In 1949, the world was a substantially different place than it is today. Thirty-five years
from now, in the year 2035, one can only imagine what changes will have taken place in
society. Thirty-five years ago, in 1949, George Orwell’s vision of the world as it would
be in 1984 was horrific. Orwell describes his vision in his book Nineteen Eighty-four.
“Nineteen Eighty-four depicts the horrors of a well-established totalitarian regime of
whatever type with great power and skill and force of imagination.”
The definition of totalitarianism is a system of government in which one political
party aims at total control over the lives of people, as by employing a powerful secret
police, restricting meetings and assemblies, and censoring publications. Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-four portrays a well-established totalitarian regime even from the beginning of the
book. “The thing that he[Winston] was about to do was to open a diary. This was not
illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was
reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a
forced labor camp.(9)” This shows how the totalitarian government tried to obtain
complete control over the lives of people. The people are not afraid of defying law, they
are afraid of their own government’s secret police. These people are also afraid to meet
with a member of the opposite sex. They would be targeted by the secret police for
punishment for such an offense. “But the physical difficulty of[Winston and Julia] meeting
was enormous. It was trying to make a move at chess when you are already mated.
Whichever way you turned, the telescreen faced you.(92)” Winston was afraid of being
seen talking to Julia. He could hardly imagine a place with no telescreens or hidden
microphones for them to talk. The par...