20 Deductive Essay Topics: Hooking Ideas about Emma Larkin’s Finding George Orwell in Burma

If you are looking for viable deductive essay topics about the book “Finding George Orwell in Burma” then consider the twenty items below:

1. The Many Tools Used by the Burmese Government to Control Their People
2. The Most Important Tool Being That of Fear
3. How the Military Intelligence Functions as One of the Tools Used by the Government
4. How Local People Worked as Informers for Military Intelligence Spies
5. How Burmese Government Controlled History by Changing Names and Buildings
6. How Fear of Imprisonment or Torture Kept People from Considering Uprisings
7. How British Names Were Removed And Physical Location Names Changed after 1988 Uprising
8. How People Who Were Murdered by the Government Were Immediately Disposed of and The Blood on The Streets Was Washed Away
9. How the Government Could Alleviate Risk of Any Future Generations Being Motivated by the Uprisings or Actions of Others
10. How the Government Had Sensors in Magazines, Books, Music, and Movies through the Propaganda Branch
11. How the Propaganda Branch Produced Pre-Approved Content for Magazines and Newspapers as Well as Educational Products for Schools
12. How Free Thought Was Stifled through Limiting What People Could Read or Think
13. How Foreign Journalists and Writers Were Not Allowed into the Country and People with Cameras or Notepads Would Be Searched by the Police
14. How the Government Can Delete Anything Found on Cameras Brought into the Country And Sentence Anyone Who Helps Journalists to Death
15. How the Emergency Provisions Act of 1950 Allowed Government to Sentence Citizens to Seven Years in Prison for Providing Information to Journalists
16. Panopticon: a Term from George Orwell’s Writing Which Is at the Center of This Form of Surveillance
17. How Words from George Orwell Like “Room 101” And “Newspeak” Are Represented in This Book
18. How Methods of Surveillance in This Book Are Used Today in a Country Of Your Choosing
19. How George Orwell’s Predictions Have Come to Pass by Way of Fear and Control over Communication
20. How the Country Has Changed With Recent Elections

Below you will find an example essay on one of these topics to give you a better idea:

Sample Deductive Essay on the Methods of Surveillance

In many ways modern governments functions similarly to this. Throughout Middle Eastern countries and even Western countries, the media is controlled by a select few. While the Internet allegedly provides free reign for mass communication and freedom of speech, individuals who speak out against other nations are still deemed a terrorist threat and can have some of their freedoms revoked. Governments will continually survey those they believe to be a threat. This is not something which happens just on the Internet but something which still happens in real time today. Foreigners who may be on a watch list could be permitted in another country but will be monitored the entire time they are there. The NSA was just recently revealed to use surveillance techniques which are illegal on all citizens, national or international. The exploits of the agency revealed that cellphone conversations as well as email correspondence, and Internet activity were surveyed and collected. This is a form of complete and comprehensive surveillance of the world. Of course this happens on local levels too, inside companies of all shapes and sizes.

Employees of any organization are subject to continual monitoring of their email activity and phone records. In many cases email activity is logged as well as Internet searches and certain websites not permitted during work hours. While in these cases the changes are made to promote productivity and avoid wasting time in the workplace, the methods used are similar to countries which seek total control over the constituents. This is something which even permeates news. News agencies today in many Western countries are only able to remain profitable thanks to advertisements. Advertisements for particular products and/or services directly influence what information is recorded and what information is not. Individuals who might find a viable new story may not be allowed to promote that new story because it reflects poorly on a shareholder or on a subsidiary company of that shareholder. The same thing is true for politicians. Many politicians today are only able to maintain their seat in politics thanks to the donations of powerful and wealthy individuals who then dictate which laws can be passed and which laws cannot.

Throughout the world, the media is controlled by a select few, access to internet sites is restricted in countries such as China. In China, even looking at activist sites or working to help Tibet is a punishable offense. Having the wrong books, teaching or talking about threats to the government, and helping a foreigner are all punishable in North Korea. All around the world Governments will continually survey those they believe to be a threat. The national surveillance agency was recently revealed to a completed surveillance on not only international citizens but American citizens. This revelation exposed that all cellphone conversations had been monitored as well as email correspondence and other types of Internet activity. Such complete and total monitoring would constitute that same idea of comprehensive surveillance. This is something which is even done at a much smaller level. Employees of any organization are subject to continual monitoring of their email activity and phone records.

All of this information from these assigned readings really reflects on how well the Asian communities were controlled during terrible regimes. What is perhaps most disturbing is how long such things have been going on and what little has been done. Some of the most prominent displays of human rights violations have been going on with very little done about it for multiple reasons. The first seems to be reflected the control itself. With complete control over media both in the country and internationally, countries are able to maintain either a specific view of the functions of the country, or no view at all. When there is no view or no changes to the existing view, it makes it easy for citizens to ignore that country and even forget about the plight facing its citizens. By controlling what information reaches the citizens, the government can even make sure the people do not realize what they are missing, and fail to realize how things might be better for them. What these readings really bring forth for me though, is how prevalent some of those things are in modern society, and we don’t realize it. Today people use the internet, talk on cell phones, and accept that their actions are all monitored without even thinking twice. People don’t realize just how many of their freedoms they are giving up.

References:
Cady, John F. A history of modern Burma. 1960.
Davison, Peter, Hoepffner Préface de Marie Hermann, and Jean-Jacques Rosat. George Orwell. Palgrave Macmillan, 1996.
Harvey, Godfrey Eric. History of Burma. Asian Educational Services, 2000.
Kyi, Aung San Suu. “II. Freedom, Development, and Human Worth.” Journal of Democracy 6.2 (1995): 11-19.
Larkin, Emma. Finding George Orwell in Burma. Granta Books, 2011.
Orwell, George. Burmese days. Vol. 2. Random House, 1999.
Smith, Martin John. Burma: Insurgency and the politics of ethnicity. Zed Books, 1991.