Totalitarian Government In 1984 By George Orwell

“Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull” (Orwell 34). A Totalitarian government is a system in which the government has complete control over its people. The dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell follows the story of Winston who defies the Totalitarian government he is trapped in. The book highlights many breaches of human rights and discusses how people will try to stay in power by any means possible. Orwell wrote this story as a cautionary tale, warning its readers about the horrors of totalitarianism. The society in this story is one that runs on fear and the suppression of freedoms. The government in 1984 bares a resemblance to that of Soviet

They are among one the best ways of invoking new thoughts and making discussions about certain topics or societal norms. Many times in our history were books banned or censored, resulting in the death of those new thoughts. One example of this was the book burnings of Jewish works by the Nazi Party, which “...carried out a series of book burnings of works that the students and leading Nazi party members associated with an ‘un-German spirit’” (“1933 Book Burnings”). The Nazis began to burn anything that did not align with their ideals, which increasingly became more and more violent. This is a direct example of the destruction of free thought and expression. Books contain the essence of thoughts and ideas, and the destruction of them kills any discussion that could have been invoked through them. Again, the Nazi Party got rid of different ideas or thoughts because they posed the biggest threat to them. Eliminating other points of view meant the Nazis were the only ones available to learn about, and that it was easier to follow

Books, as I have established, are a great example of sharing thoughts and ideas to start discussions. Schools across the country have been banning books in schools for fear that they might be inappropriate or influence the youth in a way they do not like. A study has shown that “A further 275 more banned books followed from April through June, bringing the total for the 2021-22 school year to 2,532 bans” (Friedman and Johnson). More and more books are getting banned as the years go by, and the banning of books, especially in an educational setting, hinders the ability of students to come to their own conclusions about certain topics and societal norms. The banning of books diminishes the new thoughts that come with it as well as the actions that come as a result of