Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel written by George Orwell in 1928 and printed in 1949. The story takes place in Oceania and the main character is Winston. The book presents the negative side of the Utopian society which was controlled and ruled by rigid totalitarianism. This book seemingly gives the reader an idea of what will be happening in the years to come as the world will be under a totalitarian form of government. The book carries a warning to the world on totalitarianism.
George Orwell creates a government in his novel ruled by one dictator, Big Brother. The Party, ruled by the Big Brother controlled the citizens with totalitarian rule and gave them no chance to express their opinions (Orwell 112). The Party in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four resembles the government of the Nazi as they operated in similar ways. The governments used totalitarian rule whereby they controlled the media, forced children in school to learn their beliefs, had a secret police force and had concentration and forced labor camps where they sent the citizens who rebelled their dictatorship. Both in the Nazi government and the Nineteen Eighty-Four government used force to maintain power at the expense of their citizens. Hitler used force to maintain power and to have control over the people just like the Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Those who rebelled against their rule and their ideologies were taken to concentration camps. All the two leaders cared about was power.
Orwell’s novel is full of totalitarian rule and the controlling of masses by the leader Big Brother. The people are to worship him as their leader of The Party. In today’s society, North Korea appears to be the country that has taken over the totalitarian rule with a one man rule. North Korea is almost becoming the authoritarianism empire which Orwell demonstrated in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. In North Korea, it is clearly seen that the citizens worship their leader Kim II Sung even after his death. Kim II Sung was North Korea’s leader and all citizens worshipped him, he was later succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un after his death. Kim Jong Un has just become a dictator just like his father and he is worshipped by the Korean people. This relates to the leader of The Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Big Brother who the people worshipped with a lot of fear. North Korea is among the few countries in the world that uses totalitarian rule. North Korea has become very powerful under totalitarian rule just like The Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four where the citizens were brain washed in believing and worshipping their leader Big Brother. Citizens in North Korea and Nineteen Eighty-Four believe and worship their leaders.
Just like in Nineteen Eighty-Four where the Big Brother used to keep an eye on its citizens where Orwell states “The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely” (Orwell 204). Patricia writes that “Homes are equipped with loudspeakers” and the citizens are watched on their every move in North Korea (Patricia, 6). This clearly shows that North Korea has become the government Orwell was warning about. The citizens have no privacy as their homes are always under surveillance as everything they do is monitored. In addition, in North Korea, the media is controlled by the government and the people’s opinion does no count. The people are under a totalitarian government and they have to submit to its demands. The government in Nineteen Eighty-Four had their citizens under surveillance and North Korea is taking the same foot. In North Korea, the media including TV stations, magazines, newspapers radio’s and even churches are controlled by the government and are used for the sole reason of praising their leader Kim Jong Un. This also happened with the Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In North Korea, there are television channels that are exclusive and people are only allowed to watch certain channel and they do not complain out of fear of being taken to labor and concentration camps. This also happened in Nineteen Eighty-Four as the citizens were not allowed to switch off their telescreen when certain things were being aired, they were only allowed to watch specific channels.
North Korea and Nineteen Eighty-Four are controlled by totalitarian power governments. Both governments control their citizens through fear because if they rebel, they are taken in labor and execution camps. The leaders only cared about maintaining power and dictatorship. People are left starving as the government invests in nuclear weapons. In North Korea, millions of people are dying of starvation as money is spent on nuclear weapons because their government wants to maintain power in the world. Citizens are not valued in both Nineteen Eighty-Four and North Korea as long as the governments maintain power even if it means at the expense of death of their citizens. The citizens are only entitled to obey the set rules unconditionally because they are controlled by their governments and they feared going to forced labor camps.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Party only wanted to maintain power for its own sake and just like in Nineteen Eighty-Four, North Korea seeks to maintain power even if it is at the expense of the citizens starving to death. The leaders only value power and overall rule in the region. North Korea only cares of building massive arms and building up of secret weapons programs despite sanctions, and the disapproval of the testing of nuclear weapons by the international community. Kim Jong Un is determined to continue the nuclear programs in Korea despite all the sanctions so as to dominate the world in the years to come. North Korea’s leader’s Kim Jong-un rules North Korea by dictatorship. He does things his own way without thinking twice of the consequences and the welfare of the people. This is the same thing that used to happen with The Party leader, the Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four. He does things his own way without thinking twice of the consequences. Kim Jong Un sends people in political camps where they are tortured and he does everything he can to strengthen his military and to maintain power.
North Korea and Nineteen Eighty-Four are both government controlled and totalitarian states. North Korea highlights the repression empire that Orwell was talking about in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is under a one man rule, a dictator who controls the people, the media and he makes sure that they have no privacy by installing camera’s and loudspeakers in their homes. The citizens have to worship their leader or end up in labor camps if they rebel. North Korea has just become like the Nineteen Eighty-Four since it only seeks to maintain power without caring for its citizens. It is a utilitarian government. Furthermore, it keeps its citizens isolated from the rest of the world just like the citizens in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Works Cited
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Penguin Group, 1949. Print.
Smith, Patricia. "The World's Newest Dictator." Upfront. 30 Jan. 2012: 6-23. Print.
