Shanshan Huang
English 103
Professor Joseph
5/7/2013
The Major Themes of Orwellian Imagine living in an environment under the surveillance of a big power, imagine being manipulated and controlled for every thought and action. The act of obeying orders from the big power leads to survival, and the rebellion for freedom leads to the most devastating punishment. Would you give in to the big power or would you fight? The novel Nineteen-Eighty Four written by George Orwell portraying through the view of the protagonist, Winston Smith, describing a nation called Oceania being under the ruling of the antagonist, a totalitarian Party or the Big Brother. In addition, it presented various methods such as constant surveillance, unending propaganda, distortion of language, historical revisionism, fear, torture, perpetual war, and lack of habeas corpus to characterize an oppressive and authoritarian government. The Party utilizes these methods to keep its citizens living in a state of fear, making them developing a feeling of dependency of the party. The novel Nineteen-Eighty Four has its significance today because all of the methods that characterize a totalitarian government are still presence, especially being currently utilized by the government of the United States. Once upon a time, the U.S used to be a land of unparalleled freedom. However, ever since the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the U.S government, primarily under the management of the bush administration, has been taking numerous steps of becoming to a totalitarian state.
Constant Surveillance:
Under the reason of security, government proposed the method of surveillance to provide protection to its citizens. But, it could be taken into extreme, such as monitoring people from their private homes or listening to every conversation an individual makes. The watching of every move, and the consistent checking of whether a person is committing crime. All of these actions convey a strong sense of pressure to the people. In the novel, Orwell describes how, with adequate technology, a regime could dominate through constant surveillance. For example: “Big Brother” monitors every citizen 24 hours a day through the instrument, also known as the telescreen in their living room. “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard”(Orwell, 3). Furthermore, the hidden meaning of surveillance is also demonstrated; “The Police Patrol, snooping into people’s windows. The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered” (Orwell, 2). The party does not use surveillance to locate regular crimes, but rather to crack down on subversive thought. The Thought Police roams around Oceania seeking for any possible thought criminals. The ultimate purpose of setting up Thought Police as surveillance is to catch people committing thought crimes against the party, who are then in turn captured and removed from existence. The party disguises its constant surveillance as being protective, from those who are the enemies of the government. In addition, the Party uses the character of “Big Brother” to reassure citizens of their false security (MacGilfrey).
Moreover, the same method of surveillance is being used by the government of the United States today. As surveillance cameras become increasingly affordable and the ability to share media over the internet becomes increasingly efficient, the actions of everyday individuals have been exposed to the public easily. In a New York Times column, Shane Harris, author of the book, "The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State," provides a valuable look at the chilling increase of government surveillance of its citizens. It connected to the Orwellian “snoop patrol” and clearly indicates that America has gone way too far the past decade on surveillance. For example: the development of the NSA warrantless surveillance also known as the “Warrantless Wiretapping” by the Bush administration involves with permitting authorization to NSA to monitor phone calls, internet activities, text messaging, and other communications without search warrants. This has not only violated the Amendment IV from the Bill of Right, but has also invaded the privacy of individuals.
Unending Propaganda In Oceania, the constant display of “the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of these pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran” (Orwell, 1). Furthermore, with the three slogans “War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength” written on every wall of The Ministry of Truth. The surrounding of eternal propaganda of the Party deliveries a sense of steadiness of the Party, reassuring citizens the power and immortality of the Party. (Add more) The spread of misleading and falsify propaganda is not just Orwell’s vision of totalitarian government, but also happening in the United State. Under the Bush administration, in order to conceal the mistakes being made by the government, more specifically the mistakes made on war with Iraq. The government uses the different techniques of propaganda such as pinpointing the enemy by attempt to simplify a complex situation by presenting a specific group as enemy or presenting a statement without an explanation or any evidence. Furthermore, the technique of card stacking, one of the most important role of media is to make sure that the Americans never sees the negative effects of war. In addition, there is a similarity between the propaganda used by the Party and the U.S government. For instance: the technique of glittering generalities; the using of words that are linked to highly valued words concepts such as freedom is being heavily used by the officials from the Bush administration. This technique is also being portray by the Party; the three slogans freedom is slavery serves a well representation of this propaganda technique. Moreover, the propaganda technique called the assertion has also made famous by the Bush administration. For example: Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense under the Bush administration consistently uses the technique of assertion stating the location of terrorists and the existence of massive destructive weapons without providing a detailed explanation and any evidence.
