Tyranny In 1984 Research Paper

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Tyranny can be defined as “government by a ruler or small group of people who have unlimited power over the people in their country or state and use it unfairly and cruelly.” In the 1984 novel by George Orwell, the Party and its ultimate leader, Big Brother, had complete control over the citizens of Oceania. Similarly, in modern-day North Korea, the supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, had and continues to hold total control over every citizen. The totalitarian regime in North Korea bears an almost identical resemblance to the totalitarian government in the novel 1984. OVERVIEW OF 1984 The novel 1984, by George Orwell, describes a dystopian society based in the land of Oceania, where tyranny rules. The citizens were led by the Party and their ultimate …show more content…

No citizen can have their own opinions, nor can they talk badly or go against the Party and Big Brother. With these rules and restrictions, every citizen wakes up every morning and devotes their life to the Party and Big Brother. The Party watches everyone’s every move off of devices called telescreens; these telescreens listen to people’s conversations and see people inside their houses. The Party mandates that these telescreens must be running at all times, which is just one of the many invasions of privacy they conduct in their government style. Citizens must believe and go with everything the Party tells them, whether it’s food rations, war updates, history, traitors of the Party, or anything else. They must believe it because the party is always right. The Party informs and makes their citizens live by three quotes: “Freedom is Slavery,” “War is Peace,” and “Ignorance is Strength.” The words in these quotes contradict each other, and the Party was well aware of it, but they continued to engrave it into citizens' minds as a tactic to gain more power. The Party continued to tell people wrong and reversible things because the purpose of the Party was to gain absolute control over everyone’s minds, which allowed them to gain absolute control over the land of Oceania and everything going on in it. The Party also has control over the past, …show more content…

Since his rule, North Koreans can be described as “nothing short of modern-day slaves who have been deprived of expression and movement” (Jihyun Park). North Koreans are not allowed to hold any independent thought, nor are they allowed to criticize the government at all. Kim Jong Un also has limited access to all media and news his citizens can access; he does this to limit the information people in North Korea can receive. There is an intranet that North Korean citizens may watch and listen to, but it is carefully monitored and controlled by the government to ensure the citizens do not see any information Kim Jong Un does not want them to see, and these news sources citizens can access are full of propaganda to keep deceiving the minds of the people. Listening to any sort of foreign television or radio is a severely punishable crime, which also includes any North Korean citizen owning any kind of radio or TV that can broadcast any foreign media. While North Koreans do have access to cell phones, to ensure they do not receive any foreign information that Kim Jong Un severely shields them from, their cell phones cannot make international calls, meaning a call to anywhere outside of North Korea. Anyone found to be carrying an illegal cell phone in North Korea that can make

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