Why Is 1984 A Fantasy Never-To-Come?
1984 was a novel published in 1949 by the author George Orwell as a commentary against totalitarian governments, after their rise in the horrific Second
World War. Many different themes are presented in 1984, among them, the elimination of privacy and the loss of caring for human deaths. 1984 was originally intended to be a gross exaggeration of the world if totalitarian governments were in control, however, as our society goes on, it seems we are approaching the state in 1984, which leads us to beg the question: is 1984 a fantasy never-to-be or a reality soon-to-come?
In 1984, people are monitored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This seems absolutely mad and criminal until you realize that the state in the USA is almost exactly the …show more content…
Perhaps if this was done with our consent it would be a different matter altogether, however, this was revealed by whistleblowers who were then convicted of treason… this was something the US government did not want the people knowing.
Another theme in the novel is the idea of human desensitization of death. While walking in a Prole neighborhood after a bomb blast, Winston kicks a severed human hand into the gutter apathetically without a second thought. Although the average person in today’s society is nowhere near that desensitized, we are rapidly approaching that stage with the advent of the internet and it’s content. Information is circulated around the internet at amazing speeds, and so any time there is human death or violence that is recorded on video, it can be seen by millions of people around the world instantaneously. Constant viewing of these terrible tragedies can make people grow numb to seeing those horrors, which is how the characters were in 1984.
All in all, nobody truly knows how distant the world of 1984 is from our world today, but what we can know is if these two worlds intersect at certain points. I believe that today’s society is rapidly approaching the society of 1984 by the rapid spread
World War. Many different themes are presented in 1984, among them, the elimination of privacy and the loss of caring for human deaths. 1984 was originally intended to be a gross exaggeration of the world if totalitarian governments were in control, however, as our society goes on, it seems we are approaching the state in 1984, which leads us to beg the question: is 1984 a fantasy never-to-be or a reality soon-to-come?
In 1984, people are monitored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This seems absolutely mad and criminal until you realize that the state in the USA is almost exactly the …show more content…
Perhaps if this was done with our consent it would be a different matter altogether, however, this was revealed by whistleblowers who were then convicted of treason… this was something the US government did not want the people knowing.
Another theme in the novel is the idea of human desensitization of death. While walking in a Prole neighborhood after a bomb blast, Winston kicks a severed human hand into the gutter apathetically without a second thought. Although the average person in today’s society is nowhere near that desensitized, we are rapidly approaching that stage with the advent of the internet and it’s content. Information is circulated around the internet at amazing speeds, and so any time there is human death or violence that is recorded on video, it can be seen by millions of people around the world instantaneously. Constant viewing of these terrible tragedies can make people grow numb to seeing those horrors, which is how the characters were in 1984.
All in all, nobody truly knows how distant the world of 1984 is from our world today, but what we can know is if these two worlds intersect at certain points. I believe that today’s society is rapidly approaching the society of 1984 by the rapid spread