Distortion of Language The distortion of language can be better explained with the idea of double think. George Orwell explain the idea of doublethink as “To know and to not know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy is impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy. To forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself” (Orwell, 35). An example of this is the war with Eurasia, when a party member changes his mind during a speech after receiving a note. Everything changes from that moment, when they are just at war with Eurasia a minute ago, they are now a war with Eastasia. However, that is not all. Not just the citizen, also the party member have to hold the belief that they had always been at war with Eastasia. Eurasia had always been their allies. Nevertheless, when the war condition changes, and Oceania begins allied with Eastasia and at war with Eurasia, everyone will use double think then again. Double think is also used by the Bush administration to justify the war with Iraq. For instance: the Bush administration had urged Clinton to attack Iraq as early as 1998, the American public only got the first inkling of the neocon plan when Vice President Cheney began making incendiary speeches in 2002. During his speech, he declared, "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us” (Mairesse).
Historical Revisionism
Historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event (“Historical Revisionism”). In the novel, the method of historical revisionism is being used by the media for two main function. The first is to maintain control of the citizens of Oceania, and the second is to stabilize public’s satisfaction of warfare. In order to accomplish the first function, the Party-controlled media expertly uses Newspeak as well as other linguistic trickery to spread its propaganda and brainwash the public (Berkes). The newspeak provided by the media serves as a powerful tool to manipulate the people in Oceania, because the telescreens continuously bursts out news and propaganda throughout the day publicly. Furthermore, every time the Party-controlled media broadcast a news, the people treats it as if an oracle and listen to it immediately. For instance: “People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices .A girl had begun crying out ‘Swine! Swine! Swine!” (Orwell, 16). In addition, in order to keep the public’s urge for war. The Party uses only language that carries neutral or positive connotations to distract the public’s attention from the negative side of warfare. This way, the media successfully soothes an otherwise resentful public. For instance, the media never reports on the “twenty or thirty [rocket bombs] a week falling on London” (Orwell, 28), but rather inform peoples’ lives with good news about victories. Aside from George W. Bush being the 43rd U.S president. He is also being called the revisionist. For instance: officials from his administration first firmly stated the connection between the attack of September, 11 and Iraq. However, during a later interview, the official strongly disagree what he had firmly stated and revised his words into a completely different direction stating that he has never said anything about the relation between September,11 and Iraq.

Fear
Fear serves as the best description for the status of the citizens in Oceania. The Party keeps its citizens stays in a mode of fear even when in their own homes. The fear of being turned in by their closest family members make them extremely cautious. “It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which the Times did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak-“child hero” was the phrase generally used- ad overhead some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the Thought Police” (Orwell, 25). Or the showing of thought criminals committing their criminals to public spreads fear to the citizens The technique of keeping citizens stay in fear is not just being descripted in the novel. The American government has proposed several laws in the names of protecting citizens from terrorism, namely the patriot act. The effect of the act has not just altered the terrorists but also grew fear among the Americans. For instance: the act addresses excessive power to the government by giving it the power to jail Americans indefinitely without a trial and allowing the possibility of Americans being in jail without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them. (Maybe expand more)
Torture
The theme of the novel nineteen-eighty four is extremely depressive, pessimistic, and dark. So, it does not bring about any astonishment when the method of torture will be present. Throughout the novel, the consequences of betraying or having thoughts against the Party is largely emphasize. The beginning of physical torture began with the arrestment of Julia also included the method of torture. “One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia’s solar plexus, doubling her up like a pocket ruler. She was thrashing about on the floor, fighting for breath” (Orwell, 229). Furthermore, a more vivid representation of the method of torture is the climax of the novel where Winston being taken to room 101 and being tortured with the cage of rats. The rats have always been Winston’s worst nightmare, this method has not only abuse Winston physically but also psychologically. Under this treatment of torture, Winston gave in immediately to the Party, because the Party has already broken Winston’s ultimate beliefs. The method of torture has always been a controversial issue in the United States, because the government never admits their abusive acts towards prisoner, even though they have done and passed numerous laws such as the Detainee Treatment act of 2005, “extraordinary rendition”, and the government sanctioned torture that are relate to the method of torture. The Detainee Treatment act of 2005 proposed the Prohibition of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of any prisoner of the U.S. Government, including prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. However, according to Sergeant Eric Saar, a former Guantánamo military intelligence linguist, corroborates specific accounts of abuse in his book Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier’s Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantánamo offered numerous examples of torture at the detention camp of Guantanamo Bay. Furthermore, both present and former prisoners consistently have reported they suffered systematic abuse at the hands of U.S. military personnel (Saar). In addition, the “extraordinary rendition”, the practice in which suspects were quietly moved to secret prisons abroad for torture (Joshua). Evidence of “extraordinary rendition is clearly indicated with the locations of detainees. Although Bush administration officials said they never intentionally sent terrorism suspects abroad in order to be tortured, “the countries where the prisoners seemed to end up -- Egypt, Libya and Syria, among others -- were known to utilize coercive interrogation techniques” (Joshua).

