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Theme Of Government In George Orwell's '1984'

540 Words3 Pages

In George Orwell’s 1984, he utilizes motif, imagery, and irony to display the negative effects of a totalitarian government can have on society. To begin, Orwell uses motif, more specifically the recurring theme of manipulation and authority, to convey his purpose. In Part I Chapter IV, Winston explains his job and what he does at the Ministry of Truth: “Every prediction made by the Party could be shown be documentary evidence to have been correct [...] Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain” (Orwell 40, 41). As Winston explains what he does for a living, readers begin to realize that Winston takes false predictions made by Big Brother and rewrites them to be true. The government literally rewrites history to make it seem like the ominous “Big Brother” is always correct. The totalitarian government in this novel is manipulating people’s minds by changing the past. Furthermore, employees of the government/Inner Party members like O’Brien manipulate minds to extremities. After hours of torture where O’Brien continually shows Winston four fingers but insists that there are five, Winston becomes unsure due to the extent of pain he has been in:
“‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’ …show more content…

I don’t know. You will kill me if you do that again. Four, five, six一in all honesty I don’t know.’
‘Better,’ said O’Brien” (Orwell 252). O’Brien deliberately tortures Winston to get him to state what he wants to hear. Orwell intentionally included the thematic concepts of manipulation and authority in 1984 to show the negative effects of a totalitarian government and how it not only tortures people, but also twists and manipulates their

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