Home » George Orwell » Examples Of Totalitarianism In George Orwell’s Novel 1984 Essay

Examples Of Totalitarianism In George Orwell’s Novel 1984 Essay

Cellphones and technology have become a major part of todays’ society. A totalitarian government is centralized and has total control over its people. On the other hand a democratic government makes major decisions through majority vote. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Winston’s perspective depicts his life living in Oceania under a totalitarian. In this age of cell phones and mobile devices equipped with recording capabilities, when anyone says or does could wind up on the “internet” within minutes, showing similar tactics as Big Brother, but not entirely.

Oceania’s totalitarian government is different from contemporary Canada by eliminating independent rights, creating psychological control and allowing no freedom of any sort. The government of Oceania is constantly watching over its Party members, therefore invading total privacy. This shows that Oceania’s government does not have any human rights. On the contrary, the Canadian government has a set of laws, which outline the right to each human being. Going in depth, the government of Oceania has a telescreen in every home of its members.

This device captures sound and video, which is monitored by a group of people under the Party. All over Oceania there are posters that say “Big Brother is Watching You. ” This shows the government’s attempt to gain total control over the Party members by provoking fear. In other words the government is invading personal privacy. The Canadian government allows each person to have their own privacy, personal information is kept confident. Any invasion of privacy in other words, recording anyone without permission has serious consequences of its own.

Therefore Canada’s society has not become Big Brother, and entirely shows how differently the government of Oceania and Canada think. Psychological control is created by the government of Oceania through various techniques. They have made everything legal but on the contrary also created ‘thoughtcrime’ and ‘facecrime’. Thoughtcrime is when a member of the party thinks of something against the Party. Facecrime is making a facial expression that the Party does not find acceptable.

Oceania’s people under the Party are forced to use doublethink, meaning they are not allowed to have their own thoughts. In the novel, Winston understands the dangers of thought “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when in any public place, or within range or a telescreen. ” This demonstrates how the government of Oceania uses fear to provoke citizens from thinking of anything against the Party. Contemporary Canada is completely different. For an example, people are allowed to have their own thoughts.

The government does not have any psychological control over the citizens. Winston explains how Big Brother gains power, “Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past. ” This quote shows the idea of doublethink, the Party members know that the past is being altered but at the same time they believe the party that they past cannot be altered. Contemporary Canada has special libraries, which store accurate historical evidences. They cannot be destroyed because if they were destroyed, it would lead to protests.

This would lead to an uprising, which would be disturbance of peace. The Canadian government tries to keep as much peace as possible. Therefore, contemporary Canada is different from the government of Oceania. In Oceania marriage is planned as a means of creating Party members, this does not happen in Canada. Canadians are allowed to do what they want in respect to the law. However, the government of Oceania does not even allow the Party members to choose their own life partners. Party members are not allowed to have sex unless its purpose is solely for reproduction.

The idea of the Party is to eliminate human emotion and make everyone live just for the Party. The main idea of the Party is that freedom is slavery, meaning that working for the Party is freedom. In contrast, contemporary Canada has many fundamental freedoms, which showcase that Canada is a free country. These rights include: freedom of speech, freedom of thought and religion. The list continues and shows that Canada is a free country because it is not run by a totalitarian government. In Canada, under the Civil Marriage Act, it allows Canadian citizens to marry who they want.

In other words citizens have the freedom to marry anyone, disregarding gender and sexual orientation. Freedom in Oceania is different from freedom in Canada. The government of Oceania is totally unlike the government of Canada. They vary from having equal human rights to using psychological control for power to invasion of privacy. The governments are totally different, that is why they are classified in separate categories, Canada being democratic and Oceania being a totalitarian type of government. To conclude,Canada is not becoming like Big Brother watches over its Party.

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this essay please select a referencing style below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.