Big Brother vs. Little Brother: Updating Orwell’s ‘1984’

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Language Arts

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

Overview | How does George Orwell’s vision of technology and its uses in “1984” compare with today’s reality? How have concerns about privacy and freedom expressed in the novel been manifested in the contemporary world? In this lesson, students compare and contrast the world, people and technologies of “1984” with those of today and create a treatment for a modern film, print or stage adaptation that revolves around current technologies.

Materials | Full text of “1984,” computers with Internet access, software for podcasting and projection equipment, copies of the handout “1984” vs. Today (PDF), video cameras and film-editing software (optional)

Warm-Up | Give students the following list of words from “1984”:

  • Big Brother
  • doublethink
  • thoughtcrime
  • Newspeak
  • memory hole
  • Orwellian

Students who have read the novel will recognize their provenance and should define them, as well as give a contemporary example of something that could be described similarly. Engage students who have not read the novel in a game in which they look at each word and suggest a definition based on what they know from the word alone and any connotations they bring to the parts of each word.

After students have shared their definitions, discuss the following questions, talk about whether students have heard any of these terms used in school, at home, among friends or in the media, and in what contexts.

For students who don’t know the source of these words, explain to them that they come from “1984,” a dystopian novel first published in 1949 that has loomed large in popular culture.

Lead them to contrast utopian fiction, which imagines an ideal world, with dystopian fiction, which imagines a nightmare world. Then explore these questions: Why are these terms and the concepts they name still part of our vocabulary? What does it say about contemporary society that we use terms from a dystopian novel to describe aspects of it? In what way have these words taken on new meanings over time with the advent of new technologies? What do these words suggest about us and about our uses of technology? How are they used as references to concerns over freedom and privacy?

You might use the 2003 New York Times article “If It’s ‘Orwellian,’ It’s Probably Not” to further explore Orwell’s language with students and this list of references to Orwell on various blogs as examples of how his ideas have pervaded our language. (Given that these articles are a few years old, you might conduct simple Web searches of the six terms to show students how often, and where, they have come up recently online.)

Ask: How have communication technologies — including Facebook, Twitter, cellphones, smartphones and Web cams — changed our culture? Is there such a thing as privacy in a world where such technologies are ubiquitous? To prompt student reaction, you might read aloud portions from the Mashable post “Hey, Teens: Your Parents Are Probably Checking Your Facebook.”

Finally, ask: How does technology enable people to violate others’ privacy and freedoms? How can people use technology to protect their own privacy and freedoms? List ideas on the board, and tell students that they will now read an article that delves into these issues further.

Related | In the New York Times Magazine article “Little Brother Is Watching,” Walter Kirn compares Orwell’s vision of nefarious communication technologies in “1984” to the reality we face today in a world where, because of technology, the invasion of privacy has been “democratized”:

In George Orwell’s “1984,” that novel of totalitarian politics whose great mistake was to emphasize the villainy of society’s masters while playing down the mischief of the masses, the goal of communications technology was brutal and direct: to ensure the dominance of the state. The sinister “telescreens” placed in people’s homes spewed propaganda and conducted surveillance, keeping the population passive and the leadership firmly in control. In the face of constant monitoring, all people could do was sterilize their behavior, conceal their thoughts and carry on like model citizens.

This was, it turns out, a quaint scenario, grossly simplistic and deeply melodramatic. As the Internet proves every day, it isn’t some stern and monolithic Big Brother that we have to reckon with as we go about our daily lives, it’s a vast cohort of prankish Little Brothers equipped with devices that Orwell, writing 60 years ago, never dreamed of and who are loyal to no organized authority. The invasion of privacy — of others’ privacy but also our own, as we turn our lenses on ourselves in the quest for attention by any means — has been democratized.


Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

  1. What does Mr. Kirn mean when he says that the invasion of privacy has been “democratized”?
  2. How are today’s communication technologies and communicators different from those Orwell imagined in “1984”?
  3. Do you agree or disagree with Mr. Kirn that the actions of Tyler Clementi’s roommate are “more disturbing” than those of Orwell’s Big Brother?
  4. In what way, according to Mr. Kirn, can the actions of “Little Brother” benefit society?
  5. How has today’s technology blurred the lines between what’s public and what’s private?
  6. What does Mr. Kirn mean when he says modern technology contributes to the fragmentation of society?

Related resources:

Activity | Tell students they will build on the work Mr. Kirn begins in this piece by comparing Orwell’s vision in “1984” with contemporary life.

