That's So George Orwell

Is George Orwell a psychic? In a couple of his novels, mainly Animal Farm and 1984, he often predicts what is close to happening in the future. In Animal Farm, the use of a rise of power, which are the pigs, perfectly depicts what happens in North Korea and Russia. As for 1984, he talks a lot about Russian communism and being watched by the government.

1984 starts off with providing an exposition on the type of world George Orwell created. Orwell is incredibly descriptive with his scenery, which is a cold, yet bright day in England, (Oceania) in April of 1984. The novel was published in 1949, so the genre of the novel definitely pertains to science fiction, and he is trying to predict the future. Yet, how well does Orwell predict this? Let us see…

The “Big Brother Is Watching” that Orwell introduces in his novel is definitely satirizing the Communist Movement in Russia. He isn’t particularly predicting the future at this point, but he definitely takes the communism to an extreme. We learn that two-way telescreens are installed in every public and private room in Oceania, including the bathrooms. The Party, or government, monitors their citizens through the telescreens, and plays constant propaganda 24/7. 

What does this sound like in 2016? No, not Russia. Some could argue the United States because of the government conspiracies. But I think he is resembling North Korea. He is satirizing the totalitarian government that Russia has, but predicting that it gets very extreme and eventually leads to constant monitoring and actual consequences for those who do not agree with what the government has to say! 

There are also three slogans that the Party put on the side of some buildings 

War is Peace 

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

These could possibly relate to now. In 1984, George Orwell wrote about some sort of future time, and using London as his setting provides the fact that he believed communism and a totalitarian government would eventually take over the world. Though this did not actually happen, or at least as fast as he thought it would, the slogans he provides on the side of the building could relate to today. These slogans do not only pertain to a communist and totalitarian movement, though. The slogan that definitely pertains to today is “War is Peace”, because the United States is constantly involving themselves in war so they can have peace. The peace that they want is very contradictory to killing people. This slogan could be part of the United States because the government believes that war will eventually lead to peace. 

Overall, George Orwell can predict the future. He created a major totalitarian society that is constantly increasing. He is satirizing the Russian government passed on Big Brother, yet the extreme is still relevant today. And remember, Big Brother is always watching.