ipl-logo

Examples Of Manipulation In 1984 By George Orwell

778 Words4 Pages

Edward Shin Thesis and body paragraph revised

Through the motif of manipulation of the public and the motif of degrading humanity with literal understanding of key parts, Orwell develops the theme that by influencing public emotions, the government can gain total control over the public, however hope will remain.

In the novel 1984, Orwell uses a key event that builds on the motif of manipulation of the public to build on the theme. In various occasions, the emotions of the public are affected in ways that control through force cannot. The Hate is an event designed by the party to, well, hate. Everyone gathers around a telescreen, and hate-inducing clips are shown. While viewing, “Winston's diaphragm constricted. He could never see the …show more content…

It resembled the face of a sheep, and the voice, too, was had a sheep like quality…”(12) Soon after, the entire building erupted in anger, anger directed at political “enemies”. The manipulation the government does is very clever. Instead of forcing the body to obey (following laws), they get the mind itself to become one with the party’s. The terrible images and sounds pressure and overwhelm the mentality of the public,and it forces them to become mad at the enemies, who may not even be real enemies. The “enemies” may just be figureheads intended to draw away the public’s attention from the party to other nonexistent issues, so that the government can retain control. The party specifically compares Goldstein to a sheep to highlight how Goldstein is interpreted by the public and Winston. Winston never says that he dislikes Jews, or that Jews are hated. However unknown to him, his …show more content…

Normally, the growth of human intelligence is encouraged and is highly sought after. However, Newspeak strips words of their meanings such as amazing to doubleplusgood, and seeks to reduce human intelligence, which is ironic. When Syme talks about newspeak to Winston, he asks Winston “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it… Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller.” (52) Further on in their conversation, Syme questions winston by asking if Winston ever realized “that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?” (52) This quote shows irony, because as observed above, it shows that a degrade of human intelligence is an accomplishment. Through language, humans have always strived to express emotions. By controlling the language and range of consciousness, is the government not in a sense controlling the public in the highest sense because the public have no clue, and can never have a clue, that they are being deceived, because they can no longer oppose the

Open Document