A common belief amongst humans is that seeing or perceiving something through our senses is believing it if we believe it is there then it exists, but can our beliefs be distorted to become what someone else says is real. Can hallucination and distortion become so severe that we see what we are told we see? Through torture and psychological manipulation this horror is possible. The art of psychological manipulation, as demonstrated in George Orwell’s 1984, consists of several techniques including the concealing of aggressive intentions and behaviors, knowing the victim’s vulnerabilities, sufficient levels of ruthlessness, and no qualms about harming the victim in any way (George K. Simon). Much of Winston’s torture depicts these and other …show more content…
This, in fact, is possible and is often a result of being a victim of torturous behavior. Victims of torture such as Winston often experience rather permanent hallucinations or an experience involving the apparent perception of something untrue or not present. Manipulation and torture survivors also often experience other behaviors such as the imagining of behaviors or motives that do not exist, selective amnesia which is recurrent “blanks” about one’s childhood, important events, or people as a form of unconscious avoidance of memories connected to any kind of pain, the justification of distorted concepts, having fantasies of unrealistic attitudes, and interpreting others as fantastical or prophetic. Winston experiences many of these behaviors both pre- and post- torture which can be seen in his inability to really remember his mother or much of his childhood or his fantastical ideas about the proles and the Brotherhood rising up, “if there is hope it lies in the proles…but the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies.” (Orwell
Diction: While George Orwell used fairly simple and uncomplicated diction to tell the story many of his words still have a very powerful diction. In the first chapter the protagonist Winston is attack by the smell of “boiled cabbage and old rag mats”. This is the first indication to the nature of the living conditions of our protagonist. However, Orwell also uses his diction to create the atmosphere of Oceania with lines like “the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything”. These lines contain powerful words like cold, torn, and harsh and these worlds help paint the picture of what kind of story we are reading.
I strongly agree with Fromm’s viewpoints and interpretations of Orwell’s 1984 text. He warns that the future federal powers will dehumanize society and leave everyone alienated. Thus, I agree with Fromm to the extent that he acknowledges the fact that humanity can indeed cease to exist as a result of our own self-destruction as well as the effect of our actions. Many of his opinions and warnings expressed by Orwell to an extent appear in contemporary society.
Because of the freedoms enjoyed in the United States, a dominate totalitarian government where thinking freely is penalized by death is difficult to envision or comprehend. In George Orwell's novel 1984, the main character, Winston Smith experiences firsthand the limitations imposed by the Inner Party on language and several other aspects of daily life in order to subdue Oceania' citizens and hamper any freedom of expression. The inclusion of thought-provoking themes concerning the manipulation of language, history, and minds serves as an admonition for the future.
George Orwell once wrote, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” In Orwell’s 1984, he establishes a government centered on universal deceit to expose the impact of such controls on the citizens, specifically, the revolutionary, Winston. Winston Smith is introduced as a worker of the Ministry of Truth, where he, as well as many others, work to alter or destroy any pictures, pieces of written work, art work etc. that may cause citizens to question the power or truthfulness of their government. Although Smith performs proficiently at his job and complies with the rules of this society, he, unlike most others, sees the lies and manipulation imposed on the citizens of Oceania by Big Brother and attempts to deceive
In 1984, the manipulation of the body is an effective practice that oppresses a population. The Party maintains absolute control over Oceania’s citizens by manipulating their physical state to better repress them. This leads to them being more about their own pain and physical well being, thus distracting them from the suffering that is happening in the world around them, and distracting them from thought of rebellion. The Party uses physical manipulation via overworking them to exhaustion and torture methods.The Party keeps their citizens in a state of exhaustion as they are easier to control, as the narrator explains while Winston works in the Ministry of Truth:
Human beings are renowned for both their benevolent and malevolent qualities. However, when it comes to a human being and their self, it is a different story. It varies among individuals, some of them are exceptionally confident with themselves whereas others suffer from low-esteem. The way a person perceives themselves determines how they apply their personal beliefs. However, in many cases, when a person is presented with a dilemma, they will often try not to adapt to a situation and attempt to keep their character. Even when going through intense pressure, individuals will attempt keep their personalities in order stay true to themselves. George Orwell, a prominent English literary
Big Brother has won over the citizen in the quote because Big Brother doesn't want their citizens to love they want to to only love and follow Big Brother. Andras Szanto view on how realistic this situation is quite different from orwell's views on the situation. “ Szanto said ‘You act differently, and plan differently, out of hope and joy than out of fear and anxiety.’ ” (Szanto, “What Orwell Didn't Know About The Brain, The Mind, and Language.”). Szanto explains how your body reacts differently to the situation you are going through, he says Orwell didn't study the mind before he wrote the book and his view on how the mind work was wrong. The physical torture that Winston goes through is just enough to propel him over the edge, in a psychological way. What he endures is a type of physical mind control, they are controlling his mind by force and is seen rather than an expression like fear and doublethink. Physical Torture is related to how the Big Brother has utter control over the citizens of Oceania, when Winston is not true and loyal to Big Brother he is taken to the Ministry of Truth in order for Big Brother to obtain complete control. In a totalitarian government all they want is control and they want all the control. Physical torture is an aspect that is used within 1984 when a citizen's complete control is
The Ministry of Love is quite ironically named. In the Ministry of Love, they use physical violence and torture to turn to captured rebels into obedient members of society and change their beliefs into what the party wants them to believe. Winston is captured by the thought police for thinking and behaving differently than what is accepted by the party. The ministry of love tortures him physically to the point where he looks old and frail. They use physical violence to gain that power that the party passionately desires. “The party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.” (Orwell 275) O’Brian explains to Winston that party goes to the extent of physically torturing him only so they can gain that total control over him. The physical violence the rebels experience has such a powerful impact that many of them are willing to sacrifice anything just for the pain and torture to stop.
