The Unspoken Reality About Powerful Government

Having a government is viewed as vital, since it controls the nation or society. But governments play a role in controlling people's lives. This ideology is displayed throughout the story“1984, ” by George Orwell. This story explains the effects of having a government that possesses the power to control the lives of its citizens. During the novel, Orwell explores the dangerous things a powerful government can do through the use of advanced systems to monitor the daily actions and conversations of its citizens, they used their power by torturing and eliminating their citizens. And they create technology to limit people's imagination. To begin, George Orwell describes how the government uses state-of-the-art technology to monitor the movements of its citizens. Firstly, the government of Oceania shows how powerful they are by using telescreens to daily watch their citizen's actions. As Winston pulled out a twenty-five-cent piece and saw tiny clear lettering of the slogan WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, and a big brother stamp on the other side, Winston says that: "Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, inside or outside, in the bath or in bed, no exit. " (Orwell 34) The government highlights how it uses its power to invade a person's privacy. In addition, the government has the power to make sure that everyone is behaving normally, thus affecting the people's lives. The adoption of technology has empowered the party to ensure the supremacy of totalitarianism. Secondly, they had installed microphones throughout the nation. The microphone was embedded into the “oblong metal plaque” The government installed microphones to listen in on conversations that people were having with one another. Having a microphone across Oceania made people uneasy. The fear of the government constantly listening to every conversation, knowing that if they had been acting out they would be punished, forcing citizens to live their lives linear to rules and regulations set in place by the government. The act of power as the government exemplifies how their technological innovations surpasses its citizens due to their power. Behind Winston’s back, the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig iron and the Ninth Three-Year Plan. “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. ” (Orwell 5) People felt that this was a lack of privacy. Lastly, the government even used its power to install telescreens in their homes. Therefore, people had to remain calm at all times. As well as not disobeying the rules put in place by the government. If that was not enough, the Oceania government installed both telescreens, which could serve as a security camera and a microphone to control and monitor their people. There was also a telescreen in a jail cell. “There were four telescreens, one on each wall. ” (Orwell 285). Overall, the government's power affected and altered the relationship of their citizens. The government displays another factor of torture. Furthermore, the government has the power to vaporize its people. Winston's friend and co-worker, Syme, was a smart man. And the Party wanted him to be vaporized. The party wants to vaporize Syme because of his intelligence. And they see him as a threat. Winston believes various times that “Syme will be vaporized. ” (Orwell 56) He believes that "He is too intelligent. And he sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. ” (Orwell 56) One day, Syme had disappeared. One morning came, and he was missing from work: a few thoughtless people commented on his absence. Winston then went into the vestibule of the Records Department to look at the notice-board. But there wasn't any name on the scoreboard. It was as if Syme didn't exist anymore. Syme seems to believe in all the party's ideologies and works hard to achieve Big Brother's goals in perfecting Newspeak and eventually eliminating individual thought. The Thought Police remove him from society, deleting all documents that relate to his existence. Secondly, the Oceania government demonstrates that they do not care about their citizens as they torture and eliminate the Oceania citizens. Thus, they discipline their people for any act they have done. The government uses various methods to discipline its people. O’Brien uses the doublethink method. Doublethink is a mental discipline. Winston and Julia are both separated from each other. And he ends up in what he believes to be the Ministry of Love. The author explains that “He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain. Concealed lamps flooded it with cold light. ” (Orwell 285). Winston goes through a lot of torture. He had to sit still on a narrow bench. And if he had moved, someone would have yelled at him from the telescreen. People who were in the Ministry of love handled prisoners roughly. Finally, O'Brien led Winston to Room 101, within the Ministry of Love. Room 101 was where prisoners would go to meet their greatest fears. Winston's greatest fear was rats. O’Brien places a cage of rats over Winston’s head. O'Brien tells Winston that when he pressed that other lever, the door to the cage slipped upwards. And the rats will jump down onto his face, attack his eyes and devour his tongue. As he fears the rats Winston screams to O’Brien that he should “'Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. ! Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me! " (Orwell 362). He then becomes a changed man. Moreover, the government used technology to limit people's imagination and made people lazy. Firstly, the government used technology to make their citizens' jobs easier. This caused people to not think of creative ideas by themselves. Thus limiting the imagination of people. And not allow citizens to think out of the box. Secondly the versificator machine was also created by the government of Oceania. The versificator machine was created to produce songs and books without any human intervention. The versificator machine was created so that the Party members would not have to use any creative thinking. The versificator machine was: “produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs. (Orwell 55) In addition to this party controls what the versificiator creates, so that people would be getting made up information. Lastly, the government also invented a machine called the speakwrite. The speakwrite was a dictation system, in which a user spoke into it and his or her word were displayed on a screen. As winston was in the deep, unconscious sight which not even the the nearness of the telescreen could prevent him from untering when his day’s work started, “Winston pulled the speakwrite toward him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles” (Orwell 48) Thus making people lazy. In the story “1984” George Orwell highlights the effects of having a government that possesses power in its hands and how it can negatively affect a person's life. To begin, the government of Oceania used telescreens to watch the movement of their people. They also used microphones, which were embedded into the telescreens to listen to people's conversations. Secondly, the government torture and its citizens. They used technology to torture them as a method of discipline. And lastly, they created technology to limit people's imaginations, which allowed them to be lazy. In conclusion, as we can see from the novel “1984” the power of the government can dramatically change and damage people's lives.