Perpetual war Perpetual war is the status of a country being constantly in war. The totalitarian state of Oceania is in a constant state of war. In George Orwell's dreary classic, the totalitarian state of Oceania is perpetually at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia. Although the enemy changes periodically, the war is permanent; its true purpose is to control dissent and sustain dictatorship by nurturing popular fear and hatred (Levich). The similar incident of perpetual war in Oceania is also being foresee in the United States today. In the book, Orwell’s fictional state of Oceania is at perpetual war with Eurasia and Eastasia; today, the U.S. fights “global terror” whenever and wherever it is found. The action of perpetual war happened after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush and Congress committed the nation to a “global war on terror,” which – for the first time in U.S. history – the nation launched a military campaign that was “aimed more against fighting an ideology” (Levich). Bush's war against terrorism has become unclear. Although the president himself has already confirmed that the resolution is steady and the mission is clear, the public seem to know less and less about the enemy. “What began as a war against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda quickly morphed into a war against Afghanistan, followed by dire warnings about an "Axis of Evil," the targeting of terrorists in some 50 to 60 countries, and now the major campaign against Iraq” (Levic). Exactly what will constitute success in this war remains unclear, but the one thing that the Bush administration has clarified is the war with terrorism is indefinite.
Lack of Habeas corpus The right of habeas corpus allows prisoners to ask a court to determine whether they are being lawfully imprisoned (Parry). The dismissal of this right is clearly evidenced when Winston was taken into the Ministry of Love for “fixation”. He was directly arrested into prison cells, and straight forward into Room 101 for torture. The nonexistence of law in Oceania determined the nonexistence of court.
The lack of habeas corpus is extremely absolute under the Bush administration. Despite the assurance of Americans citizens and non-citizens their habeas corpus rights to a fair trial,lawyers from the Justice Department reasserted their claims that George W. Bush had the power to look up anyone he chooses as an “enemy combatant” and effectively denies the habeas corpus rights (Parry). The passing of the military commission act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, an Act of Congress signed by George W. Bush on October 17, 2006 serves the most appropriate example as the Bush administration taking the rights of prisoners. This act is unconstitutional and did not provide protection under the Geneva Convention (Parry).In addition, it denies “unlawful enemy combatant” access to civilian court. For instance: the case of Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar who was arrested in Peoria, Illinois, in 2001 while studying on a student visa. The administration asserted that Marri was an al-Qaeda “sleeper cell” agent, declared him an “enemy combatant” and locked him up at a Navy brig in South Carolina (Parry). Although his lawyer has challenged the indefinite detention of Marri to the Federal Court. The lawyers under the Bush administration citing from the Military Commission act o 2006, arguing that “unlawful enemy combatant” such as marri does not have access to civilian court. The case has never ended until today.
During the management of the Bush administration, the United States government has rapidly transforming from a democracy state into a totalitarian government. From the passing of the military commission act of 2006 to warrantless surveillance of wiretapping, the actions that have been established in the names of protection are being re-evaluated. Hopefully, under the eye of public scrutiny, the government will reform the policies that characterizes a totalitarian state.

Work Cited

1. "Congress to Authorize Perpetual War with No Enemies and No End." Infowars Congress to Authorize Perpetual War with No Enemies and No End Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. 2. "Consortiumnews.com." Consortiumnews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. 3. "Critical Analysis 2." Critical Analysis 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. 4. "Historical Revisionism." Historical Revisionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. 5. "Language in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)." Language in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. 6. "Military Commissions Act of 2006." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 July 2013. Web. 23 May 2013. 7. "Yale Law & Technology." Yale Law Technology RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013. 8. Hersh, Joshua. "Extraordinary Rendition Report Finds More Than 50 Nations Involved In Global Torture Scheme." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 May 2013. 9. Levich, Jacob. "The Relevance of George Orwell’s 1984 in 2004." (2001): n. pag. CommonDreams.org. Web. 10. Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-four, a Novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949. Print.