1984



Dear Boethius,

I am writing to you from the future. The future where people can control your thoughts. The future where people no longer have the freedom to think whatever they want and express their opinions. They have several methods to know what you are doing/thinking day and night. By technology, establishing double think, and thought crime.

The technology they use are called telescreens. There are screens in every room. It helps them monitor everyone, control them with propaganda, and make them fear expressing their opinions by making them fear vaporization. The use of telescreens benefits the party because they manage people’s actions and even thoughts by making them fear the consequences. “Winston was able to remain outside the range of the silkscreen, so far as sight went. He could not be seen” (Orwell 8). This is an example of what it is like to live with telescreens, you try hard to avoid them but it is difficult because everyone is aware of what could happen if the party disagrees with your actions…..vaporization.

The fear of vaporization causes people to doublethink. Doublethink is the ability to know something is a lie, but believe it anyway. Winston always knew 2+2=4 however, if the party told him it did not equal 4, but 5 he was made to believe/say it was true because they threatened to hurt him if he didn’t. “Four! Five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain” (Orwell 274). This shows how the party controls our thoughts. They threaten us to believe what they say is true. “Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2=5” (Orwell 317). With this, I prove to you that the party can get inside you and make you believe anything they tell you with doublethink.

The main reason people are tortured is because they commit thought crime. Thought crime is a negative thought against the party. If we are caught having a negative thought of our ruler Big Brother, we are to be sent to the Ministry of Love where we are tortured and then released, but killed after we become loyal party members. “All the while, with one part of his mind, he wondered how soon they would shoot him ‘Everything depends on yourself,’ O’Brien had said;…”(Orwell 305). This shows that people know that after they are released they will be killed eventually as a punishment of their crime.

In conclusion, the future is nothing like people believed it would be. Things changed, people can control thoughts whether someone allows it or not by using technology, doublethink and thought crime.