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What Is The Purpose Of 1984 By George Orwell Looking To The Future

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Looking to the Future in 1984
In the world today, countries like North Korea and Afghanistan are two of the most strong examples of totalitarian governments. The commonality of totalitarian governments has trended down since the seventies, but the modern day totalitarian governments get their functionality from the likes of Nazi Germany. 1984, written by George Orwell, incorporates the ideology of totalitarian governments into the society within the novel. The book would be published in June of 1949, with it showing a futuristic dystopian society Orwell uses to show displeasure with communist Russia during the few years before 1949. Despite 1984 being a challenged book due to the sexual content and powers of a totalitarian government seen throughout, …show more content…

Skip Lowery, a former English teacher at Key West High School, gives his own firsthand experience of opposition toward 1984 by writing in his opinionated article shows how he would be challenged by a preacher for teaching “obscene” material in his English class, when even himself, the principal, the students, and the preacher’s own son all understand that the book is not as much about the nature the book can have at times, but is about Orwell’s opinions on communist Russia. The author, George Orwell, on page six of his novel, would show an instance of power from Big Brother/the government by stating, “Even with nothing written in it, it was a compromising possession. The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp” (NCN). Orwell also would give insight into the life of those within the party when in the beginning of Part One Chapter One, it is learned that Winston is one of the more insignificant members of Party, and even though he is a part of the Party, he’s under heavy surveillance like everyone else from the party through a device called the telescreen. Winston's job within the Party at the Department of Truth is as a propaganda that alters historical records to line up with the ones of the Party’s timeline. The totalitarian government of the society would be where the entire of the book revolves around. Orwell shows very early on in the book how by just having something that could be written in as means for getting your thoughts out, can land you in serious trouble that can lead to years locked up, or your death. The realization that members of the Party were also being watched by the Party, helped to establish

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