Orwell Warns Us of an Impending Dystopia in 1984, Is North Korea This Foretold World? Discuss Similarities
Following the fall of the U.S.S.R., North Korea has almost directly become the empire of repression that George Orwell illustrated in Nineteen Eighty Four. Although North Korea is lacking in a technological sense compared to “The Party”, they have some very similar tactics such as the invasion of privacy, the creation of class systems and the use of propaganda to hold their oppressive power in place.
North Korea’s use of flooding their civilians heads with images of the “Eternal President” and the “Supreme Leader” serves as the same reminder of their overlords as the constant bombardment of “Big Brother is watching you” in Orwell’s novel. The use of this visual stimulant serves as a reminder that no matter where you go, the powers that be are always there with you, watching your every movement and keeping you in line through a channel of subconscious fear. In North Korea one single wall is dedicated solely to the images of Kim Jong-Il (the ‘Supreme Leader’, ‘Dear Leader’ or ‘Our Father’ are just a few nicknames) and his father, the original founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Il-Sung. These walls are inspected thoroughly to make sure they are clean of dust and in good repair as a sign of their love for their leaders, failure to do so can result in heavy punishments, just as you can imagine the defacement of images of Big Brother would be met with the heaviest of penalties.
The totalitarian government of The Party uses ‘The Proles’ as their lower working class, giving them lesser to no education and forcing them into the slums of their society and enforces its control by establishing a class system. Just like The Party oppresses ‘The Proles’, the North Korean government controls their lower class system by giving them remedial, boring low paid jobs, driving them to starvation and leaving them in the dark when night falls. Even though communism is meant to mean equality for all people and abolish the ideas of rich and poor, a society has to
North Korea’s use of flooding their civilians heads with images of the “Eternal President” and the “Supreme Leader” serves as the same reminder of their overlords as the constant bombardment of “Big Brother is watching you” in Orwell’s novel. The use of this visual stimulant serves as a reminder that no matter where you go, the powers that be are always there with you, watching your every movement and keeping you in line through a channel of subconscious fear. In North Korea one single wall is dedicated solely to the images of Kim Jong-Il (the ‘Supreme Leader’, ‘Dear Leader’ or ‘Our Father’ are just a few nicknames) and his father, the original founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Il-Sung. These walls are inspected thoroughly to make sure they are clean of dust and in good repair as a sign of their love for their leaders, failure to do so can result in heavy punishments, just as you can imagine the defacement of images of Big Brother would be met with the heaviest of penalties.
The totalitarian government of The Party uses ‘The Proles’ as their lower working class, giving them lesser to no education and forcing them into the slums of their society and enforces its control by establishing a class system. Just like The Party oppresses ‘The Proles’, the North Korean government controls their lower class system by giving them remedial, boring low paid jobs, driving them to starvation and leaving them in the dark when night falls. Even though communism is meant to mean equality for all people and abolish the ideas of rich and poor, a society has to