「1984」에 나타난 조지 오웰의 혜안

George Orwell's Insight in 1984

Everyone knows and hears the name of 'Big Brother'. This popular name is from the Orwell's masterpiece 1984. In this novel, we can easily understand the situations of Oceania (or England). Individual life is demolished and the family ties are destroyed. History and documents are corrected according to the present situation. The meaning of language is changing and the numbers of the words are diminishing day after day. People of Oceania are rarely thinking about their situations. Their thinking abilities are diminishing, too. People do not have a clear sense of morality. And they seem to be losing their humanity slowly. These kinds of situations are happening in China, Korea and other countries nowadays. So we can think very highly of George Orwell's insight. Orwell intended 1984 as a warning. He was frightened of the advent of totalitarianism and the surveillance society. He saw totalitarianism as bringing history to a standstill and Big Brother was invincible. He worried about the system being common in the future. The totalitarian countries and surveillance societies are around us, NOW. We can prove this with the many examples all over the world. Big Brother knows the utmost detail of everything that you did or said; but the inner heart remained undetectable. We can say that out loud 'We don't want to be watched by any other human being.' It's better to be free rather than controlled by somebody. And nothing is impossible once we set out firm resolution.