The most powerful force behind a human being’s sanity is one’s ability to have control. Jurisdiction over one’s thoughts, beliefs, and desires is the string that is able to hold a person’s sanity in place. Once that string is cut, that is when control is lost and easily overtaken by another force. Governments throughout history have been known to take advantage of this weakness in human development. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, this concept is tackled. In his book, Oceania has transformed into a dystopian society. The government of this society, known as the Party, and their mascot Big Brother have complete control over its people through tactics of manipulation and fear. Control to the Party is not about fame or wealth, it is about …show more content…
The Party in 1984 uses pain to torture its enemies. Great torment inflicted in the Ministry of Love, the interior ministry that enforces loyalty to Big Brother, “convinces” political criminals to see the light. In the Ministry of Love, or Miniluv for short, they break you down into a shell of your once beloved humanity. Through beatings, torture devices, and starvation, the Party forcefully unravels their enemies in order to build them back up from scratch. The protagonist Winston experienced extreme cases of torture because he was caught as an enemy to the Party. To break him down, they put him on a torture device that bent his back from extreme amounts of pressure to the point where he would black out from the pain. When he woke up, the extreme intensity of the pain from this type of torture was enough for him to submit to whatever the Party wanted him to submit to. Winston even eventually submitted to the idea that 2+2=5 because he was repeatedly told that that was the case.To get Winston further, the Party found out his greatest fear, rats, and threatened him with a cage of hungry rats eating through him. The anticipation of that great pain was enough for Winston to crumble into the Party’s …show more content…
Less physically gruesome than pain yet possibly more mentally taxing, fear persuades people to give up their rights and freedoms. As a member of this dystopian society, one is watched constantly (“George Orwell, in 1984, Writing in 1949”). Telescreens are monitoring your every move, waiting for you to make a mistake. Every citizen became important enough to keep under surveillance. If one was caught even writing in a journal, it could be a death sentence (Wolf). To ensure that one would not break the rules, they were also threatened by the seemingly constantly looming presence of the Thought Police. Committing Thoughtcrime, even thinking rebellious thoughts against Big Brother, was enough to get you persecuted a a traitor. The punishments faced by enemies of the Party were also constantly impending, like the thought of Room
George Orwell’s novel, 1984, is a dystopian literary text that illuminates the tenets of totalitarian and authoritarian governance in most areas where the leaders seek total loyalty and near hero worship. It was published in 1949, but has since remained relevant because its details promoted authoritarian political constructs and the political leadership concepts that evolved in the globe over time. Set at Oceania province in Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, the book displays an omnipresent government that institutes constant state surveillance on the people that it suspects to be a threat to its regime and agitators of rebellion. It infringes on human rights
The novel 1984, by George Orwell, made me paranoid. It made me suspicious of our government's power and intentions. I became aware of the potential manipulation which the government could impose upon us. I came to see that the people I believe to be wholly dedicated to the well-being of society, the people I rely so heavily on to provide protection and security have the power to betray us at any given time. I realised that in my naivety I had gravely overlooked the powerful grip government has over society, and what it can do with that power.
The novel, 1984, written by George Orwell, gives readers an insight to a possible frightening future where one government has complete and definite control of the people. But “control” might not be the term to describe such a rule. The Party dominates every aspect of life. There is not a single thing that is not under the Party’s rule. Feelings, history, language, statistics, and even human nature are submissive to the Party. They corrupt the mind so much that there is no longer a line that separates truth from a lie. Slogans are repeated through telescreens on a daily basis so the people are gradually forced to believe in illogical statements. Upon first glance, it may seem that a 1984 society is not even imaginable in the world we live in currently. But is it really logical to make such an assumption so quickly? Do we know that what we see on the news and read in our history textbooks is completely accurate? The Internet is one of the most powerful technologies our world has, consisting of an insurmountable amount of information, which is not always what it seems. Ultimately, there are so many things that we do not know, some of which is being held a secret from us. Modern day society shockingly has evidence of a transformation into a menacing 1984 society because of similar government actions and abuse of advanced technology.
In 1984 many government issues take place, for instance propaganda, secret police, brainwashing, and a wide manner of other devices to oppress their populations. The idea is to illustrate the dangers of totalitarian government whether it be Communist, Fascist, or otherwise. Totalitarianism is an imposing form of government which the political authority exercises control over all aspects of life such as their sex life, and health in general. “If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any result whatever, you've beaten them” (George Orwell, 1984). Also psychological manipulation and mind control are a big controversy in 1984. Psychological manipulation is a social influence that moves towards the behavior of others through deceptive, or even abusive tactics. “And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain” (book 1, chapter 4). The author, Orwell wants the readers to think that the government monitors and controls everything that the humans do, and that basically everything that people do are against the law.
... middle of paper ... ... When oppressed by a Party that takes away basic inalienable rights, publicizes false information, and each individual has a common knowledge of consequences that they might receive from thinking, it is extremely difficult to maintain a sense of reality. Orwell proposes that when an individual faces all of these prohibitions, they are easily manipulated into psychological enslavement.
