Watchful Government in George Orwells 1984 Essay -- Supervision 1984

Watchful Government in George Orwell's 1984 No one likes being overly supervised and watched. Whether it is a teenager with protective parents or an adult in the workplace with an ever-watching boss the feeling of continuously being watched is unnerving. Throughout history the levels of government supervision have fluctuated from lows to extremes but sometimes the future seems to hold even more watchful governments. These were the feelings when George Orwell wrote the novel 1984. George Orwell showed a world without the freedoms that citizens in the United States live with every day. From looking at the text of 1984 it is obvious how scary a world it is, however this would never be possible in the United States, where inhabitants are free to live a life without repression. From freedom of the press, to freedom of expression and speech, citizens of the United States live with freedoms that those portrayed in 1984 could only dream of. Throughout his book there were many instances that showed Orwell's concern for the world to come. "The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a meter wide; the face of a man of about forty-five with a heavy black mustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on n... ...Big Brother was always watching. Nothing was right unless he said so, and therefore if anyone said anything other then what they were supposed to they would be tried and convicted of a crime. The individual would probably not even know the crime existed. We are lucky as citizens of the United States to have such a freedom. George Orwell predicted a future where an authoritative figure watched every move of every inhabitant. There was no freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and no freedom of the press. For breaking the simplest rule, whatever it may be, the punishment would be severe. Fortunately, George Orwell's predictions of the future came to be untrue. In the United States we live in a society that has freedoms that inhabitants of the world in 1984 did not have. Most importantly, we have the freedom to be free, something George Orwell did not envision.