1984+Essay

Dear Boethius, It is unfortunate that I must bring to your attention that in the book "1984" by Geoarge Orwell, your optimistic ideals of the individual mind be unpenetratable and unalterable are nonexistent. "The Party", the massive, evil-intentioned government of the dystopia of Oceania, posses technology with which they may watch all citizens at any given time. They can also read people's minds, as well as inflict pain on them with ease. Even more disturbing than technologies, however, are their methods and ways of using them.

First of all, the Party has metal plaques permanently mounted on the majority of the homes in Oceania. With these plaques, or "telescreens," as they are officially called, the Party, or more specifically, the Thought Police, can hear and see the actions of every citizen in Oceania, and whether they are seen by citizens is their decision to make. Citizens of Oceania must adapt to being monitored constantly. This may be proved true by Winston Smith's reflection on page 5,"You had to live-did live, from force of habit that became instinct-in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized." However telescreens may be found in many other places than at the home. They may be at one's work place, or even randomly placed on the streets. You can see that telescreens are much harder to avoid than the vision and hearing of a human, and I should note that they may not be turned off except by upper Party memebers.

In addition to telescreens, the Thought Police have many other horrible technologies. Many of these may be found in their place of interrogation, the dreaded Ministry of Love. For example, in the book, a man by the name of O'Brien reads the mind and hears the thoughts of Winston Smith with a mysterious device, although the device is never thoroughly described or understood by Winston. The Ministry of Love also has machines with which they may inflict or subtract pain with the twist of a knob. This process was briefly noted by Winston on pg. 273, as shown in the quote, "He drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly eased." The Thought Police also have technologies that are used outside of the Ministry of Love. For instance, they have microphones hidden around the city that can pick up sound accurately. Your persecuter's technology pails in comnparison to this Boethius.

Finally, and perhaps worst of all, the Party has some interesting ideals and uses for all of these devices. The Party wants all of its citizens to feel much more than just loyalty to Big Brother, the leader of Oceania. This can be seen by O'Brien's staement on page 309, "You mst love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him. You must love him." Quite possibly the worst thing the Party does with their technology is read the minds and extract the fears of its victims. Then then use these fears inorder to force their victims to succumb and betray their loved ones. It is ultimately this that breaks people's minds. However, they are also starved, beaten, and tortured, all the while being monitored by telescreens. After vicitms have been converted, they are released, and shortly after, they are re-arrested and killed. This makes your death seem merciful.

As can be seen, the people of Oceania have much to fear. They are always being monitored, with both visuals and audio. Once captured, so-called heretics are tortured and abused. Through this, the Party forces the change of belief in its victims. This is not to say that resistance is impossible, it is just much more difficult than during your time. It is highly possible that there is a loophole or method that could be used to bring down the Party and its ways.