Censorship In George Orwell's 1984

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Since its conception, civilization has struggled to find an acceptable balance of power between ruler and subject. The epicenter of this struggle is censorship - the restriction or removal of human rights and freedoms, leading to the suppression of individuality. While many authorities restrict speech, the news or even language, the most powerful censorship is that of personal relationships. This brutal type of censorship is prominent today in North Korea as dictator Kim Jong-Un strips his people of their basic human rights.

North Korea’s repressive censorship is appalling in the modern world. In the country’s many prison camps, families are broken apart and inmates born in the camp are brainwashed. For example, prisoner Shin Dong-hyuk “believed …show more content…
George Orwell in 1949 wrote 1984 about a dystopian future. The main character, Winston, is a government worker whose job is to change historical records so they fit the story told by the government. By noticing how his neighbors’ indoctrinated children seek to report their parents for criminal activity, he begins to see the omnipotent control of the government. Winton reflects on how “[the children] adored the Party and everything connected with it...It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children” (Orwell 83). As in Shin’s North Korean family, Winston sees the destruction of the family relationship for the purpose of control yes, smart to connect back to modern day. Those who are censored become isolated: they don’t have anyone to communicate with or count on. The censorship of relationships also applies to romance. One of the government’s goals “was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act . . . The only recognized purpose ... was to beget children for the service of the [government]” (Orwell 65). The government limits how its citizens can feel and think by removing everything but the utility of creating offspring, for it views emotions as threats to its power. By inhibiting these emotions, the government is effectively isolating individuals, not allowing them to share a bond of hate or love to encourage
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