1984 by Craig Orwell
At first, the novel 1984 by Craig Orwell, seems to be a fictional story about a man determined to rebel against an unrealistic society based on “telescreens” and a government trying to brainwash its people. The idea of a world that is controlled by monitors that watch everyone’s move and a period in the day called “Two Minutes Hate” where people are forced to express their hatred against enemies seems impractical. But what makes the novel so powerful is what lies behind all the fiction. In the novel, Orwell took things to the extreme to express his concerns and to warn people of what could come in the future in real life. In the novel, Orwell tries to warn people about the dangers of a government that possesses absolute power. He does so by using the main character, Winston Smith, as an example of a man that is living in a depleting society that is under the influence of a harshly controlling government. The government, called The Party, does its best to completely extinguish the rights and powers of the people. The Party uses the technique of psychological manipulation to gain power and force the people to lose all sense of individual thinking. The people are constantly reminded by signs reading, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,” which are designed to let the people know that everything they do is being watched by the government. Along with that, the government uses physical control to condition the minds of people to brainwash them to think a certain way.