What Are The Similarities Between The Handmaid's Tale And 1984

The Push for Power: How Governments Manipulate Minds and Memories

The demand for power throughout the government has always caused an uproar in events. There has always been a fight for who has the most authority and respect from the citizens, but if they don’t earn this respect there is always a chance that they might do anything to get it. In every totalitarian government, there is systematic control that the government uses on its people. Whether that control is technological or not, they use this control to manipulate citizens to benefit themselves. The totalitarian governments in George Orwell’s 1984, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale, are the “Big Brothers” in these surreal worlds in which they are trying to manipulate the citizens

In 1984 the thoughts of the citizens are closely watched. The thought police, similar to the eyes in the handmaid's tale, is there to ensure that there are no outbursts of any sort of rebellion, or “crimethink.” The past is controlled by the party in order to control memories, which in turn controls society, and the party does this by limiting access to things that may invoke thoughts about the past. Syme, a colleague of Winston, was unfortunately too intelligent for the party and had therefore been vaporized. The party maintains control over the citizens' memories of Syme by simply erasing him from the past, ridding any evidence of him. He had “ceased to exist; he has never existed”(147). If citizens learn about the truth, whether it is about Syme or not, the party would be more susceptible to having their authority questioned by them, so they destroy anything that leads to that potential threat. Doublethink, where two thoughts can be held true but contradict each other, is one way where manipulation is evident. In the Ministry of Love, Obrien sees to it that Winston obeys the morals of big brother, and he does this by even contradicting his own thoughts and words. When Obrien holds up a photo of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford, that had supposedly been “destroyed,” Winston sees it with his own eyes and claims that “it exists,” but this remark is denied by Obrien when he throws it in the memory hole and claims that “it does not exist. It never existed[... He does] not remember it” (247). This way of doublethink causes Winston to be forced to accept the party’s power because he is being gaslit and is now a victim of this manipulation. This, in turn, causes him to question his own belief. In addition, even if Winston wanted to defend his belief, he has no evidence that could prove it- it had all been altered