2nd May 2017

The Invasion of Privacy

The Invasion of privacy as a means of social control is heavily used in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four in many ways. For example the thought police could see you through any television anywhere since all members of the party have one nobody working for the party has privacy so people cannot think about the government without being watched, or even think individually. “Ownlife, meaning individualism and eccentricity” this was dangerous. But being alone was difficult, when Winston wants to be left alone the most Parsons sits beside him and talks about hate week showing that you can never escape the government because you will always be surrounded by it’s supporters. The Party uses this to remind you that you are always being watched, on the bottom of the most posters of Big Brother it reads “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”. This is a definite statement by the use of “is” to show that the Thought Police are always watching you. when they are watching the always remind you that contributes to the loss of privacy because you will know and feel vulnerable. every time a telescreen is near you have to listen to it because you can not turn it off. “as long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard”. The use of commanded shows that is not only watches you but also gives orders. But the surveillance has now become natural “In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was a police patrol, snooping into peoples windows. The use of a simile “like a bluebottle” shows that the police presence and invasion of privacy is now natural as if it was a bird. This is used as a means of control because the fear of making a small “thoughtcrime” will prevent people from developing their own ideas against the ideals of the Party.

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  1. This is a good frame upon which you can now build an analysis of the deprivation of privacy via a set of quotations.

    “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing”

    This way you’ll also be able to investigate the language of the quotations in addition to the point they’re illustrating. By examining how Orwell portrays the various mechanisms that are used to invade individuals’ privacy, you’ll be able to offer a deeper analysis of how this affects the people of Airstrip One – and beyond that develop a hypothesis about why it might be important for individuals to have privacy from the state.

    “Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.”

    I look forward to watching this develop.

    CW

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