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1984 North Korea Essay

Decent Essays

After reading 1984 by George Orwell and watching the Frontline documentary about North Korea, it is clear that Oceania, the dystopian country Orwell creates, is comparable to North Korea. Orwell proves to have given a “prophecy for things to come” through the bizarre, dystopian world that he devises. With North Korea’s firm control and influence on things like traveling regulations, propaganda, and imprisonment and punishment, North Korea proves to be extremely, and almost terrifyingly, similar to the world that Orwell created. Orwell depicts that the government uses these influences to continually keep citizens under their control, susceptible to what they wish the citizens to do at all times. Although 1984 may seem purely fictional, the …show more content…

The citizens of North Korea are not even allowed to leave their own country, being denied a basic human right, similar to the situation in Oceania. When Winston was traveling to see Julia for the first time in secret in 1984, Winston says that “it was not easy to make a journey by yourself without attracting attention. For distances of less than a hundred kilometres it was not necessary to get your passport endorsed, but sometimes there were patrols hanging about the railway stations, who examined the papers of any Party member they found there and asked awkward questions” (Orwell 247). The government does this so that they always know exactly what their citizens are doing, controlling their every action. Orwell clearly foresaw this prophecy for the future in this scenario as countries like North Korea are doing the same thing in our modern world. For instance, according to Quora, in North Korea “You need a special permit to leave the nation which is supposed to be authorised by the government agency, but these agencies do not allow its citizens to leave their nation” (Quora). Although the government appears as if they allow their citizens freedom by offering permits, the government never actually gives these permits out. In reality, they are simply props used to convince citizens that North Korea is an ideal society and that citizens have independence and freedom. Just as Orwell depicted, citizens are lied to and basic human rights are denied so citizens continually are under the control of the

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