Orwell's People Of Oceania example essay topic

1984: "a Reality In Our Society?' Essay, 1984: "a Reality In Our Society?' English 1 Jacqueline Stevens 1984 1984: "A reality in our Society?' I originally thought that George Orwell's 1984 was ridiculous, and extreme. I thought that the novel was written to show us how good we had it. I couldn't understand why Oceania's government needed to control it's people, and bring them down to a mindless existence; but after taking in the story as a whole, and thinking about the natural replacement of power, it no longer seems that outrageous of a concept. Orwell's novel has been intended as a caveat for the modern day; but was his message taken to the conscious realm in our society?

The situations faced by Orwell's people of Oceania seem, when un analyzed, to be in many ways impossible- but there are overlooked similarities between our modern American "democratic's society, and Orwell's world of warning. Our government of today has managed to "smuggle' into daily living, undetected by the majority of Americans, the principle of doublethink. 1984's doublethink consisted of two contradictory ideas expressed in such a way as to negate any confusion; sort of an oxymoron, with an idealistic meaning. For example; equal opportunity employers, along with the topic of affirmative action, are two perfect examples of our governments use of doublethink. The contradiction can be seen easily in that to deal with the problems of discrimination during hiring, or college acceptance, there must be discrimination against others. One may ask how the both of these concepts could be executed without realization of the fact that they make no sense; it can only be made out that we as a population look to the government to solve our problems with their acts, and plans, and we accept them for a solution, without examining what they really entail.

Our society is also blessed with the depicted "thoughtless discipline'. Our US military is an excellent example of this malleable control. The people of Oceania were brought to the state of complete, and absolute obedience; which was accomplished through Oceania's "two-minutes hate', and the forced love of Oceania's figurehead "Big Brother'. Similarly, the US army demands complete obedience in the sense that the soldiers are to have no thought for the consequences of the actions they are ordered to perform on behalf of the government's means to an end. All of this is obtained by the required rigorous "training' that is a part of the army life. The troops give their will, mind, and morality to superiors; execute orders without thought, and if there is an ounce of intelligence or doubt from the individual, they are broken down physically; and as a result, mentally.

In times of war, our army has an astounding resemblance, almost identical in fact, to Oceania's militia. The US draft orders young men to enter battle, even though their higher dreams never consisted of army life. They are forced to join, fight, kill, and die- in a democracy? maybe the slogan "Be all that you can be, in the Army', should be changed to be all you are forced to be, in the Army. Our democratic government in theory, may have been the reply to Orwell's 1984, but in reality, the problems of control and power have tainted the theory. So the real question one should ask after reading this book is in reality, can the individual exist under the rule of any form of government? Orwell succeeded in bringing awareness to the forces of government, and the ways in which the general population has become at fault for the lack of attention to daily injustices which we face.

1984 has served as proper warning, but where are we to find our solution?