George Orwell's 1984: Past, Present, And Future
Past, Present and Future There is a saying: yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that is way it’s called the present. This sounds quite reasonable for us: what has gone becomes history and what lies in the future is always a mystery; present days are for us to treasure. However, these become fantasies in George Orwell’s 1984 society, the society that is opposite to the one we are living in—where history is constant and future is altering. The history of 1984’s society is constantly changing while the future remains solid, for no one is able to change his fate. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” If we examine this quote separately, we can figure
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In 1984, readers may be intimidated by the “omnipresent” Big Brother, and so are the people in that society. The reason behind is that the Big Brother is the symbol of power, and everything is under his control. He can change the past, twist the history and evaporate a person in a few second. The way Big Brother govern his people may seems like an absurd illusion to us, but the similar “Big Brother’s spirit” lies in reality. Almost all the governments control their countries by not letting their people know some information, but the more centralized and authoritarian a government is, the more facts are being hidden or even altered. For example, in the U.S., the power is divided to three branches, one hold by the president, one by the Congress, and the other by the Court. By doing so, each branch’s power is being restricted by others, in other word, the power decreases. Consequently, the U.S. has greater freedom of speech and greater amount of information available to its citizens. In contrast to the situation in the U.S. government, North Korea government though has three branches of power including legislative, judicial and administrative, they are not independent to each other. According to Human Rights Watch, North Korea is “an authoritarian state with a dynastic leadership that is among the most repressive in the world.” Therefore, the information in the North Korea is strictly restricted. “All media and publications are state-controlled, and unauthorized access to non-state radio or TV broadcasts is punished.” From the lack of freedom of exchanging ideas, we can see similarities between this society and the one in
In 1984, readers may be intimidated by the “omnipresent” Big Brother, and so are the people in that society. The reason behind is that the Big Brother is the symbol of power, and everything is under his control. He can change the past, twist the history and evaporate a person in a few second. The way Big Brother govern his people may seems like an absurd illusion to us, but the similar “Big Brother’s spirit” lies in reality. Almost all the governments control their countries by not letting their people know some information, but the more centralized and authoritarian a government is, the more facts are being hidden or even altered. For example, in the U.S., the power is divided to three branches, one hold by the president, one by the Congress, and the other by the Court. By doing so, each branch’s power is being restricted by others, in other word, the power decreases. Consequently, the U.S. has greater freedom of speech and greater amount of information available to its citizens. In contrast to the situation in the U.S. government, North Korea government though has three branches of power including legislative, judicial and administrative, they are not independent to each other. According to Human Rights Watch, North Korea is “an authoritarian state with a dynastic leadership that is among the most repressive in the world.” Therefore, the information in the North Korea is strictly restricted. “All media and publications are state-controlled, and unauthorized access to non-state radio or TV broadcasts is punished.” From the lack of freedom of exchanging ideas, we can see similarities between this society and the one in