Education is a fundamental value of many different cultures. While education is extremely advantageous, it can also be used to spread unethical ideals and biased beliefs. In both Orwell’s 1984 and McTeigue’s V for Vendetta, the protagonists’ imprisonment and tortures are used as a form of reeducation. However, in V for Vendetta, Evey’s torture is with the intent of making her powerful, whereas Winston’s torture in 1984 is with the intent of making him powerless. Both works note the intent of capture for both protagonists, although the outcomes are very different. They also both explore the idea of the protagonists’ knowledge of what will happen to them while being held captive, and it soon becomes apparent that this varies between the two works.
Throughout history deception has been one key factor into killing democracies. For example, in 1984 a book written by George Orwell describes what the world would be like if people lived without democracy and what kills democracy. In 1984 deception has blinded the people of Oceania to the truth. As people live in fear and deception their minds start to believe it's true. The deception being the propaganda, hate rallies, and forced beliefs that Big Brother is right in what they are doing. Another example would be social media today. This is one of the greatest examples of the truth being lost in the purpose of views and likes. While all choices involve costs in a democracy, the main cause to the corruption of democracy is the truth is expendable
The Party in 1984 uses pain to torture its enemies. Great torment inflicted in the Ministry of Love, the interior ministry that enforces loyalty to Big Brother, “convinces” political criminals to see the light. In the Ministry of Love, or Miniluv for short, they break you down into a shell of your once beloved humanity. Through beatings, torture devices, and starvation, the Party forcefully unravels their enemies in order to build them back up from scratch. The protagonist Winston experienced extreme cases of torture because he was caught as an enemy to the Party. To break him down, they put him on a torture device that bent his back from extreme amounts of pressure to the point where he would black out from the pain. When he woke up, the extreme intensity of the pain from this type of torture was enough for him to submit to whatever the Party wanted him to submit to. Winston even eventually submitted to the idea that 2+2=5 because he was repeatedly told that that was the case.To get Winston further, the Party found out his greatest fear, rats, and threatened him with a cage of hungry rats eating through him. The anticipation of that great pain was enough for Winston to crumble into the Party’s
At the end of the novel, Orwell describes Winston as a cured patient who has over come his metal disease. “He had won the victory over himself: he loved Big Brother” (Part 3, Chapter 6). Both Freud and Orwell break down the components of a person’s mind in the same way. Orwell’s character, Winston, depicts the different parts of the human mind so described by Freud. In Orwell’s 1984, he uncovers the same components of a human mind as seen by Freud, the instinctual drive of the id, the perceptions and actions of the ego, and the censorship imposed by the morality of the superego.
In 1984, Winston’s torture had a purpose of brainwashing, where the themes of control is explored and alienation is hinted and introduced in his interrogations with O’Brien and his time in room one-oh-one. Firstly, Winston is imprisoned in Miniluv (Ministry of Love) for his rebellious sexual activity with Julia, and the reader will assume that this is repression of opposition by the government. But once O’Brien is revealed to be Winston’s interrogator, it is clearly established that the purpose of this torture has never been repression, but rather controlling the thoughts of the few individuals that were “insane”(253) enough to rebel against government. O’Brien described this procedure as curing, as he also describes Winston as insane, and made it distinctively clear to Winston that his goal was not to punish or indulge “in the overact”(253) but rather the thought. While the goal is instead of destroying our enemies, “we change them.”(253) In this stern explanation from O’Brien, the...
The struggle for complete domination and power has been apparent in the past, most notably when Germany and Russia conflicted to maintain control in World War 2. In 1984, written by George Orwell, a totalitarian society seeks unlimited power by constantly monitoring it citizens. This monitoring was used to manipulate the minds and alter the thoughts of the people of Oceania. The population of Oceania is led to support ideas, which they do not truly believe. The lack of privacy and personal belief in citizens induces the idea of “doublethink”, where two contradictory ideas are both accepted. This is utilized by George Orwell to demonstrate political power and dominance. The Party forces the people to believe that “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,
In totalitarian societies there will always be the rebels and the heretics. The entire dystopian genre is founded on the idea that a handful of people will persevere through pain and torture to usurp an oppressive government. Unfortunately, the reality is that a person cannot be brave in the face of pain. George Orwell’s 1984 shatters the illusion of bravado through the transformation of Winston as his personality is stripped apart. Winston’s transformation into the perfect Oceanian citizen is divided into learning, understanding and acceptance.