Doublethink In 1984

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Balkaran Pabla June 13, 2018 Ms. Arsenov ENG3U1 1984 Essay Do you ever feel like you are being watched? To live in a city where everything you do is being watched would not be enough to describe life in London, Oceania in the novel 1984. If that was not bad enough, your thoughts and everything you say is being monitored. There are many methods that the government utilized to instil fear and take control over the citizens of Oceania. . The government insists on making its own reality and using propaganda to pervade the lives of people. “ Big Brother is watching you” is on posters throughout the city of Oceania. It is a warning and reminder to the citizens that the government will always be invading their privacy. The government uses doublethink, …show more content…

Doublethink is holding two contradictory beliefs and accepting both of them at the same time. The government tells the people something, and the people believe everything even if they have a totally different idea in mind. In this society there are different ministries: The Ministry of Truth, Peace, Love, and Plenty. The ministries each have a different role to play in society and mean the complete opposite of what their name suggests. The Ministry of Love tortures the citizens, Ministry of Peace encourages citizens to think war is right, Ministry of Truth distorts the truth to the citizens, and the Ministry of Plenty controls the market and economics. “ The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty (1.1.8).” The party gives ironic names to the different ministries, but they mean something completely different. In this way the citizens are lead to believe in what the party believes even though they have contradictory thoughts. The government keeps control over the citizens by making them believe in what they want them to believe in. They always do this with the help of their secret police, which leads me to my next