Different Society In 1984
1984 is a very good book but it is also different. It’s about a society that is nothing like ours and it’s almost hard to grasp but when you get into it you can’t put it down. The society is nothing like ours. They have a two minutes hate every day, their language is called newspeak and changes on a regular basis, they are watched at all times from things called telescreens, their leader is big brother but the only way they see him is on posters, their slogan is “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. So as you see in many ways it is very unlike our society. Most of the people in our society would not even make it a day in their society. Not that they would even ever realize that they existed.
In their society they have daily two minutes hate. This is where they all gather around in their workplace and watch the telescreen which shows a picture of a person, normally Goldstein, that they should hate. It has background music and someone speaking about who the person is and why you should hate them. They then have to show their anger towards this person while seeing them. In many ways it is a form of brainwashing the people to do what “big brother” wants them to do.
The language of the society is newspeak and it changes very often but the people never know it because they get rid of all proof of history so they can change it to what they want it to be. Newspeak is a language that will not be complete until 2050. Newspeak is a language where they combine words so they can get rid of words in the English language. Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and Winston doesn’t like it because it is always changing along with records and food rations and history.
All of their life in Oceania is monitored from telescreens and if you’re always watched by the thought police. If they think that you are doing something wrong then you are doing something wrong and they will kill you without anyone knowing that you ever existed. It’s a hard way to live because if they even think that you are thinking about something, such as sex, then you could be killed. In Oceania there are some people that can go without a telescreen. These people are called the proles; they are the poor people and the prostitutes. They have rules but they aren’t like the rules everyone else has and the consequences are not like the rest of the place.
Big brother is the controller of Oceania. Although they never see him they know he’s there. He is the one who makes their rules, tells how much they get to eat, makes them hate who he wants them to hate, makes their history, and brainwashes them to think and feel how he wants them to. He doesn’t do all things by himself he has people that work for him. They are broken into the ministry of truth, ministry of peace, ministry of love, and the ministry of peace. All of which are a contradiction of what their name says.
Their slogan is “War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength”. All of these contradict themselves just like the ministries do. Their slogan is what the people see everywhere on posters along with big brothers face. They don’t know that it is a contradiction because it’s what they have always been told is right. They don’t know anything except for what big brother tells them.
Many parts of the Oceania society make it to where we can’t live there. We would never make it because we have been told what is right for so long. In a way we are like them because we believe what we here. But lucky for us we aren’t watched everywhere and our history don’t change. Well as far as high school goes anyway. Really we don’t know if it’s true that Christopher Columbus said the ocean blue in 1492 but it’s what we have been told since about second grade so we are going to believe it. That’s the same with the people of Oceania, they have always been told what to do and how to do it. Not even the older people know what is right anymore. It’s all about what Big Brother says and if you disagree then you no longer exist.
