The potential power that a group of leaders, or government, contains can be used in a beneficial way or a less beneficial way. A beneficial way as in govern based off the citizens’ thoughts and fulfilling their citizens’ needs, or a less beneficial way as in making the citizens' feel that they are being gratified by manipulating them to believe the government is leading them in the positively beneficial way possible. In the novel 1984 Orwell, the author, shows in a very brilliant way how a government could start using their dominance to lead their citizens in a very controlling way. Orwell uses the book 1984 to inform us that if we the people do not do anything to keep the government from gaining too much domination that they could end up …show more content…
Orwell does this to show that if a government gains enough power they could possibly do something like this. "The real power, the power we have to fight for night and day, is not power over things, but over men."(Orwell 219) In the book there are a number of things that Big Brother make up to get their citizens to do what they want them to. For example, they act like they are a war with neighboring countries and that it has been going on for a long time. They make the sound of bombs so that the citizens do not gain doubt that Big Brother is making all of it up. Big Brother does this so that the citizens do not think that nations outside of Oceania are safe and protected like it is, and keeps them from thinking about leaving the nation. Big Brother also makes up the fact that two plus two equals five. They make this up as a little like test in the torture chamber to test the peoples’ beliefs of Big Brother’s lies. The Ministry of Truth itself is a lie because there is nothing true about The Ministry of Truth. They get old newspapers and rewrite them the way Big Brother wants it to be …show more content…
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”(Orwell 35) Big Brother’s slogan about the past, the present, and the future is a very true statement in the novel because it is exactly what they do throughout the entire novel. Big Brother starts to change the language of the people so that they narrow the mind of the citizens and have the people doing what they want them to do. Big Brother also rewrote history so that the citizens did not have any way of knowing what the past was like so they would not have rebellions. They also do this so that the people only know the way of Big Brother and do not know of any other past events. The very controlling government even changes the name of the land, the land was once called England, but Big Brother changed it to Airstrip One so that they could wipe all of the citizens’ memory of any of the previous governments/rulers. Winston’s job in the book is to rewrite old newspapers the way that Big Brother wants it. Big Brother alters the history so that they can manipulate the citizens into thinking that they are better off with the government now and that their ancestors are the ones who had it bad, even though that it is not