1984 Government Essay

Government in 1984

The government and media control our lives. Freedom is a privilege that is acquired, you never know how much of it you have until you lose it. George Orwell describes the controlling government and the lives of people in it in his novel 1984. In George Orwell’s 1984, he shows how protecting the government is through propaganda, manipulation, and stereotypes put on the people. (Need more in intro)

Propaganda is important in this novel. One way the government controls the people’s lives is how they are made to believe something that they might not necessarily believe in. The people of Oceania are supposed to love Big Brother. However, they are also supposed to hate Emmanuel Goldstein. “The Hate had started. As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had flashed onto the screen” (Orwell 26). This quote is about the two minutes hate. The two minutes hate was to unite the people into one room. This showed their hatred toward Emmanuel Goldstein, and their love and loyalty towards Big Brother. (More textual evidence)

In addition to the propaganda, the government in 1984 manipulates the minds of the people.

Not only is the Two Minutes Hate propaganda, but it is also a way that the government uses to manipulate the people. “The dark haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out “Swine! Swine!” and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen” (Orwell 29). This shows that the Two Minutes Hate took over the minds of the people and made them think that they had to hate Goldstein and be loud and riot at the Two Minutes Hate. Although it is obvious that the government wants order, they also want to see the people get mad and angry to know that they are still loyal to the party. (More textual

evidence)
Though the government is basically controlling everyone’s lives, including the people who are a part of the party, most people started thinking politically. People are thinking of how to rebel. “Early in the book, he has Winston describe the helplessness of the so-called "proles" of Oceania,” (Roelofs). This quote helps explain not only what the proles were feeling, but everyone in Oceania at the time. Most of them felt helpless, because they had no sense of rights whatsoever. They had no liberty or laws to protect them. In addition to having no liberty, the people had a stereotype put on them. They were told how to act, think, what to say, etc. If they did not act how they were supposed to, they would be punished. Whether it be by torture or jail time. (Need more sources)
Although some of the people living in Oceania did not want justice from Big Brother and the government, others knew that there was propaganda, manipulation, and stereotypes of the people of Oceania. The people had to love Big Brother and hate Emmanuel Goldstein, they mostly had this through the Two Minutes Hate. However, during the Two Minutes Hate, the people were manipulated not only in having to love Big Brother, but into getting angry when seeing Emmanuel Goldstein and basically rioting whenever he would show up on the telescreen. Everyone’s privacy was invaded in Oceania. They were monitored 24/7 by a telescreen. They were not able to say or do anything without the government seeing it. In addition, if they did anything that the government found suspicious, they would be taken away during their sleep and most likely never to be seen ever again. Government has always been very powerful, from the time it established, to now.

Works Cited: (Need more sources)
Orwell, George. 1984. New American Library, 2016.

Roelofs, H. George Orwell’s Obscured Utopia. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Kathy
D. Darrow. Vol. 276. 2013, Detroit.