1984 Essays

Each text or literary work is interpreted differently by various readers. After reading a novel or a short story, the reader asks himself questions about the reasons why the author wrote it and what it means. Questions lead readers to interpret links to literature. People refer to what they read by connecting to their own lives, other texts, and the state and events of the world. The interpretation depends primarily on where the reader reads the text. That is also the case in the fictional novel by George Orwell 1984.

The book 1984 depicts a great deal of totalitarianism. A totalitarian government is one in which the government controls all aspects of life. How people spend every minute of their time, even in private, with whom they can relate and what they can say. Totalitarian governments are even trying to control what people feel and what they think. In the late 1940s, George Orwell wrote 1984. He knew that totalitarianism was based on the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. These governments did not take place long before 1984 but were still not well understood. Orwell’s aim was to give his readers a clear picture of life if a free country such as England had a totalitarian system. In 1984 totalitarianism was written into practice in the world. Of course, different generations of the audience differently interpreted 1984.

Two major readers read 1984: people who lived in the past war and young adults in the 21st century. The main difference between the two groups is that one group has experienced a totalitarian state, while the other group has just been told stories of totalitarianism. The fact is that both pay attention to various factors from 1984.

The group of readers with totalitarian experience, on the one hand, will pay attention to how the government oppresses its people. The group of readers who have not experienced totalitarianism, on the other hand, read 1984 in search of certain aspects of 1984. An example of this is the increased supervision of the lives of its citizens by the government. Since both groups focus on different aspects of the book, they interpret it differently. In 1984, the first group interpreted totalitarianism as an explanation and a response to the question, what if a free country like England had a totalitarian regime? The reason for such an interpretation lies in the world’s state. When readers read it when it was written (1948), Britain was at war and these people knew that the government was watching and controlling them. They would also recognize the propaganda in the book as: ‘WAR IS PEACE,’ ‘FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,’ ‘IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH’ and ‘BIG BROTHER IS YOU’ This group could easily recognize the similarities between the 1984 propaganda and Hitler’s propaganda. They will remember the Nazis ‘ contradictory views that promised peace and wealth but brought only war and poverty. This can be compared with the contradictory ministry of peace, the ministry of abundance, the ministry of truth, and the ministry of love, which deal with war, hunger, lies, and torture. In 1950, a reader first knows more about the fear of being monitored and controlled. The media were controlled by the Nazis during the Second World War. Radio, for example, broadcast only positive news for Germany. Houses were checked regularly to ensure that nobody heard anything else secretly. It was not only to see if people listened to an illegal radio station but also to see if they hid Jews. When they were founded guilty, they were immediately sent to a concentration camp. This is compared to Thought Crime and the Ministry of Love. P 21: “they’ll shoot me in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother they always should you in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother.” This is a quote from the Winston diary. Even writing in his own private diary is a crime at home because he did not obey the party leader, Big Brother. The fact that he caught it so quickly and was full of errors demonstrates that fear is caught and observed.

In 1984, the second modern group could be seen as a future forecast. Many years later, the foreknowledge of the book continues to drive its popularity, but the focus is changing. In the current cycle of news and politics, which includes alternative facts, false news, post-truth, and most recently, pre-knowledge, Winston Smith’s news world, doublethink, the Ministry of Truth, and Big Brother’s personality cults seem all the more relevant. For these readers of the 21st century, the book may be prophetic, but it certainly stores, moves, creates, and can not be denied. The 60-year-old book is more relevant than ever, as it alarms us too.

These subjects are information control technology. The theme of control is the most prevalent and most important message reflected in 1984 for the second group. It is closely linked to the last two topics because they appear in the lives of the second group every day. When these readers think about the world of 1984 they picture surveillance cameras, government spying, and monitoring through personal technological devices. The level of technology is very sophisticated and there is a lot of control over government information. Since the second group is so connected, they pay more attention to these aspects of the book than to other aspects, giving their group of readers a unique interpretation.

With technology advancing faster than it has ever been, the second group faces a different problem. For example, military-level software that has been harnessed by a company called Hidden Technologies allows users to insert a thumb drive into any device and extract all the information from it. This means deleted search history, private messages, encrypted files, and everything in between is vulnerable to the user. The scariest part is that this device leaves no trace and you will never know that the information was ever