1984 Dialiectical Journal 2

"A new poster had suddenly appeared all over London. It had no caption, and represented simply the monstrous figure of a Eurasian soldier, three or four meters high, striding forwards with expressionless Mongolian face and enormous boots, a sub machine gun pointed from his hip. From what ever angle you looked at the poster, the muzzle of the gun, magnified by the foreshortening, seemed to be pointed straight at you. The thing had been plastered on every blank space on every wall, even outnumbering the portraits of Big Brother."

By having this type of fear interpreted propaganda, the Eurasian government is able to prosper. It is saying that not only Big Brother is watching you, but he is also willing to kill you if you do something "against the law." Not only is the sign a warning, but after this passage it talks about an increase of bombings and deaths occurring in Eurasia. With the new poster and the Big Brother Poster, Eurasians are reminded and in constant fear of the Party and what they will do to you from simply thinking a crime; thought police. It just adds on to the many examples of why Orwell's society is a dystopia.

Although propaganda effects our lives today, the propaganda that influences us is usually not a threat against our existence. I have seen the effect that our propaganda has on everyone, but more specifically youth. One example is my little sister is influenced greatly by the commercials she sees on TV. She's constantly asking for the toys she sees, and attempts to convince us that its the "best toy ever!" etc. I have also seen it with teenagers. TV and magazines portray being super skinny as being beautiful and rich and perfect. Some teens are so influenced by this negative propaganda that they go to extremes to be the same as the girls they see in magazines and such. I have also seen in older generations. During the election, famous people would go on TV and express who they were going to vote for. Solely because of this people would vote the same as that person. Although I do not believe that we live in a dystopia, propaganda plays a large and sometimes negative role on our community, like it did in Orwell's community.