1984__a_Dystopian_Society

1984: A Dystopian Society A dystopia is defined as the opposite of a utopia. According to associatedcontent.com, a dystopia is a fictional society often taking place in the future, where the standards of living are terrible due to oppression, deprivation and terror often due to oppressive social control. Dystopian societies seem very fearful to us because they foreshadow our society and its problems. George Orwell’s novel 1984 depicts the perfect example of a dystopian society because of its in-human technology and authoritarian government. A dystopian society treats its citizens in an oppressiveand awful way. The novel is centered on a man named Winston Smith. He is a thirty-nine year old man that is described as a small fragile man. He wears blue overalls because it is the uniform of the Party and he is poor and rather unhealthy. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth which ironically, was the complete opposite of the truth. It concerned itself with the news, education and entertainment of Oceania, the super state that Winstonlived in. The three slogans of the Ministry of Truth were, “War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength” (4). This shows that the government did not exist for the good of the people and that the government did whatever they could so that there was no individualism in the society. The government was constantly watching its citizen. Two distinct examples of this are the telescreens and Big Brother. The telescreens are put in the houses of all the citizens so that they think that they are constantly being watched. “The telescreen 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 as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment” (3). This made the citizens paranoid and also contained any individuality the citizen had. The government, or in this case the Thought Police controlled everything the citizens did and everything they thought. As if the telescreens in the household weren’t enough, the government also has posters of Big Brother on every street corner and on every building. “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” (1-2). A government in a normal society works with its people to make life easier, however in a dystopia the government makes sure that they are in complete control of Another way the government controlled the citizens of Oceania is by Newspeak and Doublethink. The language of Newspeak made sure that the citizens are not using any type of language or vocabulary that is not approved by the government. There is a man named Syme who is even making up a definition with the only words in the Newspeak language. Syme says, “We’re getting the language into its final shape—the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else” (50). Doublethink in the Newspeak language is defined as “reality control”. If the past is different than what is going on in the present then it is erased from the records and technically erased from the citizen’s minds. constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible..” (35). Doublethink and Newspeak are used to control the citizen’s minds, oppressing their thoughts and brainwashing them to think positive thoughts about the government. individuality because opinions will be formed from this. Uniformity, authoritarian government and in-human technology are major themes of dystopian societies. This novel is noted as one of the best examples of a dystopian society. The telescreens, Doublethink, Newspeak and Big Brother are excellent examples of why the novel 1984perfectly depicts a dystopian society.