Do people really follow the beliefs of a government or are they forced to follow the beliefs? How could this shape the way a government is run? Some may argue that governments always do what is best for the people. Although this may sound like the right thing to do governments do not always follow that way. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic, the psychological state of manipulation and fear are explored. The Party uses its complete power to control the citizens in Oceania. Many party members, such as Julia and Winston, try to rebel against the Party’s beliefs although it is unsuccessful. Many other members do not even try to rebel against the party, out of fear, and instead follow their …show more content…
The Party brings the people into the Ministry of Love and tortures the people until they fully believe in everything the Party says. By doing so there will be no person that has belief in anything other than what the Party wants. This will also ensure that the people will follow all orders that have been set in place to protect the Party’s power. With the people being brainwashed they do not remember a time before Big Brother, who everyone is now loyal to. The party is able to completely delete people's views on the past so that they will only remember how great life is with Big Brother. The Party manipulating people’s memories of the past gives them the power to control their people. The party's use of torture and manipulation only grants them more control over the …show more content…
The People are obligated to use doublethink and to only think about how to support the party. This way of life causes people no matter what to follow every single action you present to them. When talking about how people protect their thoughts Orwell writes, “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself” (Orwell 281). People are not able to share thoughts no matter what it is about. Winston had to be taken into the Ministry of Love to be separated from Julia since they were sharing thoughts with each other. Winston also had a secret notebook that he would write down his thoughts in which was not allowed by the party. Those who were younger than Winston had no memory of what life was like prior to the Party. The party's role on their people may be seen as irrational authority. Fromm gives an example of irrational authority when he writes, “The interest of a slave and master are antagonistic, because what is advantageous to one is detrimental to the other” ( Fromm 577). This is exactly what is happening between the party and the people. The party is controlling the people’s everyday lives and thoughts which is advantageous to the party and detrimental to the people. By controlling the people, the party is able to get the full support of their people making their government stronger. By controlling the way people live their lives and who they support makes the party gain
Throughout the novel, the Party systematically destroys and information they say is not correct and replaces it with information they say is. For example, the Party claims they invented the airplane, but the reader knows they were created by the Wright brothers. Winston himself has a job in the Ministry of Truth “rectifying” Times articles. By controlling the past, the Party is able to justify the wrongs they do in the present. This creates the mentality in denizens that the Party can do no wrong because there is no proof of their wrongs.
If we take a look at what Winston’s does in the Party, his job is to keep the people ignorant about true facts and statistics in order to keep everyone happy. This allows the party to keep everyone ignorant about everything and make them always feel strong in the progress. If the people were to find out the true facts and their manipulation, they would rebel against the Party. So, the people’s ignorance is the Party’s strength. Through the use of War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength, the Party is able to distort people’s human nature and keep themselves in
Winston, on the other hand, feared the party’s complete control on society and his own life. Continuing on, the party only cared to hold complete power and to force its followers into remaining loyal only to Big Brother. Families were weakened as children were manipulated to turn against their own family members. The party created the organization, Junior Spies, to brainwash innocent children for more power and loyalty to Big Brother. When Mrs. Parsons asks
“The Party and Big Brother control most everything within Oceania. They control how people move, how they think, how they love, how they live, what they can have, and so much more. The Party controls and changes the past so that citizens are completely brainwashed as for
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
The party hides the truth to “starve the public of the concepts needed to think about the present, remember the past, and consider the future” (Snyder 61). Truth is a needed continuous element that shouldn’t succumb to control. However, when the truth itself is not consistent because it is always being changed and falsified, it is hard to make sense of reality. At Winston’s job, he rewrote history to fit the agenda of the party, so his concept of the truth is twisted. Winston grapples with his understanding of the truth many times.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. To finally break Winston, they use his worst fear, rats, against him. After this abuse they are let back into society as broken people. Their battle against the government has been
For this reason, the Party uses their power of capturing potential thought criminals and forcing them into obliging to the Party by brainwashing them to prevent manipulation in other people to fade away and create rebellions. To fortify the idea of the Party brainwashing people, the narrator in 1984 mentioned, “He knew now what had changed in her. Her face was sallower, and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple” (Orwell 368). Julia’s temple had a long scar which proves that the Party cut open her temple to attempt to erase certain things in her brain. Therefore, they used manipulation to enforce the idea of devotion within people.
When Winston is taken by the thought police we get an insight on how the party truly works. They are men and women who are seeking power can be shown in the quote “The party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the goods of other; we are only interested solely in power.”. This quote shows how the party does not care for the people but as long as they are in control then it does not matter. To gain power in this world is not hard, it is shown as an endless cycle of the middle becoming high and doing the same thing the high class before them did.
Due to this, people fear to be their own individuals because the Party will find out, and they will subsequently be punished. By conforming and abiding by the telescreens, people all act the same and lose their individuality. The most powerful way that the Party controls its citizens and makes them conform is by the removal and alteration of the past. The Ministry of Truth is one of the parts that make up the Party, and its task is to rewrite history to be however the Party wants it to be. Furthermore, this means that there is no real way to know anything that actually happened in the past.
In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Winston Smith lives in a society where the government, also known as the party, controls everything. The citizens of Oceania have almost no freedoms whatsoever. There are telescreens in everyone’s homes that disrupt their privacy, spout propaganda, and cannot be turned off. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, which is responsible for changing the records of the past and pretty much rewriting history. There are three other ministries where people of Oceania can work.
Members of the Inner Party were able to say what they want and regardless of what anyone else says it is right. One of the torture tactics included training Winston that “ Freedom is slavery, two and two make five , and God is power” (Orwell 228) The Inner Party made the entire society alterable. These ideals all together shaped the perfect society for those who were able to experience
They always conform by directing their contempt towards enemies of the Party and fear those conspiring against it. Through the threat of rebellion and sabotage, citizens are kept in fear and have their hate directed at the Party’s enemies and are manipulated to rely on it for protection. Winston, however, fears the Party and its total control on his life and on society. He secretly harbors dreams of a revolution and the destruction of the Party. His failure to be manipulated is later rectified through other tactics until he becomes a “perfect” member of society, relying on and loving the Party.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” This idea is exactly what the ruling power of Oceania in George Orwell’s book 1984, The Party, is trying to avoid. 1984 is a futuristic novel set in London, where all people are under constant surveillance by The Party whose ultimate goal is to maintain power forever. The main character, a 39-year-old man named Winston, rebels by having a love affair with Julia, and the story unfolds through The Party punishing him as a result. In the book, The Party embarks to punish all citizens, including Winston, by limiting their individual thoughts, physically abusing them, and by restricting their ability to love others.
Both Winston and Julia have a lot of personality that goes against the Party and Big Brother, so when their true character comes out they end up getting into trouble. Through the “characters’ actions”, in 1984, Orwell suggests individuality leads to rebellion. Winston and Julia’s actions show that their own individuality leads to rebellion. Winston and Julia’s uniqueness leads them to rebellion in George Orwell’s, 1984. The Party doesn’t allow the citizens of Oceania to think their own thoughts in fear of a rebellion against the government.