Explain that they will do this by drawing comparisons and contrasts on a number of fronts — character, setting, theme, jargon, technology — calling upon their own lived experience and current events as they do so. Ask them to be as specific as possible in the parallels they draw. Offer them this model to help them get started.

Tell students to pair up and use this “1984” vs. Today T-chart (PDF) to get started.

When they are finished, invite students to share and discuss their ideas as a class. Discuss how the novel and the real world are different, in terms of how technology is used, by whom (government vs. ordinary citizens) and in what contexts.

Next, tell pairs that they will collaborate on a treatment for a modern adaptation of “1984” (for print, film or stage), including contemporary technology, drawing on the comparisons they drew between the novel and contemporary life. (Alternatively, have students write their treatments independently.) Note that, guided by their own interpretations, they can hew closely to the original with minor updates or diverge in ways that point up how the novel contrasts with the real world today.

As they work, ask them to consider how to update the setting, characters, themes and technologies to reflect, and comment on, contemporary society. To brainstorm in preparation for writing, students might add a third column to their T-charts to developing ideas for how to represent in fiction the ways “1984” and the modern world compare and contrast.

For inspiration, show and discuss these reimaginings of “1984” — one a short film, the other a television commercial — as models.

To draw on the issues of modern life in authentic, informed ways, students might read up further on the intersections of technology, First Amendment freedoms and privacy, like the articles “How Privacy Vanishes Online” and “The Web Means the End of Forgetting.” They might also delve into wiretapping and other surveillance methods used by the government.

Treatments should include characters, setting, themes and plot summaries and should offer a clear rationale for updating the novel in whichever way they choose. When their ideas are generated, students then write and pitch their treatments to their classmates.

Going Further | Students write a chapter, or act out or film a scene, from their proposed adaptation and share it with the class.

Following the performances, discuss the following: What is the effect of artists’ creations of fictional contexts to critique events or individuals in contemporary culture? What other books, plays, movies and other art forms can you think of that comment on society? What critiques of contemporary culture have your fellow students offered up in their adaptations of “1984”? What issues have they illuminated?

Alternatively, consider one of the following options:

  • Students create one-pagers based on a quotation from the novel “1984” that still has resonance today in some way. They should find or draw at least one image illustrating a contemporary parallel; find one quote that is also a contemporary parallel, echo or extension; and write a question they would like to ask Orwell. (Alternatively, they might base their one-pagers on a quote from Mr. Kirn’s essay.) Display final products and return to the essential questions that frame this lesson through the lenses offered by student one-pagers.
  • Students pair up to write and record podcasts in which one plays an interviewer and the other George Orwell, in which he answers questions about the novel and reacts to the modern world.
  • Students who have not read the novel maintain a log for a week in which they record their technological activities and whereabouts. When they bring the log into class, encourage them to analyze their behavior. Were there times they acted like “Little Brother,” times they believed that they were being watched or had sacrificed privacy? Did they believe that over all, technology made their life better over the course of this week? Or did they believe that they were being controlled by it?
  • A recent study showed that young adults are less empathetic, perhaps in part due to “a millennial mixture of video games, social media, reality TV and hypercompetition.” Students read and respond to this article.


Language Arts
1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
6. Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of literary texts
7. Uses general skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts
8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes

Arts and Communication
1. Understands the principles, processes and products associated with arts and communication media
2. Knows and applies appropriate criteria to arts and communication products
3. Uses critical and creative thinking in various arts and communication settings
4. Understands ways in which the human experience is transmitted and reflected in the arts and communication

Life Skills: Working With Others
1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group
4. Displays effective interpersonal communication skills

3. Understands the relationships among science, technology, society and the individual
6. Understands the nature and uses of different forms of technology

1. Understands ideas about civic life, politics and government
2. Understands the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments
25. Understands issues regarding personal, political and economic rights
26. Understands issues regarding the proper scope and limits of rights and the relationships among personal, political and economic rights

5. Understands how informal and formal theater, film, television and electronic media productions create and communicate meaning

Comments are no longer being accepted.

I’ll be very much interested in reading the results of this little lesson. Will NYT readers get the opportunity?

Hi Geoff – We’re always interested in hearing how our lesson ideas are taught and how it goes. We hope teachers start to write in with their stories! – Holly

This is a great page and its fast becoming one of my favourites. I am 76. never too old to learn!

Thank you, and welcome!–Katherine

how can 19844 relate to modern world or society.

The link to the ad doesn’t work. Can you please relink? thanks.