Totalitarian Government and Individuality in Orwell's 1984

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A totalitarian government relates to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life. In George Orwell’s 1984, the government controls all aspect of the lives of the citizens in Oceania, taking away all individuality. When a totalitarian government gains power, they tend to try and hold onto it with a deathgrip. When a government is given that much power, there is not many things you can do as a citizen, other than sit back and hope for the best. In the novel Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell uses the two minutes hate and telescreens to show the importance of keeping your individuality. During George Orwell’s novel, the citizens of Oceania have no control over their lives, personal or not. …show more content…

It predicts what a life would be like without any thought and as we saw, it is not very pretty. If a government were to try and do this today they would not succeed. The reasons for this is that people now know that the government isn’t always correct, and it is okay to question what they say and do. If the people were told that they couldn’t think for themselves anymore, there would be riots all over the place, along with rebellions being formed. People would not hand over their individuality voluntarily, and would put up a fight. We already see a condensed form of the government trying to control citizens through commercials, news reports and media. Even if we may not see it, it does happen. If the government tried to put telescreens into everyone 's home, people wouldn’t stand for it. Once the government gets a little power, they will try and hang on to it with every last resource they can find. You can not let the government control you, because at the point where you can’t think for yourself is when we will lose everything to live

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