Solitude In The Book 1984 By George Orwell

In the book 1984 by George Orwell the concept of solitude is destroyed by the Party. In every person, there is a part that is kept hidden, a part of you that no one else knows. A part of you that can make your own decisions and can do this without the influence of others. This quintessential part is stripped away within this book, leaving the characters as mindless robots who only do what they are told, and have no opinions of their own. The party ensures that this occurs in a variety of ways, one of which is by having the Thought Police; “Whether [Winston] wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would have him just the same” (Orwell 19). At this point in the book, the amount of knowledge about the Thought police and their ways, are nearly zero, except that they find out when people are pursuing actions that conflict those told by Big Brother. The mere idea of the Thought Police scares most people from thinking about performing any deed that could be seen as against Big Brother, and once Winston writes these words down, fear shoots through his body because he is certain that they already know and will come after him. The Party is afraid that if they tolerate the act of solitude, that their citizens will realize the corruptness of their government and choose to rebel. To ensure that this does not happen, they have telescreens put in most homes. Telescreens are similar to televisions, that have constant announcements and they
are a two way screen so that the government can also watch you. This strips individuals of any chance to be alone, or of doing anything that is against the government in their own home. For instance, when Winston was tired during the morning workout, the lady on the telescreen yelled at him and told him to continue, because she could see him as well. These inventions remove all forms of privacy in a person’s home, which should be a private place. Lastly, the government limits all acts of solitude by turning citizens against each other. Winston was pretty well conditioned to not be alone, until one day he went on a walk to the part of town where he had no business, to visit the shop where he had previously gotten his diary. He very well knows that this would be seen as an act against Big Brother because if he has no business down there, why would he be there but he enjoys he newfound freedom of solitude. On his way back home, he saw the girl from the Non-Fiction department of his work, and immediately thought of the worst: “There was no doubt that the girl was spying on him. She must have followed him here, because it was not credible that by pure chance she should have happened to be walking on the same evening up the same obscure street” (Orwell 101). Winston immediately knew that the girl was spying on him, and that she was going to turn him into the authorities for the sole reason that he was walking alone, and acting independent. The party has created a society where you cannot trust anyone, and nobody can trust you. Orwell is warning us that similar things could occur in our society.
He wants us to understand that solitude is a right that we should have as well as privacy. Once these rights are violated, we are headed toward a world much like the one in 1984. He is keeping us on the lookout for warning signs, and for us to make sure we never let what has happened in this novel, happen to us
today.