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Mind Control In 1984 Essay

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Imagine a world with mind control today. In the book, 1984, by George Orwell he uses mind control to control the population by making everybody speak the same language. The people are watched by telescreens, and are unable to commit thought crimes, there is also propaganda all over Oceania. This story takes place in Oceania, a dystopian society. They use telescreens to spy on the people who live in Oceania. The population cannot even think what they want to think without getting in trouble or getting arrested by the thought police. The destruction of language in the past can be used as a tool to manipulate language because it forces society to speak one language. As a whole, it prevents the society to have thought crimes, and it shortens the thought process of the people to have a one track predetermined …show more content…

In 1984 they have telescreens in every room watching the society, making sure that they do not do anything against big brother. If the society thinks bad or disagrees with Big Brother the telescreens can see that person who committed the thoughtcrime. In the first chapter, Winston commits a thoughtcrime by writing “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (Orwell 18) repeatedly in his diary. At this time Winston doesn’t get caught by the telescreen because he wrote it and the telescreen didn’t see it. Another example of a thought crime is when Winston writes in his diary “To the future or to the past, to a time when Thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone— to a time when truth exists” (Orwell 28). When Winston is writing this in his diary he is imagining a free society where independent thoughts are allowed. The destruction of language in the past can be used as a tool to manipulate language by using the telescreens to stop thought crimes, which stops the people from going against the

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Throughout the story, Winston commits various “thoughtcrimes”, which are punishable by death, against “Big Brother” in order to escape its tyranny. We see the things he commits these crimes with, specifically with his diary and Julia, to be what he cherishes most. At the start of the book, Winston’s first “thoughtcrime” was writing in his diary. In this society, expressing thought is against the law and

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Big Brother was never one to be questioned, and he made the consequences known to anyone who did so. Winston clearly expressed his hatred for Big Brother and all of the restrictions placed on members of society in the beginning of the book. Despite this, he constantly hid his facial expressions and thoughts from the telescreens, in great fear that the thought police would catch him. Contrary to that outward conformity, he was always inwardly questioning Big Brother. He directly broke the law by writing in a journal, especially since

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In the book 1984, written by George Orwell there is a man named Winston Smith. In this book Winston is constantly being watched by what they know as big brother. Big brother would watch them through their telescreens. There was nothing he could say or do without big brother knowing. There was laws against people who wanted to rebel.

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For a Utopian society, Big Brother must watch everyone’s actions. In chapter one of book one, “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen… even a back can be revealing.” This indicates how any behavior that is even small can seem suspicious to the Party. Orwell states in the novel that it is “terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen… In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense.”

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Individuals suspected of committing thoughtcrimes were detained, subjected to torture, and often murdered by the Thought Police. The Thought Police monitored residents' thoughts and actions through surveillance and psychological manipulation. “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.” (5) The central protagonist of 1984, Winston Smith, was too afraid to look at the telescreen that would be watching him.

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Newspeak, the official language, is the only language that gets smaller every single year. The meanings of words are no longer coherent with prefixes and are used to replace synonyms and antonyms. The purpose of Newspeak is “[to] make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words to express it.” (52) The term, “thought crime” is loosely defined as a thought which disagrees with the party's illusion.

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In the novel 1984 by Orwell, Winston struggles with the constant eyes the government has on everyone due to the fact that through telescreen and billboards with Big Brother’s face on it they are able to plug in at any time and watch their people as well as listen into their conversations. The purpose the government is created this way is for that it can ensure it’s people living the way is expected of them also to scrutinize them into them acknowledging they only believe what the government says is true. Winston has grown accustomed to having “big brother is always watching you” (2). Therefore in this authority its weapon of choice is technology considering in Winston’s society one could never be sure when their leaders are listening in or

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(1984, pg. 36). The idea of a thought crime shows the level of control the party has. One must keep their own thoughts a secret from themselves. People are afraid to even think of anything that contradicts the parties ideas. Free will is completely dissipated and is replaced by fear and conformity.

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Telescreens are utilized by the Inner Party to keep people in fear, thus maintaining their power. Telescreens also limit one’s privacy, so even speaking to one’s self on a personal thought could put people at risk. Later on in the novel, Winston and Julia are eventually caught by the Thought Police in the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop. Prior to being stormed by members of the Thought Police, a hidden telescreen is revealed to them after a picture of a church falls to the ground and shatters. Orwell describes how the telescreen is revealed to them after “there was a snap as though a catch had been turned back, and a crash of breaking glass.

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Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard” (Orwell 3). Winston explains that the telescreens always soy on the people of the party as long as they are in the field of vision of the screen, it also picks up any noise that is heard above a whisper. At times you would are not able to tell if the Thought-police are watching you, “How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork…. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to”(Orwell 3). The telescreens are positioned

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While reading the novel 1984 there were many signs of censorship within the party and everyone involved. Media manipulation also played an important role in the everyday life for the people of Oceania in George Orwell's 1984. The thought police, telescreens, the change in language and how they speak, and vaporizing people in society are all examples of the different ways the part sensors information in the novel. The thought police in the novel are believed to read and monitor the thoughts of the people in Oceania.

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Winston Smith is the protagonist of Orwell’s dystopian novel and represents a non-activist oppressed citizen of Oceania who is unable to conform with the government’s inequitable principles. While in a dialogue with his coworker Syme, he expresses his disdain for the brainwashing Newspeak dictionary “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? […] In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now.

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In Orwell's opinion, the destruction of Language is used to dumb down the people and control the minds of the masses. This ideology is exhibited in the fictional language of Newspeak, the language created by Orwell in the book 1984. The purpose of Newspeak is to lessen the knowledge of the people under the Party and eventually make thought crime impossible. An example of this is in the

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