1984: Nineteen Eighty-four and Thought Crime Essay

Submitted By Kamaria-Yates
Words: 932
Pages: 4
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Instructor Koritsoglou
English 101

Timed Essay 1
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the book Nineteen Eighty-Four and to find out what Orwell is trying to get his audience to understand. The novel is written by George Orwell and it about a government’s full totalitarian power and the control of its citizens. Big Brother, a figure head of its party is demanded by its people to be worshipped. The people of Oceania, where the story takes place, have no rights, freedom of speech, privacy and they are analyzed and watched every second of the day.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four the government controlled their people through every aspect of their life. In their homes the citizens had telescreens which could not be turned off and monitored them every day, all day. The people had very little supplies in their homes and they had no privacy and they are not allowed to speak their minds or they will be killed. In fact, people are afraid to even speak out because fear consumes them. In the novel, it states “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows (81).” They are forced to believe whatever the government says and they are not to question anything. The citizens are cut off from the outside world and they live only amongst themselves. Big Brother, the founder of Oceania, demands to be worshipped and failure to do so will result in major harm and death. The government brainwashes the people to believe that Big Brother is real, but the truth is we never really knew for sure.
In this novel Winston Smith is the main character. Winston struggles with dealing with Big Brother and how they are running the government. He feels alone, he still has partial memories of the past and he tries his hardest to find someone that could tell him more, but it’s hard to find anyone to talk to about it because the past was altered so much that the people became brainwashed and most of them forgot. Or, if they did remember they wouldn’t dare talk about it, because that would be considered committing a “thought crime” and they feared being caught by a party they called “The Thought Police.” Thought crime is the one of the ways the government has control over its people. Meaning, having an illegal thought that is against what the Big Brother or The Party believes in would be considered a "thought crime." By having their thoughts constantly monitored, the government believes that they can keep the people under their control.
The one person that did have an opinion was a man named Goldstein. Goldstein, was "an advocate for freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly & freedom of thought"(13), and was forced escape because he had a voice and spoke his opinion. I believe that deep down Winston wished he could do the same but he was afraid of being punished by the government. The book mentions, "at one moment Winston's hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police; and at such moments his heart went out to the derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth an sanity...(15)" This shows that Winston does in fact agree with Goldstein. He wishes he could voice his own opinion but he just in not sure how to, or is afraid because he might mysteriously disappear like others have in the past.
"Until they
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