Examples Of Propaganda In 1984

George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel that depicts a world in which conforming is a must, the government is almighty, and the people are oppressed through the use of lies, threats, and constant fear. Orwell reveals that propaganda can alter the public’s opinions, ideas, and values into what they believe in. Orwell uses doublethink, Big Brother and the party to illustrate the citizens suffering from propaganda.

In 1984, Orwell demonstrates that if the government can control public opinion then they have all the power. The government created a new language, doublethink, to restrict the vocabulary and make it impossible for people to interpret the language. They wanted the people to function like a computer and do what they were told. The

This way, the citizens are programmed to believe that the party’s way of thinking is the only way of thinking. Orwell’s intention for creating newspeak is to show the reader how abuse of language by the government is used to manipulate people into conformity and to accept propaganda as reality. Another example of propaganda is the slogan, “Big brother is watching you”. The title “big brother” creates a picture of a protector who is there to watch over and care for others. It instills the belief that within this government, nothing can go wrong. They are brought up believing that without Big Brother, life would not be safe. The clearest example of propaganda is the Two Minutes Hate. The most horrific thing, according to Winston, is that even a thought criminal like himself feels obliged to join in the “hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer.” After the party members have exhausted themselves from releasing pent up emotion, an image of Big Brother appears and Winston is helpless as he feels adoration for Big Brother. The Two Minutes Hate is important because it gives people something to focus their hatred on, while simultaneously strengthening

America’s most famous propaganda include Uncle Sam during World War I and Rosie the Riveter during World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Roosevelt issued executive order 9066, ordering Japanese Canadians to be relocated to concentration camps. Even though many of the Japanese had lived in Canada for many years, they were labeled as enemies and a threat to society. Japanese were described as an invading horde of “yellow peril” and have “buck teeth” and “shuffle rather than stride.” The propaganda campaign persuaded the society that every Japanese Canadian was “subhuman” and could wreak havoc at any moment. They made great efforts to exploit a prejudice against the Japanese and brought it out into the open to encourage the war