preview

Limitations Of Human Rights In George Orwell's 1984

Good Essays

Nelson Mandela once said, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”. In this short but powerful quote, Mandela advocates for human rights by saying that without them, one would fail to be human. Maintaining humanity is crucial because it is what makes everyone unique. Human rights give people the opportunity to voice their opinions, think freely, and be who they want to be. To take that away from a person is to deny them of being human and restrict them from their freedom. People who have freedom tend to take it for granted as they do not realize the fragility of it. When in fact, there are people around the world every day fighting for those rights. There is no humanity in a society where people are confined and imprisoned by a lack of independence. Similar conditions of confinement and limitations occur in 1984, where author George Orwell satirizes the totalitarian government and what would happen if a government is in total control of its people. And its protagonist, Winston Smith, lives under the oppressive regime led by the Party and in hatred and paranoia of it as well. In the dystopian novel 1984, Orwell uses Winston Smith to present a timeless warning of the injustices that a totalitarian government can impose on a person’s fundamental rights and freedoms.
One of the main ways the government inflicts their control on the citizens is through the invasion of privacy. In this society, every home is installed with telescreens and microphones that watch the residents every move. The government does this to watch for any signs of abnormality in citizens. The cameras are installed in streets as well to prevent conspiring among the citizens. Citizens are watched everywhere and there is no escape from being scrutinized. The caption “Big Brother is Watching You” (Orwell 3), is posted all over the city as a constant reminder to people that they are never away from Big Brother’s watch and that Big Brother knows everything. Winston feels that the picture is “so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move” (Orwell 3). Obviously, pictures can not move, yet Winston feels like it watches him constantly.
Through Winston, the readers are able to understand the amount of fear

Get Access