1984 Telescreens Used to Instill Fear Into the Citizens
Scott Summey Kasell 1st Terrifying Telescreens "War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." 1984 is a novel used as a warning to show what would happen to citizens if governments gained too much power. The Party uses different techniques to control every facet of life of the its citizens, or slaves. The citizens are much too afraid to revolt against the tyrannical government, because of the constant eye of the Party. The telescreens are used by the Party to instill fear into the citizens of Oceania. First, while Winston is doing his jerks one morning, he is confronted about not doing them correctly. He is directly spoken to through the telescreen and told that any man his age should be able to stretch better than he is. Winston's mind was wandering about Julia and his many thought crimes until he is spoken to, and then immediately everything on his mind drops, and all he can think about is, "Never show dismay. Never show resentment. A single flicker of the eyes could give you away." (37). Winston instantaneously becomes afraid that he is doomed, because they know he is thinking thoughts contrary to those of the Party. Through the constant eye of the telescreen, Winston is immediately terrified at any thought he may have in regards to thought crimes, or Julia. Also when Winston writes his first thought crime in his journal, he instantaneously feels as though he is dead. He feels that he will be seen through the telescreen and feels that he is surely to be caught and killed. Through this constant eye Winston feels that he is doomed from the second he writes this little indiscrepancy. He immediately thinks that he is caught when he hears a knock at the door, "Already. He sat as still as a mouse, in the futile hope that whoever it was might go away after a single attempt. But no, the knocking repeated. The worst thing of all would be to delay. His heart was thumping like a drum..." (20). The Party puts a telescreen in