Author Christopher Hitchens spent part of the year 2010 in North Korea. After he returned he had this to say in a conference:
I knew what I’m not going to say about North Korea. I’m not going to say it, Schoolchildren are marched to school carrying pictures of the dear leader and the great leader. The loudspeakers speak of nothing but the dear leader and the great leader. At workplaces there are sessions set apart everyday for cries of hatred against the United States, and the west, and South Korea. I’m still not gonna do it. They won’t make me say Nineteen Eighty-Four they just won’t make me do it. But eventually they make you do it (LibertyPen).
Christopher Hitchens makes a great observation about the state of North Korea today, and what he saw is just what is shown to the public. It is more than likely impossible for the west to know the way that the world works for the North Korean Proles. Totalitarian states use two methods to control the people. Propaganda, and fear. Propaganda works the best in a mostly closed system, like North Korea, because of the way they can’t see if the government is lying about the outside world. When the government says “Our neighbors have it worse, they only has one pound of rice a month” the people have no reason to doubt it, and they be happy with their two pounds. North Korea is a great example of this because the government teaches the people that all of the other countries in the surrounding are jealous of the North Korean people’s hard work and food amount. The North Korean government carefully developed a cult of personality around their leaders Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, and currently Kim- Jong-Un. Recently there was a case of a fourteen year old girl dying in a flood trying to save a pi...
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...m could do, and at the same time he made it seem realistic. 1984 lasts today because of the talent of the writer behind it.
Works Cited
Rose, Jonathan. “The Invisible Sources of Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Ebsco Literary Reference Center. Wiley-Blackwell. Web. 11 February 2013.
Parker, Peter. "Nineteen Eighty-Four." A Reader's Guide to the Twentieth-century Novel. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. 289. Print.
LibertyPen. "Christopher Hitchens - North Korea" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 23 Dec. 2009. Web. 14. Mar. 2013.
Dalvai, M. (2010), “Utopianism Parodied in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. An Intertextual Reading of the ‘Goldstein Treatise’”. Orbis Litterarum, 65: 388–407. Ebscohost. Web. 13 February 2013.
Barr, Julian. "The New York Review of Books."Such, Such Was Eric Blair by Julian Barnes. N.p., 28 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.
Blaine Harden, former national correspondent and writer for the New York Times, delivers an agonizing and heartbreaking story of one man’s extremely conflicted life in a labor camp and an endeavor of escaping this place he grew up in. This man’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. Together, Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk tell us the story of this man’s imprisonment and escape into South Korea and eventually, the United States, from North Korea. This biography that takes place from 1982-2011, reports to its readers on what is really going on in “one of the world’s darkest nations” (back cover of the book), that is run under a communist state and totalitarian dictatorship that was lead by Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and currently lead by Kim-Jong un. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin shows us the adaptation of his life and how one man can truly evolve from an animal, into a real human being.
The novel 1984 is one that has sparked much controversy over the last several decades. It harbors many key ideas that lie at the root of all skepticism towards the book. With the ideas of metaphysics, change, and control in mind, George Orwell wrote 1984 to provide an interesting story but also to express his ideas of where he believed the world was heading. His ideas were considered widely ahead of their time, and he was really able to drive home how bleak and colorless our society really is. Orwell wrote this piece as a futuristic, dystopian book which contained underlying tones of despair and deceit.
... way about the world I live in, and who is controlling it. I loved how the use of such brutal twists created a sense of realism, turning a book with an extremely fictitious story, into what the world may look like in the near future. But a part of me wished I had never read it. Books like these cause me to over-think, to over analyse the world around me. Ever since I picked up 1984 I have constantly thought “I wonder what the government is doing now? Are they working to better our society or finding ways to better control it?” A part of me wishes I could go back in time and warn myself that this book will cause me to be slightly paranoid for a couple of weeks. However, I’m glad I read 1984. It is a marvellously constructed text that had left me asking questions and has altered my perception about the capacity for betrayal by governments and even individual citizens.
"North Korea: Human rights concerns." Amnesty Australia. Amnesty International, 28 Nov. 2006. Web. 2 May 2014. .
1984 demonstrates a dystopian society in Oceania by presenting a relentless dictator, Big Brother, who uses his power to control the minds of his people and to ensure that his power never exhausts. Aspects of 1984 are evidently established in components of society in North Korea. With both of these society’s under a dictator’s rule, there are many similarities that are distinguished between the two. Orwell’s 1984 becomes parallel to the world of dystopia in North Korea by illustrating a nation that remains isolated under an almighty ruler.
However, because it is Winston's own government manipulating him, and the fact that it is them he is rebelling against, this makes 1984 more relevant to today’s society.
Climate, conflict, isolation, and corruption culminated in millions of lives lost, surely with no small amount of pain and suffering endured. Though international intervention can only help to the degree that authorities in North Korea will allow it, we are not left entirely without recourse. It is too late now to undo the damage of the North Korean famine, and although power has since changed hands, the country remains famously isolated. If, however, we tell the story as best we can, and deny ourselves the comfort of closing our eyes when faced with such a colossal tragedy, then perhaps in the future we find a solution. Silent are the Koreans who perished, and silent still are the authorities that chose seclusion over security. If we wish to prevent this from happening again, we must not let their silence be our silence as well.
North Korea Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
Rogue states under dictatorial rule threaten the fragile peace, which exists in our modern world. Constantly as a society Americans have always fought against these said foes. However all too often we pass a blind eye to the humanity of the enemies’ civilian populations. For more often than not, those who live within these systems are chronically oppressed. The nation of North Korea is no exception, with “Bing-brother always watching.” The government in North Korea pervades all aspects of life.
George Orwell envisioned a nightmarish utopia that could have very easily become a possibility in 1949? the year the novel was written. He managed to create such a realistic view of humanity?s future, that this story has been deemed timeless. There will always be the threat of totalitarianism, and at some moments civilization is only a step away from it. Orwell hated the thought of it, and 1984 shows that.
in a society where he is a mere reflection of his dystopian environment. 1984 is a warning to our
"I never, never should have allowed myself to be lured by the United States administration to commit a crime in this country. I wish that the United States administration never manipulate people like myself in the future to commit crimes against foreign countries. I entirely beg you, the people and government of the DPRK, for your forgiveness. Please! I made the worst mistake of my life!"
...t parts around the world are always threatening another country. Lastly, North Korea’s government is being controlled by a family dictatorship. They are limiting the people’s everything. Even their ability to get out of the country and where they live.
North Korea could be described as a dystopian society. For all of its citizens, the Internet is widely monitored and restricted, allowing only limited access. “One could speculate that it is more propaganda about the country, its leaders, or negative coverage about the US.... ... middle of paper ... ...
To conclude, 1984’s ending has a great effect on the readers, the ending achieves its purpose by giving the message through imagery, symbolism, memories and the readers thinking of the purpose of writing the ending in a dark, hopeless way.