Examples Of Dystopia In Oceania By George Orwell

Meilani Parks

Johnson

ERWC 3

19 March 2018

The United States of America… Or Oceania?

Society is based upon millennials that are growing up in a world relying on technology in order to function. One of the most important devices would be the Apple iPhone. The iPhone has many features that exceed people’s expectations. However, people do not realize what others can do with their phone. For example, skilled hackers can take an image and copy your fingerprint using the iPhone’s security. It is questionable how the iPhone and other devices are so easily invasive towards future generations privacy and everyday life. Technology’s hidden power and the constant abuse of it, makes a similar dystopian society that relates to George Orwell’s novel,

The world of Big Brother depends upon total control and surveillance on its citizens. For example, Orwell gives detail of devices the Party, which is Oceania’s government, uses in order to maintain structure. He writes, “...an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall...The instrument could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.” (Orwell 2). The telescreen is a device, similar to a television, that is a tool the government uses to keep watch on its citizens and remain in control. This device makes it difficult for the people of Oceania to have any privacy in there home and daily lives. The totalitarian government in 1984 wishes to control all. Orwell lists the ideas of party when he says, “The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them.” Oceania’s authoritarian government – called Big Brother, controls its people. All throughout Oceania, there are concealed microphones that have voice recognition and can easily identify who and what a person said. Winston, the protagonist of 1984, would have a secret love affair with a woman thirteen years younger than him. It was very hard for Winston and his mistress, Julia, to continue their love affair without suspicion from others. “As

Time Magazine states, “A surveillance society is taking root. Video cameras peer constantly from lamp poles and storefronts. Satellites and drones float hawkeyed through the skies. Smartphones relay a dizzying barrage of information about their owners to sentinel towers dotting cities and punctuating pasture-land… Meanwhile, on the information superhighway, every stop by every traveler is noted and stored by Internet service providers like Google, Verizon and Comcast. Smart TVs know what we’re watching—soon they will have eyes to watch us watching them—and smart meters know if we’ve turned out the lights”. Although it is said to believe that modern day surveillance technology is used for good purposes, people need to realize what consequences follow when it is not used for good purposes. “The power of today’s surveillance goes beyond sharp visuals. The most sophisticated surveillance networks in the country – in places like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle – combine multiple cameras with intelligent software that collects and stores detailed information on potential suspects and everyday citizens alike. Some software can be programmed to analyze and identify a specific activity, such as leaving a package in a public area. Old photo and videotape storage systems had limited capacity for how much surveillance data police could retain. But digital storage and the growth of cloud computing now enables