While the society in Brave New World refrains from lethal methods of repression, the government in George Orwell’s 1984 build their power off of fear. Throughout the novel, the government holds daily gatherings in which citizens are shown the enemies of state and is always ended with the phrase “Big Brother is watching you” (Orwell et al). This alone demonstrates the government’s implementation of fear on its own people. The notion that the government is monitoring your every move creates an atmosphere of anxiety and oppression. Not only by displaying their ability to monitor their citizens, the government uses aggressive and almost always lethal methods to rid society of nonconformists. For “criminals”, or enemies of the state, ...
The fictional world of 1984 is best described as bleak. In the aftermath of the fall of capitalism and nuclear war, the world has been divided among three practically identical totalitarian nation-states. The novel takes place in London, which has become a part of Oceania, the nation state comprising the Americas and western Europe. A state of perpetual war and poverty is the rule in Oceania. However, this is merely a backdrop, far from the most terrifying aspect of life in 1984. Oceania is governed by a totalitarian bureaucracy, personified in the image of Big Brother, the all-knowing/ all-seeing godlike figure that represents the government. Big Brother is best described as a "totalitarian socialist dictator, a political demagogue and religious cult leader all rolled into one." So great is the power of Big Brother that the reader is unsure whether he actually exists or is simply a propaganda tool of the government. The party of Big Brother, Ingsoc (English Social...
“To die hating them, that was freedom” (Orwell 231). That phrase is a powerful part of George Orwell’s novel 1984. Winston Smith is a member of the 1984 totalitarianism society. He is different than other members of the brainwashed community. However, Winston is forced to follow the many mandatory societal standards that the government places upon the people. Crimestop plays a key role throughout the story. It is socially acceptable for children to give up their parents to the government. Love, is not expected nor accepted. Sex is forced; there is no pleasure in it. Thought crime is another key standard; the citizens don’t have the freedom to think. Overall, the people tied up by the chains of the government, are expected to tell on everyone, not have sex or participate in a relationship unless forced and are not allowed to think any unrighteous thoughts pertaining to their government.
In 1984, George Orwell presents an overly controlled society that is run by Big Brother. The protagonist, Winston, attempts to “stay human” in the face of a dehumanizing, totalitarian regime. Big Brother possesses so much control over these people that even the most natural thoughts such as love and sex are considered taboo and are punishable. Big Brother has taken this society and turned each individual against one another. Parents distrust their own offspring, husband and wife turn on one another, and some people turn on their own selves entirely. The people of Oceania become brainwashed by Big Brother. Punishment for any uprising rebellions is punishable harshly.
Since the beginning of time, the population has been manipulated into believing and doing certain things. In George Orwell’s, 1984, he describes the way the government manipulates society. The mechanism used in the novel is easily comparable to the way hockey players are manipulated. This factor will be proven with the help of making society believe there are classes, the fact that penalties are like vaporization and how those who watch the game are like Big Brother and the telescreens.
In 1984, Winston’s torture had a purpose of brainwashing, where the themes of control is explored and alienation is hinted and introduced in his interrogations with O’Brien and his time in room one-oh-one. Firstly, Winston is imprisoned in Miniluv (Ministry of Love) for his rebellious sexual activity with Julia, and the reader will assume that this is repression of opposition by the government. But once O’Brien is revealed to be Winston’s interrogator, it is clearly established that the purpose of this torture has never been repression, but rather controlling the thoughts of the few individuals that were “insane”(253) enough to rebel against government. O’Brien described this procedure as curing, as he also describes Winston as insane, and made it distinctively clear to Winston that his goal was not to punish or indulge “in the overact”(253) but rather the thought. While the goal is instead of destroying our enemies, “we change them.”(253) In this stern explanation from O’Brien, the...
Despite the resilient nature of mankind, it is deceptively easy to change one’s personality through aggressively cruel yet effective tactics. Mental and physical torture is ever-present in modern day society and remains a shockingly potent tool in the correct hands. Winston’s transformation in George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrates an extreme example of the dreadful effects of torture on the human mind. Winston’s mental rehabilitation is a complex procedure; it begins with his struggle to maintain his character, followed by O’Brien’s attempts to change Winston’s mentality, which culminates into his complete transformation into the perfect Party member.
Psychological manipulation the Party uses on the citizens is one of the first themes Orwell exposes in this dystopian society. The Party maintains this manipulation by constantly overwhelming citizens with useless information and propaganda. And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested. (Orwell 82) Winston Smith, the protagonist, is having a frustrating conversation with an old man about life before the Revolution.
Orwell utilizes mood in the text to show how the Party and Big Brother control the society of Oceania, making it dull and lifeless. The author discusses the Thought Police that is implemented to keep surveillance on citizens, stating “You had to live-did live, from habit that became instinct-in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and except in the darkness, every movement scrutinized.” ( Orwell, 3) The description that Orwell provides about the oppressed society of Oceania spreads a feeling of gloominess and distress. Due to the constant vigilance over the citizens
In the story, the book states how they control power, but not why. What do you think is the central secret, the original motive as to why the government looked for total power? (