George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 George Orwell

Humans have an innate need for a higher power. Even from birth, humans feel the need for something greater than themselves. It gives purpose. It gives hope for something beyond the natural world. This need drives beliefs, morals, and actions of humanity. However, this need can be used to deceive humanity or control it. When men worship false prophets or gods, they relinquish independence and become slaves. It creates a society of hysteria. It creates a world where the people are only capable of loving their leader and nothing else. This is the society George Orwell portrays in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell portrays a world of fear under the omniscient Big Brother. The citizens worship him and claim anything against him to be heresy. In this world, nothing goes unseen by Big Brother. Although Big

The government that Orwell portrays uses staple totalitarian practices to scrutinize its citizens. For example, the Party uses children as a surveillance tool over the adults. Orwell portrays this tactic with the character Parsons, the neighbor of the Winston, and his children. In the third part of the novel, when Winston is in captivity, Parsons reveals that his children turned him in to the Thought Police. The Party uses children because they are easily impressionable. The children are persuaded into absolute loyalty to The Party not their family. In Novels for Students, Deborah A. Stanley supports this point stating: “As in real totalitarian regimes, the children of Oceania play a large part in maintaining the loyalty and patriotism of the citizens” (240). Stanley points out the maintenance involved to inspire patriotism of the children. Blind patriotism is a major strategy the Party uses to maintain loyalty. In order to preserve the loyalty of its citizens, The Party destroys the human relationship to prevent “unorthodox” thoughts and behaviors. Stanley also supports this noting, “In