In society today, people are guaranteed certain rights. These rights range from privacy to freedom of speech to choosing whom to love. The government doesn’t really get too involved in the personal lives of the people it governs. Society takes these rights for granted. They don’t think about what life would be like if the government were involved in every part of their lives. In George Orwell's 1984 the government is a ubiquitous presence in people's lives.

In 1984 the people are constantly being watched. Their every move can be monitored wherever they are or wherever they go. “On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it read.”(5). They are in constant fear that the thought police are going to arrest them for thinking something that goes again what the government wants them to think or believe. “Thought crime does not entail death: thought crime IS death.”(27). Those who do decide to rebel against the government know that it is futile effort. They know that they will be p

The people in the USA get to choose what they do in their free time. They don’t have anyone telling them what they can do for “enjoyment” and at what time they are “allowed” to do it. “It was nearly eleven hundred, and in the Records Department, where Winston worked, they were dragging the chairs out of cubicles and grouping them in the center of the hall, opposite the big telescreen, in preparation for the Two Minutes of Hate.”(12). In 1984 the people were told to do certain things, at certain times and if they didn’t participate in those events they would then be seen as going against the party and dealt with accordingly.

The Party controls what the people get to know and what is kept from them. If the government wishes for the people to believe something that isn't in accordance with something it has said before they destroy all evidence of what they have said before. “‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past,’…‘In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?’”(204-205). This shows that the government in 1984 has control over what the public knows and

Some topics in this essay:
George Orwell's, Minutes Hate”12, George Orwell, Presence Government, Department Winston, 1984 people, ubiquitous presence, government 1984, lives people, government involved,