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Examples Of Power In 1984 By George Orwell

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Imagine living in a world where freedom is not a natural right of a human, where one can not fall in love, have every day hobbies, and experience any other emotions for anything outside of one's "ruler". The novel 1984 by George Orwell is a book about a man named Winston Smith. Winson Smith lives in Oceania, which is always at war with either Eastasia or Eurasia. He works in the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history for the Party. If something that happened in the past does not match what the Party wants, then they will modify it so that it does. Everyone is constantly under surveillance through what is called a telescreen. Every thought that one makes the party knows, and everywhere the face of the party known as Big Brother is seen. Winston, …show more content…

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 maintains ultimate power through the limitation of words, which is the language that they have established for the people of Oceania. Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, was created to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, also known as English socialism. The purpose of Newspeak is to supply a minimum amount of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, making all other modes of thought impossible (Orwell 299-300). Winston has a brief conversation with a man named Syme, Syme works in the Research Department and is a specialist in Newspeak. Syme …show more content…

Winston’s job in the Ministry of Plenty is basically to rewrite history. The Party makes up things to put the Party at this high standard that makes people believe that the party is good. The party created 3 slogans that they look up to, which is War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, and Ignorance is Strength. The Party wants to control the past to gain full power over the citizens of Oceania. Everyone knows that history is extremely important. Physical proof of history is there so we do not repeat ourselves again and we learn from our mistakes. The Party has a slogan dealing with the controlling of the past “Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past… We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?” (Orwell 248). O'Brien, speaking with great sternness like he is 7ft tall with big muscles, explains to Winston that the past only exists in one’s memory. Reality only exists in the human mind, not in the individual mind in which the individual mind makes mistakes. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. The Party maintains control by controlling the past so when people look back and see that it was always the party then they will not question anything and go against it. The party takes away the people's freedom and the people's urgency to go against the Party because there is

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The party consist of the inner and outer party. The inner party is very controlling and know more about Ociania's true state. The outer party are close to the helpers that fill "Big Brothers" wants and needs for the society. Big Brother is a very controlling person he used psychological manipulation methods such as, thought police, telescreens, and even the image of Big Brother him self. The first method of manipulation would be the thought police.

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For a Utopian society, Big Brother must watch everyone’s actions. In chapter one of book one, “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen… even a back can be revealing.” This indicates how any behavior that is even small can seem suspicious to the Party. Orwell states in the novel that it is “terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen… In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense.”

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The major characteristic of Winston’s society is the lack of individual thought and privacy. Every aspect of their lives is monitored by telescreens and microphones in the

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The party hides the truth to “starve the public of the concepts needed to think about the present, remember the past, and consider the future” (Snyder 61). Truth is a needed continuous element that shouldn’t succumb to control. However, when the truth itself is not consistent because it is always being changed and falsified, it is hard to make sense of reality. At Winston’s job, he rewrote history to fit the agenda of the party, so his concept of the truth is twisted. Winston grapples with his understanding of the truth many times.

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Imagine a world where lives are on the line as physical torture commands the mind to follow the rules of a party. What would it feel like to live in a society where privacy does not exist? Psychological manipulation gaslights one into changing their behavior into following the manipulators. A sign of this manipulation includes actions not matching words and getting forced into isolation where one cannot see their own family or friends. In 1984 written by George Orwell, an english novelist, psychological manipulation, such as torture, is used to punish the members of the party for their actions against the government.

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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

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While the Party manipulate their people, they also manipulate history. During the novel, the Party have always rewritten history from the indication of history influencing the thoughts of people, hence, the manipulation the citizens. Evidence of the statement was pointed by the author by mentioning, “All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place” (Orwell 51). To begin with, the Party has changed history whenever it was necessary to manipulate people, also, to further justify their action by means of manipulation they erase any sort of falsification that can be provided to show that the Party altered the history.

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(Orwell (16) In Part I Winston was one of few members of The Party who were against the Party’s control system. Telescreens monitor the citizens 24/7 and are one of the many controls the Party has implemented in the lives of those

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As Winston describes what his job is at the Ministry of Truth, he mentions that he has to “rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones” (Orwell 39). Although much of the things that the Party does does not match up together, Winston is trained to make sure all of the events that happen connect with later events and continue to strengthen Big Brother’s power over the citizens. It can be inferred that using a memory hole is a way for the Party to control the citizens and desensitize their brains from acting against the government. Memory holes achieve this task by completely obliterating information that is not needed or contradicts new information in London’s society. The fact that Orwell chooses the phrase “making them” shows how history is being forced to be recreated.

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The Party is working on their Newspeak dictionaries. Newspeak is a limited language, intending to include only words that the Party deems acceptable and which works for their prerogative. When speaking about the Newspeak dictionary to Winston,

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What this is saying is in order to stay in power, they have to manipulate the records of the past. That is actually one of Winston’s jobs as a follower of the Party. There was an instance when a person turned on the Party and was soon erased from history. Winston and others went back into official documents such as speeches and literally deleted the officer. By controlling the past this way, they control the future.

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They have complete control over their people, and have the ability to rewrite the past and drive the future in their direction. They instill fear into every single person by having them on constant watch by these telescreens that monitor the people. This fear factor causes people to question every decision they make because they know that “Big Brother is Watching.” Main character Winston knows that he even a certain flinch is dangerous, because the party is always looking for disloyalty towards them. When describing this he states, “To keep your face expressionless was not difficult, and even your breathing could be controlled, with an effort; but you could not control the beating of your heart, and the telescreen was quite delicate enough to pick it up” (1984 79).

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In this book they talk about some capabilities of Big Brother. “Winston kept his back to the telescreen … it was over though , as he well knew even a back can be revealing.” They surveillance members of the organization 24/7, so Any little move they made was known. Winston’s job was to change the past. “Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past”.

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The Party manipulate history and alter the truth so much so that Winston loses track of time and is unable to accurately recall past events or rationalize his own history. This constant manipulation also results in a loss of faith in his own memory and the unreliability of his own thoughts. Eventually culminating in Winston becoming brainwashed and wholly devoted to the Party. Memory is the recollection of a past event whereas history is the whole series of past events connected with someone or something. (Anon.,2017).

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