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Corruption In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four

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In George Orwell’s classic novel, Nineteen Eighty Four, Orwell primarily explores the theme of corruption and totalitarianism. Orwell questions the nature of corruption with his novel’s totalitarian state–the Party. The Party controls nearly every aspect of the nation of Oceania, the press, communication, thought and behavior are all manipulated and controlled by the inner Party; the Party’s leaders. The Party abuses the power it has over Oceana by suppressing the citizens’ freedom and manipulating their thoughts through the corrupt use of advanced technology and their surveillance network. The main protagonist, Winston Smith, a middle-management employee in the Party’s Ministry of Truth; tasked with rewriting history and spreading propaganda. As an employee of the Ministry of …show more content…

Orwell includes this excerpt to underscore the Party’s violation of their citizen’s privacy for their unwavering loyalty. By suppressing rebellion and private dissonance, the Party is able to rule their citizens with an iron fist. The Party believed in using power to tear, “ human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” (Orwell 266) This further illustrates how the Party used any means necessary to suppress free thought and cling to power. The Party did not only have the power to simply rewrite history or manipulate news from the warfront, they had the power to, “t two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it.” (Orwell 80) The Party effectively, defied logic with their propaganda, revisionist history, and the slogan: “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” (Orwell 4) This only helps to demonstrate that the Party brainwashed the citizens of Oceania that constant war was not only justified, but needed for

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“It’s the one thing they can’t do. They can make you say anything-anything-but they can’t make you believe in it. They can’t get inside you.” (Orwell 166) The fact that he is saying that the party can make you say something but they can’t make you believe in it shows, that was a form in which he coped with things and it was a way for him to escape the world he was living in and imagine a whole new world like the “Golden State” he had dreamed about.

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Winston’s explanation of the Party and these beliefs illustrates the corruption they experience for they are unable to think for themselves and are forced to accept whatever they are told to believe. Orwell uses diction to convey a theme of totalitarianism

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537 Words | 3 Pages

Although the novel portrays the success of the Party in 1984, it would fail definitely today. The Party is a brutal government constructed on forced compliance and torture. Within the novel, Orwell uses the characters attempts at overthrowing the government to further illustrate the idea of how powerful the Party is. The use of characters such as Julia and Winston are implemented to portray how unconquerable the Party is.

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594 Words | 3 Pages

“War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.” (4) Language can be viewed as a creator of power because of the Party’s manipulative slogans, Winston’s journaling, as well as the Party changing history. These ideas and manifestations have brought manipulation, as well as drive for furthering one’s hidden intentions. The Party’s assertion of distraction and manipulation gives a false sense of security to the proles, because it ensures that the proles remain content with their lives and do not challenge the status quo. The Party’s manipulation of depicting the “people and animals a[s] free” (72) serves as a distraction, diverting attention away from the oppressive regime of the Party.

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(Orwell 193). They want to eliminate individual freedom and thoughts for good. This essay confirms Orwell’s warnings because they have fixed their own “truths” just to abide by the government and their lies. People’s love for the Party was very strong they took back their statements and described them as mistakes, justifying the government. In Nineteen Eighty – Four Julia says “It’s always one bloody war after another, and one knows the news is all lies anyways” (Orwell

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(Orwell 162) Orwell uses the Ministry of Truth as a symbol of the party’s overwhelming power

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Their lack of success depicts Orwell’s belief that over powerful governments in the end, negatively affect their citizens. Governments are needed for the protection of its citizens, but their is a certain extent to where their power should be allowed to go. Governments like the Party is too far simply because they were controlling the citizens rather than just protecting them. The Party wanted to control everything: the members knowledge, emotions, and actions. The Party is not an ideal government.

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870 Words | 4 Pages

They did not have the right to think on their own, caused by Big Brother’s control over their thoughts. The purpose of the party is for people to be eternally loyal to B.B. by blinding them with lies. Orwell claims, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four if that is granted, all else follows.” (Orwells, page 81). Consequently, they become ignorant enough to believe two plus two equal five because the party has taken their though production.

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Humans have many unique attributes that they are associated with, however, this can be generalized by their emotions, morals, and actions. To Orwell, these attributes may build character, but they do not make humans “perfect beings”. To be human is to be able to take risks for others and be ultimately prepared for defeat. This journey is what one takes to stay human and die as human. Unfortunately, the Party systematically dehumanizes the mass majority for power and success.

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Markus Zusak was born in 1975 in Sydney, Australia. He was born to a German mother named Lisa and a Austrian father name Helmut. His parents had immigrated to Australia in the late 1950s . He studied English and History at the University of New South Wales, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education. Before becoming a professional author, Zusak worked briefly as a janitor, house painter and a high school English teacher.

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The control the party has over its citizens is a core theme in this novel. Their ability to manipulate and influence people is immense and mirrors the reality of real totalitarian societies. The propaganda posters that are ever present, the telescreens always blasting out twisted messages, the crushing authority of the thought police, Junior police programs to get children to betray their parents, constant monitoring of all conversations. These are a few of the methods used to control their citizens, and it works spectacularly. The fear felt by everyone keeps them in line and prevents any kind of freedom for the people.

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It’s quite evident the novel due to the fact that the party is constantly using a plethora of propaganda such as the Two Minutes Hate. “He could never see the face of Goldstein without a powerful mixture of emotions. ”(Orwell 14) The government uses Two Minutes Hate to antagonize their citizens and create this extreme hatred for the enemy. As Joseph Goebbels said, “the best propaganda is that which, as it were, works invisibly, penetrates the whole of life without the public having any knowledge of the propagandistic initiative.”

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(Orwell ). Essentially the Party is so powerful that the Party is able to change and manipulate anything they want; for example, “the Party history books, that the Party had invented aeroplanes. He remembered aeroplanes since his earliest childhood” (Orwell ). The Party is going to great lengths to establish their dominance over their people. The Party is also recreating reality itself to fit their agenda.

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751 Words | 4 Pages

The people willingly obey and follow all their orders without knowing what they are actually doing. Many of these individual’s jobs, like Winston’s, are to hide and change facts to allow people to have faith in the Party. Many “books… were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made” to hide information from the people. The protagonist, Winston, figures out the real problem with this system and realizes the Party has tricked their citizens. Orwell exhibits the citizen’s oblivious attitude toward everything shown to them and their growing faith for the party allows them to follow the party’s orders.

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269 Words | 2 Pages

The author, Mark Twain, wrote an adventure book titled “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The story takes place in St. Petersburg, Missouri. It is on the banks of the lower Mississippi that we are introduced to the first setting. In the fictitious town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, Huck Finn currently resides there at the beginning of the novel. The story’s time setting is Before the Civil War; roughly 1835–1845; Twain said the novel was set forty to fifty years before the time of its publication.

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