Power And Control In 1984 By George Orwell

The definition of power is, “possession of control, authority, or influence over others'' (Merriam-Webster). Control is defined as “to reduce the incidence or severity of especially to innocuous levels”(Merriam-Webster). Power and control have influenced our sense of self, whether it be good or bad, it can have an effect on humans. It has shown its effect through books, such as 1984, where power and control may influence your sense of self to conform with Big Brother or turn your back on him. An article by ABC News discusses how the Chinese government uses its power and control to influence people’s sense of self. The article goes into depth about two people that have different experiences on whether power and control are beneficial or detrimental

The Party uses something called, “Two Minuets Hate.” Two Minutes Hate was the face of Emmanuel Goldstein who was “the primal traitor, the earilest defiler of the Party’s purity” (Orwell 12). According to Orwell, Goldstein followed closely to Big Brother and then turned against him, and then was punished with death. Goldstein’s speeches of hate typically consisted of things such as the thought of free speech and free thinking, which was not the norm for the people of Oceania. This could argue that it would be using power and control to change one's sense of self because Goldstein is merily looked at as a “bad person” by the people of Oceania. For these people, it would be a prime example of how not to rebel against Big Brother and the Party. Opposite to that would be that by having Goldstein reveal the truth behind Big Brother and that Goldstein is really the good person and Big Brother is the

The telescreen watched over everything that the people of Oceania are being constantly watched. The book says” (Orwell 3), and you could not shut it off completely. The telescreen was a constant reminder of Big Brother always watching, the power and control of the telescreen can affect one's sense of self. A Psychology paper submitted to the Open Journal of Social Sciences says that “high-power people will use more hostile strategies and allocate more benefits to themselves” (Huang et al.) This could say that Big Brother was using his power to control the people of Oceania, the hostile strategies being the telescreen always watching and listening. One could argue that is not for any benefit of Big Brother, but to rather keep the people of Oceania safe. Big Brother also used things like Newspeak. Newspeak was, “allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step” (Orwell). Newspeak could have been a way for the people of Oceania to become less and less intelligent or to make it easier for people to communicate with each