Rygalski

George Orwell's // __1984__ // Novel Compared to Today's Society Table of Contents
 * = Examples in the United States ||= Examples in Other Countries ||
 * = 1.Drug Testing in schools. ||= 1.China blocking websites. ||
 * = 2. Internet Surveillance ||= 2. North Kores electricity limits ||
 * = 3.Cameras in schools. ||= 3. Sweatshops in China ||
 * = 4. Ongoing War ||= 4.Food Rationing in Cuba ||
 * = 5. Rallies ||= 5.Muslim Women's dress code ||
 * = 6. Airport Security ||= 6.No divorce in the philippines ||
 * = 7.Profiling ||= 7. Bad living conditions ||
 * = 8. Using "politically correct" terms ||= 8.Arranged Marriages in India ||
 * = 9.Televisions ||= 9.One-child policy in China ||
 * = 10. Ghettos ||= 10.North Korean love for their leader ||

Examples found in The United States: 1.Drug testing in Schools. I see this as relating to 1984 because of the whole fear factor. I feel like schools use drug testing as a way to scare kids out of doing drugs. They hate the chance of getting caught so they just don't do it in the chance they might get drug tested. Similar to how in 1984, thought police and propaganda scared people out of committing thoughtcrime, they didn't want to be caught in thoughtcrime because it was the worst possible thing you could do, so they just followed the party to avoid getting in trouble. 2.Internet surveillance. If you haven't ever noticed this before it will drive you crazy now, when you search for something frequently or visit certain websites a lot, you will notice all the ads match what you look at. For instance, I bought a pair of Sperry shoes online, I always get tons of Sperry advertisements now. If it's that easy for them to alter our advertisements based off of one google search, think of how easy it is for them to look at everything we search and all the websites we visit. This relates to the whole "Big Brother is watching you" feeling. Oceania's government watches what they do and keeps tabs on the people so they know more about them, our government watches what we do on the internet to learn about us. 3.Cameras in schools and other public places. This also relates to the "Big Brother is watching you" feeling. In many public places they have security cameras, they even just installed some in our school. This makes you feel like you are always being watched by someone everywhere you go. This can also play a part in starting fear. People will be afraid to do things in front of the cameras because they know their every move is being watched. 4.Ongoing war. We have been in a war with the middle east for years and it hasn't come close to ending and it doesn't look like it will. This is because we are fighting against an idea, and it's hard to find an idea and destroy it, we can't find terrorists super easily, and just get rid of them all. In 1984, they have an ongoing war because the countries are all pretty much equal, they have the same amount of people and weapons and everything so there really isn't any foreseeable end to a war with each other, that's why Oceania always changes who they are at war with. 5.Rallies At our presidential rallies, people get excited and hold up signs, and yell in agreeance with our leader, this is almost exactly like the two minutes hate in 1984. In 1984 the people are screaming and yelling at the telescreen about hating Eurasia or Eastasia and when Big Brother comes on the screen they all yell for him. This is very similar to how we yell for our president when he makes speeches. . 6.Airport Security  When you go to the airport you have to go through a series of checks and bag scans and body scans and sometimes you even get pulled out for extra questioning just as a precaution. This makes you feel like you have no privacy, much like in 1984, where Winston is excerising in the morning and the lady just calls him out through the telecreen to tell him he isn't doing it right. That is like at the airport they call you out to question you, they look at you throught the xray scanners, they look through your bags, they make it so you have no privac y.    7.Profiling  Another way our societies our similar is through profiling. At the airport, driving down the highway, almost anywhere public people are profiled. If you look Arabic, people get worried you are a terrorist, if you look Mexican and speak with an accent, people assume you are an immigrant, If you wear a flat bill hat or baggy clothes, you are ghetto and probably on drugs or something. We profile people and we are profiled everywhere we go. In 1984, the inner party can look at people and assume they are guilty for thoughtcrime and they make a case for it until they can prove guilt. They profiled Winston, then O'brian made a case against Winston. 8.Using "politically correct" terms. In America we have had to change the way we say a lot of things just to make it "politically correct". Just because saying it one way might be offensive to others. For example: the cofeeshop that used to be name Beaners is now called Biggby's Coffee because the word Beaners was offensive. This is similar to Newspeak in 1984 because they change the words they use and take words out of the language to make the language smaller and smaller every time they crete a new edition. We take words out of our language just like they do, because we don't want people using these words. 