1984: Post 1

From the beginning of this book I am given a view of dark and depressing living conditions. There are signs all over the place of "Big Brother." There are posters with his picture on every wall and there are telescreens in every room that are used to watch the citizens of this world. It is obvious to gather from this that the government is ridiculously controlling and nothing goes on that they don't know about. The Party is what started all of this and are the people who control everyone. Everything from Big Brother to The Party to telescreens and posters point towards a power hungry government. It is one thing to be watched all the time and be forced to follow certain rules but it is something terribly worse when there aren't technically any rules to follow. The party never actually set down rules for people to follow, they can change the rules whenever they please and they can change what people are supposed to think all the time. If someone does something that they think is out of line, they can send the thought police or other groups to arrest the person. Actually, arrest is a nice word compared to what they do. The police will go to their house in the middle of the night, grab them, throw a bag over their head, and take them away to never be seen again. It is likely that the party thought the people couldn't have freedom in order for the society to succeed as a whole. For us to have an outside view, we can easily see that this is a recipe for disaster.