Reader Response - 1984

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The Equivalency of Apples and Oranges

The degree to which an individual is controlled by government is dictated by two main factors : the individual 's association with the party and the individual 's belief in it . One who is not a member of a party feels no sense of obligation to uphold its tenets and has no vested interest in the success or failure or that party . This being the case , there still remains that fact that

as long as there are societies there must be some form of , and government seems to be the mode of choice when it comes to social constraint . The government that controls the society may not represent all of those for whom it professes to serve , but what if a period of time were reached that the purpose of the government was not to serve the people but to serve itself ? What if the government became an entity bent on survival at all cost ? George Orwell 's novel 1984 describes a government whose power has become so complete that it is an entity that will do whatever is necessary to guarantee its continued existence

The concept that the government of Oceania is a living thing is presented by Orwell as Big Brother ' 1984 never reveals to the reader whether or not Big Brother ' is real or fictitious , and this along with the implication that this ruler is the elder familial protector of his kin (i .e . the big brother , is the key to the satire that runs through Orwell 's book

Big Brother ' oversees everyone in Oceania - literally . Not only is his the face seen on

posters reminding the citizens that he is watching them , but his is the face on their coins and on

their telescreens : his image is unavoidable . He not only represents the face ' of the government

but also , he represents the brainwashing that takes place in the novel so that the government he

represents will remain in control and survive

The people of Oceania are continuously brainwashed : it is the means by which the government retains control . The concept that words are the things by which everything is expressed is focal to the message Orwell is putting forth , and a large part of the function of Big Brother ' is to ensure that the words and the thoughts of the people of Oceania are what they should be

Inundating the people of Oceania with a constant steam of useless information and propaganda , the telescreens are everywhere - including in every room of every home . They never stop , they never slow down , and the constant stimulus is one of the ways the government takes and retains thought control . So mentally drained are the people of Oceania that most of them do not have the ability to separate their ideas from those that Big Brother ' feeds them - thus , the machination of the government drones on

Orwell takes the issue of...