Manipulation In 1984

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” This indicates the fact that all periods of time are to be controlled by one individual or one group of people. In 1984, a novel written by George Orwell, the protagonist, Winston Smith, lives in a dystopian city called Oceania. Oceania is essentially controlled by one power, Big Brother. The main intention of Big Brother is to control the government, both mentally and physically. Throughout the novel, characters like Winston are shown losing their individuality and becoming more attached to Big Brother by manipulation. George Orwell’s 1984 sends the message that by the manipulation of the past, a government can control the present and future; which

Winston has a friendly conversation with his coworker, Syme, who specializes in language for the Ministry of Truth. He says to Winston, “do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year” (52)? Through the elimination of words, as years and years go by, words will no longer exist. It is easy to say that individuals “don’t grasp the beauty of the destruction of words” because people, like Winston and Syme, would rather have a wide range of words, where they can be free with lots of variety instead of having contrived, dull words with multiple meanings that become fatuous (52). Once the variety of nifty words are gone, there is really nothing interesting about words, or language in general. Big Brother is “getting the language into its final shape- the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else” (50). Draining everyone’s train of thought is one goal of Big Brother. Without a way of thinking and no way of expressing oneself, one will no longer be able to commit thoughtcrime and will be under full control of the government, already disciplined and obedient. The government got a hold of the past, in this case, the past times language, and is able to control the present and

In today’s society, the American government does not go as far into manipulation as mind control, but they do manipulate us in many ways. Such as into buying products or supporting a certain individual or group of people. We are still individuals who are able to express our own opinions. The American government hasn’t controlled the past, therefore, they cannot control the present or