FREE ESSAY ON ELEMENTS IN 1984 SIMILAR TO TODAY'S SOCIETY

ELEMENTS IN 1984 SIMILAR TO TODAY'S SOCIETY

1984 shows how our lives will not be as secret as they are now. Oceania has no privacy and
America is turning into that. In some ways America already is like Oceania. There are
many elements in the book to compare with aspects in American society today. So in many
ways George Orwell was right and maybe there soon will be a government very similar to
the one in 1984.
One element in the book 1984 is Big Brother. He is the ruler of Oceania. He is not one
person but a name for the whole government. Big Brother could represent our government
today. We may not know it but the government knows everything about us. All they need is
our name and social security number and they could learn a lot about us. The government
has our previous jobs, where we went to school and where we live. Big Brother is also
like that in the book, probably even worse. Big Brother is even more intruding than our
government today and the only way to get away with things is by thinking them. It even
says on a sign, "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" (5).
Another element in the book is the Thought Police. They are much different than the
police in our society today. The police in American society can arrest you for things you
only do while the thought police can arrest you for things you think. "It was even
conceivable that the Thought Police watched everybody all the time" (6). If they don't
see you getting involved or screaming during the two minute hate they will arrest you.
The only similarity is that they both enforce the law. Otherwise they are totally
different.
The telescreen in the book watches almost every move you do. It invades your privacy and
you have no way of getting away from it except by thinking. "Any sound Winston made,
above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it" (6). Today we have
surveillance cameras, which watch you too, but these are for safety purposes so no one
can rob a store or commit a crime. These cameras are not everywhere either, only in
stores, banks, buildings, etc. So I don't think surveillance cameras and the telescreen
are comparable.
Another element is The Brotherhood, "an underground network of conspirators dedicated to
the overthrow of the state" (15). This can be compared to God. It is the people's hope.
This is the only way the people will overthrow the government. God is our hope in society
while Big Brother was their hope. Only some people knew it because others were happy with
the government. But they didn't know the government was taking too much control. The
Brotherhood is trying to save the people. I think there is a similarity between that and
God.
One last element are the Ministries. There are four ministries "between which the entire
apparatus of government was divided" (8). This can be compared to our government. We are
divided into sections too. Ours are different and we usually have one main person in
charge of those sections such as, the secretary of defense and secretary of state. These
are much similar to the Ministry of Peace and Ministry of Plenty. So it shows they had a
state of order as we do. 
In conclusion I think America is turning into Oceania. Your credit card knows a lot about
you, like what you buy. With computers today all your information is out there. We give
out our credit card number when it comes to computers so we have to trust a lot of
people. Certain people know things about us that we don't know about. It is not as bad as
Oceania but they are secretly taking over.