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Examples Of Totalitarianism In 1984

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In George Orwell’s 1984, Orwell explores totalitarianism and how in society, totalitarianism can be used to manipulate its members. In 1984, the dystopian society of Oceania is characterized by a totalitarian government that owns complete control and power over its citizens through various ways of manipulation through language, history, and technology. The strict rules and regulations condemned on the society not only limited freedom but as a result, forced citizens to be condemned under a society characterized by ignorance which limits the possibilities of threats against the government. Under the totalitarian government, the trajectory of Winston’s fate is shown through foreshadowing his rebellion which began with his secret purchase of the …show more content…

Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength” (4). The irony of the slogan is it is self contradictory, in that, it is understood to readers that each notion of the slogan is an absolute antonym to what it is actually saying. Thus, aiding to the thought that ignorance is bliss and if the people of Oceania are ignorant, that diminishes the chance for them to rebel. Furthermore, the party further promotes this ideology in various ways of language and propaganda. The Party, who holds complete control over Oceania, uses their Newspeak, a nullified and restricted form of language that gets shorter and shorter with time, as a way to limit the ability of citizens to think and express themselves freely, especially when expressing negative emotions. The party also implements the concept of “doublethink,” which involves the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and to believe in them equally. Thus, this enables the Party to manipulate the truth and rewrite history to benefit them. With this, Winston who works in the Ministry of truth is one who rewrites the past and lines it up with the Party’s beliefs: “[His] greatest pleasure in life was in his work…in it there were also jobs so difficult and intricate that you could lose yourself in them as in the depths of a mathematical problem” (55) . This articulates how lying about the past can be hard and he must base it off of what he knows about the Party’s beliefs. Adding to this, Winston sees right through the slogan. “If there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles… Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” (73). This demonstrates not only Winstons frustration with the lack of ability the proles have to overthrow the government but also the lack of awareness of power they potentially have. The cyclical contradiction furthermore proves that the

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Throughout the novel, the Party systematically destroys and information they say is not correct and replaces it with information they say is. For example, the Party claims they invented the airplane, but the reader knows they were created by the Wright brothers. Winston himself has a job in the Ministry of Truth “rectifying” Times articles. By controlling the past, the Party is able to justify the wrongs they do in the present. This creates the mentality in denizens that the Party can do no wrong because there is no proof of their wrongs.

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During 1984 by George Orwell, the main character, Winston, yearns to remember what life was like before ‘the Party’ took over. However, as the government has brainwashed people and begun to control their minds, Winston finds himself unable to remember or have any proof regarding the truth about the past. In this particular passage, Winston reflects on how the party controls everyone, seemingly hopeless about ever knowing the truth instead of being controlled by the Party. He considers how ‘the Party’ possesses the capability to turn any lie into the truth, just because of the fact that they are the governing force in the society, and they declare how people should think. As people’s minds are what shape our world, when the government controls people’s minds, the government ultimately shapes the world.

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This shows the contrast between Winston's career and his personal choices. His job is to alter the past so that everything agrees with the present, however, when given the slightest opportunity, Winston betrays the Party and begins writing in his journal about them and their lies. This is ironic because not only is the Ministry of Truth changing that past into lies, but Winston is also lying to the party about his loyalty. He is not openly admitting to disliking the Party and has continued to work for them despite his moral beliefs. This shows us to opposition between Winston’s job and how he feels about doing it.

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CONTEXT All around the nation, there are displays of the three most important lies in Oceania, “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (26) What Winston is describing is a society that does not let you have the right to feel what you want to feel. The Party uses language to reconstruct your thoughts and decide what your mind should think about. They lie through their slogans and describe opposite views through language, history, and hate. The Party’s goal is to reshape how one thinks by changing what people read and hear.

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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.

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Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal” describes an unknown narrator looking back on a memory of his younger self. The memory is a societal portrayal of life for a young African-American boy in the 1940s. Quickly, the audience is aware of the fundamental difference between this black boy and most black boys for he is the town’s example of “desirable conduct” (336). From this very early point in the story, the narrator aligns himself with the ideals of white men, reaping the benefits of doing such. As it is suggested, the white men of this town have continued to praise the boy for most of his life, leading him to give a speech at the ‘Battle Royal’.

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The first and largest course of action to establish complete dominion over its people is the Party’s implementation of Newspeak. This is done slowly and methodically to strip the English language into a scarce dictionary. The government does this so that there will be minimal ways to articulate speech. As the government has planned, people in future Oceania would likely not even have the means to rebel, the Minitrue worker, Syme explains it perfectly, “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."

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Achieving Totalitarianism in 1984     Before the concept of government existed mankind still attempted to gain dominance over one another.  Once the concept was developed governments remained constant in their attempts to gain control of their people and other nations. Adolf Hitler and other dictators were prime examples of totalitarianism “attempt[ing]  to control every aspect of its subjects, viewing any sign of independence as treasonous centralized party” ( Quinn 1). George Orwell noticed this tug of war for control and wrote about it in his novel. In George Orwell’s 1984, Oceania achieves a utopia through totalitarianism.

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Though torture Winston realizes, “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it” and it changes him into an model citizen for his country (Orwell 80). Even though it is known that two plus two equals 4, the party has the power to break down anyone and force them to believe it is five. Translating this into the day to day lives of Oceania’s citizens, whatever the party deems to be the truth and what is the way life is supposed to be like. Governments that control over what people read, see, and do allow them to shape beliefs and actions to the way they want to. Even for the many enemies of the state, it is said “We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them” (Orwell 166) and the usage of torture to mentally change them.

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Winston reflects back on how the party alters the history of the country: “the lie passed into history and became truth” (Orwell 34). Although Winston knows that Oceania and Eurasia were in alliance before, he also believes that they did not have an actual alliance because of what the Party imposes onto the citizens’ memories of the past. Orwell’s use of the word “passed” possibly shows that the lies they create can easily to history and be masked as the truth. It can be inferred that Winston now knows exactly how the party paralyzes anyone from actual thinking, which is by changing the history.

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The two self-test I chose to take were the Myers-Briggs Inventory and Strength Finder 2.0. My thoughts about both self-test were an interesting experience. In the Strength Finder 2.0, the author Gallup’s made interesting point when he talked about the “A Misguided Maxim?” “You can be anything you want to be, if you just try hard enough.” (5)

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The Party in 1984 Oceania has one main goal: keep the citizens under their complete control. The Party as a group is a massive force that will stop for nothing. Their altercation of the past and the spewing of propaganda tv’s keep the people believing the Party’s every word. The corruption has gone so far that they even drag on wars to make people have a strong sense of togetherness and nationalism. In the book 1984, the villainous qualities of the Party create the biggest impact on the story by causing hatred, converting minds, and creating a new Winston.

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Throughout 1984, Winston is forced to confront a society which rejects the central tenets of humanity and independent thought, and which presides over society through the dissemination of propaganda. Orwell’s novel explores the dangers of totalitarian government and absolute control and is a prophetic tale of power and control that must be heeded in modern times. Totalitarianism is employed to grant absolute power to the Party and ensure the deference of the

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By getting rid all emotion and purpose, the Party is the one 'who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past’. By creating a past that was a time of slavery and misery through the manipulation of media, citizens have no purpose to rebel as they do not want to return to those times. Therefore, by controlling the history of the past, the Party has ultimate control over what happens in the future. Winston is aware of the manipulation of media and his desire to deviate from conformity gives him a rebellious mindset.

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