Manipulation and Control in George Orwell’s 1984 Pele once said, “If you don’t give education to people, it is easy to manipulate them”. In 1984, written by George Orwell, this quote relates directly to O’Brien, the main antagonist, and how he treats the people in Oceania. O’Brien might even be Big Brother featured on the giant propaganda posters and signs throughout Oceania that keep the people living in fear. All of the people live in terror with an unspoken threat that keeps them all under the control of O’Brien. Through many different tactics, such as manipulation, O’Brien has the whole country of Oceania brainwashed. O’Brien fuels off of power and control through his manipulation and torture to all of the people underneath of him. Big …show more content…
Towards the end of 1984, prisoners get sent to this room called "room 101" where they are tortured until their mindset changes and they confess to Big Brother. The book states, "Is there somebody else you want me to give away? Just say who it is and I'll do anything you want. I don't care who it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three children. The biggest of them isn't 6 years old. You can take a whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it but not room 101" (Orwell 236-237)! This is one of Winston's first days in prison, and he is already dreading having to go to "room 101" because of what this skull-faced man just said. Room 101 is where you will be tortured by Big Brother until he gets what he wants out of you. Hal Marcivitz calls attention to the use of torture over the years when he states, "Throughout human history, tortures have inflicted excruciating agony on their victims" (5). This relates to 1984, by relating to O'Brien and how he uses torture to change the mindset of his victims including Winston and Julia. Over many, many years, different types of "tortures employed only the crudest physical methods on their victims" and gave torture its definition "while involving every possible kind of pain that could be inflicted apo the human body" (Innes 43). Such terrifying torture methods are used as a brainwashing tactic by O'Brien to Winston and many of his other