea has been under control for many years. Citizens have almost no freedom, they can’t even leave the country without permission.

One novel with the heavy theme of government control is 1984 by George Orwell. The main character of this novel, Winston Smith is a propaganda officer for the Ministry of Truth, but he doesn’t necessarily agree with the Party, despite being a member. In 1984, the year that Winston believes it is, the government has developed a new way of living. Citizens are always under surveillance, being watched by “Big Brother”. “On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.”(Orwell 3) Along with that, there are also Telescreens. They function as normal televisions, but also have cameras and microphones to track everything you do and say. There isn’t much of a way to avoid being watched every second of every

One story in particular, with a more mild theme of government control, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, starts with setting the scene of everybody gathering their families at the village square. Mothers and fathers gather their children and wait patiently to start the event. Everybody was required to participate in the annual Lottery drawing, but there was something different about the lottery that they did that isn’t like the tradition lottery like we do today. There is no money being won, nobody is excited when they get drawn. The crowd of villagers waits patiently for their names to be called, everyone is silent waiting for the results. “After that, there was a long pause, a breathless pause, until Mr. Summers. holding his slip of paper in the air, said, ‘All right, fellows.’ For a minute, no one moved, and then all the slips of paper were opened. Suddenly, all the women began to speak at once, saving. ‘Who is it?,’ ‘Who's got it?,’ ‘Is it the Dunbars?,’ ‘Is it the Watsons?’ Then the voices began to say, ‘It's Hutchinson. It's Bill,’ ‘Bill Hutchinson's got it.’” (Jackson 5) Once they’ve figured out which family got it, they have each family member draw to see which one of them gets it. They go around, the children draw, and then the parents. Everybody breathes a sigh of relief when the children receive blank papers, so that just leaves the