Essay on 1984

Oceania is a society where life is dictated by a small group of violent and overbearing men. Privacy is forbidden and surveillance is promoted, as every word, every movement, and every breath are monitored. People live in fear of becoming “vaporized” (20) and having all traces of their life eradicated. Every evidence and remains of their presence would become erased. People also live in a constant state of propaganda. That is, the small group is able to force them to accept any beliefs or events that it claims to be true. This is the world that George Orwell creates in 1984. It is obvious that the criterion of this novel is to warn and display the detrimental effects of a totalitarian government that existed in Soviet-Union, the Nazis, and China; however, 1984 also makes an subtle attempt to show how Western countries such as England and the United States, countries which are eminent for possessing ideas of democracy and capitalism, retain notions and characteristics of totalitaria...