The author is obviously someone who is cognisant of the illusion of privacy in today’s society. The Author’s purpose is to inform the audience of the privacy breach that is taking place in today’s society because of the widespread of internet. With the introduction of internet, the concept of Big Brother became an imminent possibility as conglomerates such as Google and Facebook seized the ability to spy into the lives of citizens. This is effective because the poster is an altered version of the iconic propaganda used in George Orwell’s celebrated novel ‘1984’. Its is at once recognisable to the audience. The use of the image of google, which we are all familiar with and is central to many of our lives, makes concept of a totalitarian society wherein everyone is watched becomes very immediate and imminent. The author wants to convey the belief that the notion of privacy is no longer a relevant term in today’s world as whatever we do can be tracked through our internet usage. The grim premonition the poster hints should resonate with all of us because we are all enslaved to the internet in one way or another.

The beauty of an epistolary novel is that the medium through which the character communicates with the audience can greatly alter our understanding of the character. The element of Super Sad True Love Story I found relevant in our own world was the presentation of the secretive nature of man. No man can be completely candid to another person and Shteyngart explicitly displays this through the various medium through which the character communicates with the readers.

In Leonard’s personal diary, where the confidentiality of the information is guaranteed, the readers are exposed to greatly personal emotions and thoughts that one would be reluctant to share with another person, however trusted they may be. On the contrary, when the reader sees Eunice’s letters, very little information regarding her emotional position and personal worries are expressed. Also the changing style of writing when writing to her friend and to her mum clearly shows that the character Eunice presented in those letters are not truly reflective of her character. This suggests that the Eunice we see through the letter is not her true self but a Eunice barred by social conventions like writing politely to a parent and the gibberish talking with a friend. The insincere selfportrayal in Eunice’s letters evidently proves that no one can absolutely disclose their true self in the presence of others.

The podcast “Eye in the Sky” talks in detail about project Angelfire concocted by Dr Ross McNutt and his students. Project Angelfire is a persistent surveillance scheme wherein a plane equipped with a high resolution camera takes a photo of a city every second. The issue with such a powerful technology is that it is always vulnerable to abuse. Regardless of the purpose of its introduction, those in authority are bound to misuse the technology to spy on the daily lives of people and conglomerates will crave for this information for the most effective form of advertising yet. This project may also backfire as intelligent criminals can infiltrate the system to acquire data on their targets and commit crimes that may be seemingly impossible to crack.

This of course, isn’t to belittle the significance of implementing a security system like Angelfire. It offers many immediate solutions to current issues for the few latent problems it may cause. Also, the biggest concern the public had with the implementation of this technology was the breach of their privacy. The dispute of people’s right to their ‘privacy’, however seemingly convincing it may be, is in actuality a null argument. Even with today’s tools, government can, if they’re willing to, spy the movement of an individual through monitoring one’s credit card usage, internet access, mobile phone, public transport usage, ‘speed cameras’ installed at various junctions and the list goes on. Privacy is a term that is no longer relevant in the 21^st century and those who believe their daily lives are concealed from others ought to be disillusioned. So in effect, Angelfire will not be breaching people’s privacy any more than other technologies have been doing so far but instead will be offering a more effective solution to crime rates and traffic issues.