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Jesselle Tovar
English 113B
Professor DerOhanessian
25 March 2015
A Space of Control
What exactly is space? A space is an area, whether it is a corner of the street, the mall, a
store, a room, and almost any area one can think of that can occupy room. Have you ever thought
about how the spaces we are in control us? These spaces control us either by ones actions, the
direction one walks in, and even up to what one may buy in a store. In the book 1984 by George
Orwell, the narrator describes many spaces where it controls the main character, Winston Smith.
Winston lives in a corrupt world where his society is forced to believe in their ruler, Big Brother,
and his beliefs. In his world, you must not disobey or even think about disobeying the laws that
Big Brother has set upon them; and if you choose to disobey, you will be tortured and vanished
and everyone would act as if you never existed. There are many spaces in the real world where
society is unaware that these spaces have power and control over us.
There are many examples of spaces that control society throughout the book 1984 by
George Orwell. An example of a space that controls Winston is his workplace, which is called
The Ministry of Truth. His job is to rewrite articles that are sent to him to either delete a persons
name who does not exist anymore; or to make up evidence to support to what Big Brother has
said in the past to make everyone believe it is true. Winston is at a very controlled environment
at his workplace because there are telescreens, which are like cameras, watching him everywhere
he walks, eats, works, and even when he has conversations with other people. These telescreens

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are big monitors that can never turn off, they have cameras as well as microphones on them.
There are people from the government called the Thought Police who monitor these
telescreens. Winston describes how, There was no way of knowing whether you were being
watched at any given moment but at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they
wantedyou had to live did live in the assumption that every sound you made was
overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement was scrutinized (Orwell 3). Winston can
never escape these telescreens because they were literally everywhere. He is forced to have a
telescreen at his home where the Thought Police can listen and watch everything he is doing,
which means he never had any privacy no matter where he went.
A real world example of a space that has the power to control anyone who walks in it, is
Target. When you walk into Target, led alone any store for that matter, you never walk in
thinking, how does this specific space controls me in many ways? We all know what Target is, it
is a place where you can go to buy almost anything, whether if it is food, electronics, clothing
and so much more. But, do we really know what Target really does? Why is it that when you
walk into Target you can never come out with just one thing? Each item in every isle, on each
shelf is set up to be there on purpose, which is the literary theory of Semiotics. Semiotics literary
theory is about signs and symbol and how there are messages within each symbol. For example,
lets say you run into Target to get some diapers; in almost every Target around the country, the
diaper isle is in the right to the back of the store next to baby wipes and baby clothes. When you
go to get the diapers you see wipes and say, I should get this too and right when you think
you're done, you see the cutest outfit on sale for your son/daughter. When you walk over to pick
up the baby outfit, you can see women's tops on clearance for 50% off; and when you walk over

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to the womens section you see the mens section and remembered your husband needs new
socks. Target sets up their merchandise in a way that you can buy more things and spend more
money.
Although some are not aware, Target does more than just set up merchandise to make you
spend more money; Target also tracks your purchases. In the article How Companies Learn Your
Secrets by Charles Duhigg that was published in The New York Times, the author interviews
Andrew Pole who is a statistician for Target. Andrew begins by telling Duhigg that he is asked by
coworkers, If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didnt want us to
know, can you do that?(Pole). Pole begins to explain that it was possible since Target tracks
your purchase and explains that, Target assigns each shopper a unique code known internally
as the Guest ID number that keeps tabs on everything they buy. If you use a credit card or a
coupon, or fill out a survey, or mail in a refund, or call the customer help line, or open an e-mail
weve sent you or visit our Web site, well record it and link it to your Guest ID(Prole). These
Guest IDs can track what one may buy, how much of it one buys, and how frequent one shops at
Target.
The space of Target, Winstons workplace, and the idea of Panopticism by Foucault are
all very similar. The idea of panopticism is explained by Foucault that you are being watched and
put under surveillance. Foucault further explains a prison that is in the shape of a circle where all
inmates can see each other and right in the middle is a tower, and you cannot see inside the tower
where one guard stands and watches all inmates. This idea of this tower that watches inmates is
the same concept of the telescreen described in 1984; the ones outside the prison and in
Winstons world never know if and when they are being watched. Target also relates to the idea

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of being watched because Target tracks all their customers purchases and has cameras around the
store. There are cameras you can see in the ceiling, but there are also cameras you cannot see that
are either very small or hidden that can watch you when they want. Target also tracks your
purchases so they know what types of items one may buy, how much of it one may buy, and
where and what time one bought it. Although Target does not track ones purchases and watch
you to put you under surveillance, it is frightening to think Target does have the ability to watch
you if they wanted.
There are many spaces that have the power to control our society, whether that may be a
space like Target that sets up products on purpose to make their customers spend more money; or
when Target keeps track of every transaction one makes. It is important to keep in mind when we
go into a certain space that these spaces have power of us.

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Works Cited
Brizee, Allen, and Case Tompkins. "Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Literary
Theory and Schools of Criticism. N.p., 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
Duhigg, Charles. "How Companies Learn Your Secrets." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 18 Feb. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Foucault, Michel. "Panopticism." Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison. New York:
NY

Vintage, 1955. 195-228. Print.

Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 2007. Print.