9.Televisions In 1984, everyone but the proles have a telescreen in their home, today almost everyone but the very poor have at least one television in their home. We keep them on all the time just like in Oceania, the only difference is that we can turn ours off if we want to. Who knows if we are being watched through our televisions like they are in 1984. We often watch our televisions for the news, if youcompare that to 1984, much of what they had on the telescreen was news, it was announcements about Big Brother, the war, and the crises going on around Oceania, just like it is for us today. 10. Ghettos I would compare neighborhoods that we call ghetto to the neighborhoods that the proles lived in. The party members were cautious to go into the prole neighborhoods because they didn't want be associated with that and they didn't want to look suspicious. Middle class people today are also sometimes cautious to go in to very bad neighborhoods because it can be dangerous, or it might make them look suspicious to police officers because nice cars or nicely dressed people aren't usually found in those neighborhoods. Examples Found in Other Countries: 1.China blocking websites. In China they have blocked websites like YouTube because it is "inappropriate". This reminds me of the whole pornosec thing in 1984. The party members are banned from watching the pornosec films because sexual activity is inappropriate, only the proles can watch it. This is the same as China banning YouTube because it takes away freedoms and adds government control. The Chinese government and the Oceania government both want to have control over their countries and one way to do this is by banning what they can watch. 2.North Korea limiting electricity. If you look at a picture from overhead of North Korea there are no lights, this represents a shortage just like in 1984 there were many shortages. North Korea has to limit the electricity they can use because they don't have money for it, so that's why they have an electricity shortage. 3.Sweatshops i n China In China kids who aren't old enough to work have to work for very small wages in very bad conditions so that their families can have money. China is one of the world's largest clothing producers and the people who live there probably can't even afford the clothes they are making. This is similar to how in 1984, the people make boots but none of them have shoes because all the shoes they make go to "the war effort". 4.Food Rationing in Cuba media type="youtube" key="JSEIKHcYtQU" width="374" height="279" This video is hard to understand but it explains food rationing in Cuba. It talks about how much food and what kind of food differently aged people get to have. They have to ration their food because of a shortage and they want to save food and money. In 1984 there are shortages as well, like with razor blades, so people have to use them sparingly because they don't know when they will come across another one. 5.Muslim women's dress code. Muslim women have to wear clothing that covers everything but their eyes. In 1984 Oceania, all of the party members must wear blue jumpsuits. Both societies have a dress code to follow. 6.No divorce in The Philippines. In the Philippines there are no divorce laws, which means there is no divorce. They have anullment laws, but not divorce. In 1984, you can't get divorced and the ONLY reason you can get married is to make children for the party. 7. Bad living conditions in Mexico and Middle-Eastern Countries. In different parts of Mexico and the Middle-east there are people who live in shacks and places much worse, they don't have good homes or families, this reminds me of the proles, they have very bad places to live, but they make the most of it and are probably the happiest people in Oceania. 8. Arranged marriages in India. In India they still have a lot of arranged marriages. People don't get to be married because they are in love, they get married because they are set up. This is like in Oceania, they don't get married for love, they get married to make children for the party. 9.One-child policy in China. In china they only let you have one child because they are over-populated and they need to get it under control. In 1984, they don't tell you how many kids to have but they are very picky about who you have kids with and why you have kids, and how your kids grow up. 10.North Korea's love for their leader. In North Korea, the citizens love their leader because they have no idea that he is lying to them and that life could be better and that other countries are better off than them. In 1984 Oceania, the citizens are the exact same way. they love Big brother and they think he is doing everything he can for them because they don't know any better. -Websites Used [] [] [] www.youtube.com