Cruelty in 1984 Throughout history, many governments have attempted to maintain complete power and control, most of which inevitably failed. George Orwell’s 1984 depicts a society that is completely controlled by the Party, otherwise known as INGSOC (English Socialism), which maintains power over the people through conformity and cruelty. Through this Orwell suggest that such extreme surveillance and cruelty enacted by totalitarian governments to maintain control strips its people of any identity or thought of their own. The surveillance the Party perpetrates on its citizens functions as a way to control the thoughts of people to maintain their control. For example, almost every area in Oceania, or Airstrip One, has a telescreen. These …show more content…
For example, the Party controls people’s relationships. People are not allowed to have sex with one another for pleasure but only for procreation. Furthermore, children are pitted against their parents and are used as another form of police to make sure that the parents are loyal to the Party. Oftentimes people speak against the Party in their sleep, which they cannot control. Yet, their children will hear it and report them to the Thought Police. People do not have any sense of relief in this society; they are constantly in fear of getting vaporized or sent to a labor camp even if it is something that they did not mean to say. The Party is eliminating any sense of human connection to ensure that people stay loyal to them, and therefore they maintain their power. The cruel act of taking humanity away from people who live in endless worry is how the Party is able to control its …show more content…
Winston, the character who the story is told through, is against the Party and actively disobeys its ideals. For example, he thinks about how horrible the Party is and wants to change it. He also has sex with Julia, who is also against the Party. The biggest crime that one could commit was that of thought. The act of thinking against the Party could be punishable by death or 25 years in a forced labor camp. Winston gets caught by the Thought Police and is taken to the Ministry of Love where he is tortured. O'Brien, the antagonist and a member of the Inner Party, completely ch anges Winston’s perception of reality. He tortures Winston with a device until Winston believes in the Party’s version of reality and does not merely agree with it to stop the pain. Winston is forced to relinquish his hatred of the Party, and in the end conforms to loving the Party and the leader, Big Brother. The Party needs to eradicate any thought that is against them to secure their power. They control people's thoughts and emotions so that the only positive emotion that they feel is towards Big
Cruelty is the main force behind society in George Orwell's 1984. It is the main way the Party maintains control. They have eyes everywhere and mercilessly detain anyone based on the slightest unorthodoxy. This functions because the population has been desensitized to cruelty. This is shown when everyone goes on without a word when he disappears, when people attend hangings for entertainment, or when Parsons is proud of his children for betraying him.
The book "1984" is a dystopian fiction piece with battling between different Unions with the Government head the Party. In the book the Party is often thought as controlling over the society’s freedom and loyalty. Even though the Party can be though as control there are still some select characters that rebel off of the Party's wishes and face multiple consequences with it. The rebels are against the Party turning into a totalitarianism government. The control of the Party does affect the mentality of the society by the punishment, brainwashing into their appeals, and the control through technology.
He assumes that O’Brien is involved with the Brotherhood, so he reveals his unorthodox thoughts to an Inner Party member in disguise. Because Winston is still alterable, O’Brien traps him in the Ministry of Love to control his behaviors, mindset, and finally his true thoughts. In the last step, Winston is introduced into Room 101, the most feared room by all the prisoners who committed crimethink. Room 101 manipulates the prisoner’s inner fears to spark the deep thoughts of selfishness. The perpetrator combines obvious cruelty, such as threatening Winston with rats, and implicative cruelty to convert these prisoners into obedient members of the Party.
“The Party and Big Brother control most everything within Oceania. They control how people move, how they think, how they love, how they live, what they can have, and so much more. The Party controls and changes the past so that citizens are completely brainwashed as for
Through the use of propaganda and torture, Winston begins to let his rebellious thoughts and hatred for the Party slip from his mind. Over time Winston is taught how he is supposed to behave and he truly believes that his mind was defective and needed to be fixed before he allowed himself to commit more crimes against the Party. Winston is cured in the Ministry of Love and lost his hatred and resentment towards the Party and belief that he was seeing the truth and learned to truly embrace the Party and its all-knowing
Throughout the book, one can see that the Party presents itself to the people as omniscient. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past" (Orwell, 2.213) Due to the spying methods that are implemented the Party is aware of all of the people's moves, it knows it all and sees it all, just like God. The Party trains the community so that younger generations are thought to obey the Party without asking questions. Doublethink is a method that shows how the Party believes they are never wrong, everything they say is true and flawless.
The party uses multiple tactics and methods to make what is natural to humans not existent. If one experiences these thoughts that do not consist of loving the party, or loving big brother, they are considered a criminal; criminals are then tortured into believing the Party's rules and beliefs. After being tortured, there is no other thought but loving Big Brother. The Party maintains ultimate power throughout the process of language, fear, and manipulation.
The Party uses manipulation to take away its member's privacy. At the beginning of 1984, it is revealed to the readers
When Winston is taken by the thought police we get an insight on how the party truly works. They are men and women who are seeking power can be shown in the quote “The party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the goods of other; we are only interested solely in power.”. This quote shows how the party does not care for the people but as long as they are in control then it does not matter. To gain power in this world is not hard, it is shown as an endless cycle of the middle becoming high and doing the same thing the high class before them did.
Winston Smith, the main character, is a man whose ethics and comportment have been heavily influenced by his milieu. Living in the austere and oppressive society of London, Oceania, Winston has been indoctrinated to suppress his emotions and thoughts and to conform to the ruling Party's ideology. However, Winston's inquisitiveness and yearning for liberty lead him to question the Party and its teachings. As he becomes more disenchanted with the Party and its propaganda, Winston's demeanor becomes more insubordinate, and he seeks out ways to resist the Party's control. Despite the peril of being caught and penalized by the Party, Winston continues to pursue his own moral code, which is at odds with the Party's tyrannical regime.
Winston writes in his journal “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”, an act of thoughtcrime. In chapter two we learn about the Party’s influence on all aspects of life when Winston visits his neighbors and interacts with the children in the Junior Spies. In chapter three, Winston dreams of a naked woman and wakes up thinking of Shakespeare. He then has to perform the “Physical Jerks” while being directed by his telescreen. Winston goes to work and we learn about the Party’s practice of altering the truth in their publications.
Through the people’s psychological suffering, the Party achieved a society in which the people are united under a shared submission to the ruling power. However, this also results in the absence of individual freedom, as they are all psychologically manipulated into obeying the one source of “truth” they have been brainwashed to believe. Additionally, the Party used telescreens as another method to maintain power over the people. The incredibly strict laws and the full access the Party has to view people’s lives foster a great sense of fear. People consider it “terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen” (Orwell 62).
Only the Thought Police mattered”. Because the Thought Police is always watching, through their telescreens and spies, people soon change their behavior to think that their own thoughts are wrong and something to be punished for, and whatever the Party says is the absolute truth. By taking away the citizen’s ability to prove their memories and creating a fear of rebellion in them through the thought police, the Party gets what they always wanted: power. By taking history and memories away, the party ensures there is nothing but the Party. There has never been anything better and there will never be anything better.
The Inner Party controls Oceania, they make the rule and decides who must follow them. For example, when Winston and Julia visited O’Brien’s house they were shocked to see that he could turn off his telescreen, and when questioned by Winston O’Brien responded with “Yes we can turn it off. We have that privilege”(Orwell 140). Privileges such as this create the ideal situations for those in control. The Inner Party also have better conditions than the Outer Party and the Paroles.
As the novel progresses, through Winston, the author emphasizes the idea of corruption, presenting the control of society with the want for power. To be more specific, Winston is a member of the Outer Party, and deeply disagrees with the Party’s