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Examples Of Totalitarianism In 1984 By George Orwell

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War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. These are the principles citizens of Oceania, in the novel 1984, by George Orwell, are forced to believe in. With the addition of literary devices, such as foreshadowing and diction, totalitarianism is exposed through the Party’s beliefs along with their love towards Big Brother. Warnings or foreshadowing of future events lead one to acknowledge the Party’s authority and regulations of every aspect of citizens’ lives. In the novel,Winston looks at a portrait of “Big Brother” and feels the power it contains, forcing him to say “[i]n the end the Party would announce that two plus two made five, and you would have to believe it,”then before the end of his rehabilitation with O’Brien in room …show more content…

When Syme is describing the purpose of newspeak to Winston and how a word contains an opposite in itself such as having “a word like ‘good,’ what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well-better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not” (Orwell 51).Orwell creates this word choice to correspond with the strict, society created in the novel. Positive diction is used to give the Party control over the citizen’s ability of free thought, which would make thoughtcrime impossible. Society narrows the people’s mindset. When Winston begins writing in his diary, he knows it can get him in trouble and writes “they'll shoot me I don't care down with Big Brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck I don't care down with Big Brother ”(Orwell 19).Orwell limited Winston’s vocabulary to show how the Party has their people thinking about the consequences when doing something they are not supposed to be doing. Citizens are controlled by the Party and know they must obey the rules. Religion is compared to the Party’s ideas. While O’Brien interrogates Winston, he says “‘we are the priests of power,’ ‘God is power. But at the present power is only a word so far as you are concerned. It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means. The first thing you must realize is that power is collective’” (Orwell 264).Religious concepts used by Orwell imply that Big Brother is compared to God, by being a large masculine face who is always watching over the people. Seeking to be powerful and control the minds of its people, the Party sees itself as a religion. Through sounding improving, controlling one’s mind, and seeking power, the Party has centralized control over its

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Winston’s explanation of the Party and these beliefs illustrates the corruption they experience for they are unable to think for themselves and are forced to accept whatever they are told to believe. Orwell uses diction to convey a theme of totalitarianism

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Throughout the entirety of this passage from George Orwell’s, 1984, Winston Smith is portrayed as a rather paranoid person. While searching for quotes to support this claim, many are found and can be used for this argument. For example, in paragraph 5, sentence 2, it states how any sound that Winston makes is being picked up, recorded, watched, and monitored by the “thought police.” Winston is constantly looking behind his back, scrutinizing the “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” posters, and laying as low as he possibly can. Instead of just accepting the fact that the thought police are everywhere, all the time, as most of society seems to have, Winston is questioning the community in which he lives in.

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Big Brother is powerful, its power lie power alone can control the nation and it can spread to other nation if the party want to take over the world. You will need a philosopher or enlightment thinker to stop the Big Brother. Some people might think like that but in time the power itself will ruin the party. The use like power to control everything under their command. They also know that people will resist one day to take down BigBrother so that why they are doing anything to manipulate

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At the beginning of the novel, Winston made it prominent that he dissented Big Brother and his party’s idea. He wrote in his diary, in Book 1 Chapter 1, “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER…” (Orwell 18). This shows that Winston dissented his country’s government and was willing to rebel for he knew deep inside that

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Even when appraised as the inferior social group, the proles are still watched for signs of rebellion as, “Every citizen, or at least every citizen important enough to be worth watching, could be kept for twenty-four hours a day under the eyes of the police and in the sound of official propaganda, with all other channels of communication closed” (206). Furthermore Oceania as a country, has adopted a totalitarian society order to restrict the population to surrender their mind, body and soul to the Big Brother to achieve the sense of equality among all social groups. “The possibility of enforcing not only complete obedience to the will of the State, but complete uniformity of opinion on all subjects, now existed for the first time” (206). By imposing their decisions upon the majority of the population, the Party establishes the point that only they can control or dispose of any object or person. Moreover, Orwell expresses that a totalitarian government will put an end to individuality and emphasize the importance of unity among all citizens through the use of indirect manipulation and propaganda.

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George Orwell is quoting that power is all that Winston needs, but power is not what he has to destroy Big Brother. Winston's determination does not fail to keep him from protesting against the party. O’Brien begins to show images of Winston body to him to push his limits. Winston continues to blame him for the way his body looks due to the beating and torturing. O’Brien then states to Winston, “This is what you accepted when you set yourself up against the party.

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