My name is Taylor Orcutt. I was assigned by my British lit. teacher to read the book 1984 by George Orwell. Honestly when I first started reading the book I thought it was extremely boring, it was the type of book that when you read it you started to get physically tired because of how boring it was. Once I got about half way through the novel it actually started to get interesting because I could start to relate certain events in the book to events in the real world. In case you have not read 1984 hear is what it is about. 1984 is a book that talks about Big Brother and talks about how the government is always watching you and how they are able to control everything that you do and say. Winston is the main character in this book. One night he buys a journal in a random shop that he was not supposed to be in and this leads to terrible consequences. This was the first fatal mistake of many that he made in the book and it ended up leading Winston to making many other errors throughout the novel. He also develops a love interest later on in the book named Julia, who also happens to be his coworker. They meet up for many dates and to have sex every chance they get. For the short amount of time that they are together nothing else in the entire world matters and they forget the tragic world that they are forced to live in. Towards the end of the book, Winston meets O’Brien and ends up thinking that he might be like him and Julia and decides to confide in him. Winston ends up opening up to O’Brien and tells him that he wants to be like him and betray this horrible government in hopes to help create a new one for the future. He ends up asking O’Brien if he can join the alliance against Big Brother, and of course O’Brien says yes. This was a huge mistake for Winston as this leads to O’Brien turning on Winston and Julia and turning them into the thought police where he is brutally punished and forced into believing that this new government is the best and there is no one who can ever change it. In the end he is forced to live with the miserable government that is never going to change.
Today I want to talk about paranoia and how that correlates with the book 1984. A few examples of paranoia that can be show in the book are when “Winston starts to write in his diary and starts to think of all the consequences that he is going to have to face now that he has broken the governments rules. He starts to write about memories like how he had made his mother leave because of his bad behavior and how that led her to commit suicide. He also writes about the time when he had to fight in the front line and how he had not been able to touch his toes for a long time and then the day came that he finally did it in several years.” Pg. 28-37 This was the first mistake that he made in the book 1984 and that ended up to Winston making many other fatal mistakes throughout the novel. You would have thought that Winston would have learned not to go back to the shop because of the danger of getting caught by the thought police, but no, Winston ends up going back to the shop again later on in the book. This time on the way out of the shop “Winston sees Julia outside of Mr. Charrington’s shop and starts to get anxious and worried that she is going to report him to the thought police, he even considers killing her so that she would not be able to sell him out to the thought police. He finally made it back home and got a glass of victory gin and sat down with the tell screen on and began to write in his journal preparing for his death.” Pg. 100-104. He also ends up falling in love with Julia and they start to date in secret. They meet up for dates and to have sex every chance they get and for they short amount of time that they are together nothing else in the entire world matters and they forget the tragic world they now live in. “Winston goes to Mr. Charrington’s shop to meet with Julia and read the book. He keeps his eye out for patrols, to make sure they are not watching him. He gets to the shop and he starts to read the book out loud to Julia. Then he falls asleep and a little after Winston and Julia wake up, they get caught by the thought police and get sent to confinement.” pg. 179-224 Later on in the book, Winston meets O’Brien and thinks that he might be like him and Julia and decided to confide in him. Winston ends up opening up to O’Brien and tells him that he wants to be like him and betray his government in hopes to help create a new one for the future. He ends up asking him to join the alliance against Big Brother. This was a huge mistake as this leads to Obrien turning in Winston and Julia to the thought police where he is brutally punished and forced into believing that this new government is the best and there is no one who can ever change it and is forced to live with the miserable government that is never going to change.
It was hard for me to narrow down one specific issue to talk about with this book because there are just so many ways you can go with it. When Winston started to write in his diary and talk about how he was feeling paranoid and like he was being watched, that really interested me because you should not have to feel that way in the comfort of your own home. Your home is the place where you are supposed to feel most comfortable and safest and in 1984 that is where Winston is feeling the most watched and confined. I could relate to Winston somewhat because I have felt this way many times in my house. I have had the feeling like someone was watching me through my TV or computer screen, which is what is done in 1984. There are cameras everywhere you go now a days, for example, anywhere you go now in public has cameras and you are being watched through those cameras and nobody really knows by who. In this article I read it actually states how the government spies on its people whenever it feels like and how we are being watched by the government through technology. Everything that you do on the computer and phone is definitely being monitored and watched by the government, there has been times where my camera light on my computer turns on and off at random times and I also hear noises on my phone when I am talking to someone on the phone. This has all been happening since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In another article it states that since the attacks the government feels it is necessary to monitor every single phone call that is made in the United States NBC News has learned that under the post-9/11 Patriot Act, the government has been collecting records on every phone call made in the U.S.
This letter is for anyone who has ever felt like the government has too much power. After the 9/11 terrorist attack there are many articles that state how the government has been listening in to every phone call made in the United States in order to assure that there are no terrorist attacks being planned. Even though they are doing this to keep the citizens safe, where does the line get crossed. We have no privacy anymore to say the things we want to say without having our thoughts be listened to. Everything we say could potentially give the government reason to interfere and make the things we say into something that they are not. The purpose of this letter is to bring the attention of being watched by the government/Big Brother to people’s eyes and to make people more aware and cautious of the things they say and do over the internet. You are supposedly given the freedom of speech and are supposed to be allowed to say whatever you want. It just makes me wonder when the government thinks that you have taken things too far and when what you say has crossed the line and is not allowed under that law. I want to make people more aware of what is going on and possibly make a change in the way that the government is allowed to monitor you. I want to prevent our government from becoming like the one in the book 1984, because think about it if we are already being watched by the government now. Think about what else they are doing without the people’s knowledge.
