“Draft:The Role of Technology in 1984”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The book 1984, is a novel written by English author George Orwell. The novel is set in a place called Oceania in Great Britain in 1984, when most of the world population have become victims to war, government surveillance and propaganda.

In the novel, Oceania is controlled by the "Party". The Party's leader is Big Brother, who has created the slogan; "Big Brother is watching you". Big Brother has the Party's "Thought Police" identify the people that are doing and saying things that would go against the Party in any way. These people are taken to jail and tortured until they believe everything the Party says and does. If the torture does not work, then you are either shot execution style, or sent to a concentration camp.

Main Characters

The use of Technology

Big Brother has placed telescreens and microphones throughout Oceania. Telescreens are placed in supermarkets, houses, work, and in the towns square. Non Party members have no privacy. By placing these telescreens throughout Oceania, the Party can watch its citizens 24/7.^[1] If you go against Big Brother and the Party in any way, the telescreen was sure to pick it up. If the telescreens picked up on negative behavior toward the Party, Thought Police would show up and take you to jail.

Big brother also watches citizen's facial expressions. The Party stated that even your facial expressions could give away your thoughts. They called it facecrime. “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.” (1.5.65)^[2]

The Party has also placed boxes throughout Oceania where people are ordered to place anything from the past into the box, so that it could be destroyed. It is illegal to possess anything from the past. The Party uses technology to obtain total power over Oceania's citizens.

They use the telescreens to monitor the citizen's actions and words. They make them get rid of anything from the past. The novels protagonist, Winston Smith, works for a government agency. For this agency he is ordered to rewrite history. He takes old newspapers and ads and rewrites them to say what the Party wants them to say. Winston knows that this is not the true history, but he can't go against the Party.

By having the citizens of Oceania use technology to change history and make Oceania the perfect place, the Party is gaining full power over its citizens. As revealed in book 3 of 1984, the Party's only goal is to gain full control and power of Oceania citizens. For example, if you go against the Party, you are tortured with shock therapy. They shock your brain with electricity until you believe everything that the Party says to be true.

References

1. ^{{Cite web|url=https://prezi.com/vq9vygamjpcz/technology-in-1984/|title=Technology in 1984|last=|first=|date=|website=prezi.com|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2018-10-28}}
2. ^{{Cite web|url=https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/themes/|title=SparkNotes: 1984: Themes|website=www.sparknotes.com|language=en|access-date=2018-10-28}}