In the book 1984, there is a world where the government has turned into a totalitarian government. They do a lot of things to cover up things and the people are unaware of these things, that is because they are being controlled by the government and are forced to be loyal to the Party and all of its rules. The main character is named Winston and he is aware of everything that the Party is up to. This book is about the struggles and life that he has to live while in this totalitarian land. One real-world example that can be compared to the book 1984 is the life of people in North Korea. The world of 1984 and North Korea are very similar and they both have kind of the same events and struggles. North Korea is a socialist land, which is a form of totalitarianism. The government prohibits a lot of things and the people do not have any other choice, except to just listen to what the government tells them to do. The leader of North Korea is very strict and enforces a lot of rules on the people, just like how the Party is in 1984. The people basically have no freedom and cannot speak up for themselves. If people do that then they can get in trouble. All of their rights are stripped and they cannot do anything. Both places have bizarre methods of keeping order. Both places are very powerful. They are powerful because they took away all of their population’s rights. They are both hungry for power and will do anything to get it.
Since the world of 1984 is a totalitarian government, there may be some people that eventually will have feelings about the Party. But in this world, you are not even allowed to think about those feelings. The government has people called Thought Police and their job is to catch people that have those people that are thinking thoughts about anything that is against the Party, also known as thoughtcrime. Winston talks about this, saying “ Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” Winston commits thoughtcrime in this chapter and writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” in his diary. Another way that the people in 1984 are spied on by kids. The kids that are in the household spy on their parents. They catch their parents doing unlawful things and report them to the Party, so they can be punished. Winston gets scared in chapter two because Mrs. Parsons’ kids accuse him of thoughtcrime and threaten to vaporize him because of it. Another tool in 1984 that is used to spy on the people is telescreens. Telescreens are televisions, but they are also used to watch the population and hear their conversations. In North Korea, you would not be allowed to say anything like that. The government in North Korea has people that spy on the population to see if they are doing anything that is against the law. They have mass surveillance programs that show them everything that their people are doing. They also have agencies that go around and look after the people. The State security department runs prisons and has people to spy on citizens, most of the people are housewives. Another agency is the Military Security Command and they are in charge of finding people who are deemed disloyal. Both of the world are heavily aware of what is going on in their land and they will punish anyone who disobeys their rules. Both of these places have eyes everywhere. They are always watching their people and making sure they are following their rules.
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In 1984, they have restrictions on what their people can see. Any kind of document that is against what the government thinks is true, is prohibited. Winston works in the Records Department, so he is one of the people that do the alterations of these documents. They also have memory holes. Memory holes are a space in the wall and someone throws a document in the hole and it gets erased from existence. Winston usually uses this to hide documents that may expose the Party’s true intentions. There is a lot of propaganda that Winston has to hide. This is all a part of the Party’s plan for loyalty. This is also an example of the statement “Ignorance is Strength”. The meaning of this statement is what you don’t know is good for you. In the book, this statement is very true, because if you even think of something that happened in the past, you are in trouble. Winston knows things about the Party, so he already knows that he is in trouble. In North Korea, phones are allowed, but there is limited internet access. Before phones were allowed, internet access was only allowed to choose government officials. But now that phones are allowed, the internet is censored and people are only allowed on websites that the government allows. It is very little though. Overall, the government of North Korea tries very hard to keep unwanted information away from the people.
There is an organization that is against the Party in 1984. They are called the Brotherhood. Their objective is to overthrow the party. Winston constantly thinks about the Brotherhood. The members of the party don’t like the Brotherhood or their leader, Emmanuel Goldstein. He is the focus of the Two Minutes Hate and everyone hates him. Winston actually wants to join them, because of his deep hatred for the Party. He meets with O’Brien, who apparently is a member of the Brotherhood. He invites Winston to join him in the Brotherhood and Winston accepts his invitation. This action by Winston is enough for him to get him in big trouble. He can get vaporized for admitting his hatred for the Party. Both North Korea has deep consequences for this crime. It’s either getting sent to prison or getting executed or you and your family getting punished. People in North Korea have no freedom of speech there, they cannot even say any opinions or thoughts that may offend the government. The idea of an organization like the Brotherhood would be stopped quickly. The people that would’ve tried starting it, would be punished. In the book, O’Brien says that no one can destroy the Brotherhood, because the idea behind it will last forever. This means that the Brotherhood would last forever because the thought of someone being against the Party will always be there.
After Winston has this meeting with O’Brien, he is arrested. In his cell, he sees Mr. Parsons. Parsons tells Winston that he was caught by one of his kids saying something offensive about the Party. This shows that the Party really is strict with its rules and will enforce them on anyone that is caught being disloyal. After Parsons leaves, O’Brien comes in and takes Winston. They have a conversation and O’Brien tells Winston that he is the one that caught him. O’Brien was actually loyal to the Party and not working with the Brotherhood. He tells him that he has known about Winston’s disloyalty for a long time and has been wanting to catch him for a long time too. He tells him that the since the party controls records and documents, this means that they control the past too. Winston does not understand this and starts to defend himself. The party does have the power to control the past because that is what they do, that is the society they live in. The Party also controls what is considered to be the truth. Winston has no power to say what is the truth and what is false. When Winston tells him that he is holding up four fingers and not five, he does not understand. Soon he will understand how their society works. Most of the people in North Korea are loyal to the government and all of its rules, even if it is unfair and hard to live in. There is complete order in North Korea and that is what Oceania in 1984 is trying to accomplish, complete order. It is not the nicest way and no one has any freedom there, but they don’t care. They just want to order.
Winston soon goes through O’Brien’s three stages and has accepted all the things that he knows are not true and now believes that they are true. He now believes that 2+2=5, and now believes all three of the slogans. After all the torture, he finally understood. But in reality, he did not love Big Brother like he was supposed to, he did believe all the things that Party talked about, but he still was denying Big Brother. He goes to room 101 because of this. In Korea, there are a lot of prisons and camps where people go when they break the law.
People here get beaten and tortured all the time. It is no place to spend your life in. It is very unhealthy and unsanitary. They even stopped reporting the deaths that happen there. That is how dangerous it is there. The methods of torture in there are worse than in 1984. In 1984, they shock you and put you in a room with your greatest fear, in Korea, they drown and put people into little cages and that is only some examples of torture there. Some of these tortures can be for the smallest of offenses. Either way, both, north Korea and Oceania of 1984 have cruel ways to handle offenses. In the end, Winston loves Big Brother and all of the torture and time in prison pays off in the end. He becomes loyal to the party and is now like everyone else, stuck in the Party’s trap. O’Brien says that the main reason for the torture is to cure people and to make them sane. Winston was one of the only people to think of the Party as bad, so it was rare to them. In their point of view, he was not like them, so he needed to be cured. This may be the reason for torture in North Korea as well. They just want to teach them a lesson on why the thing that they did was wrong. It works out for them in the end, for both places. They get orders and that is their main objective.
In conclusion, in some places, the world today has become like the world in 1984. They have abnormal ways of handling their land, but it works out for them. They both altar history, torture people and are totalitarian states. There were many other times when times that actually happened, were like the world in 1984. The world may become like how it is in 1984, but no one knows. The world is changing and nobody knows if it will be for the better or for the worse.
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