Absolute Control in the Novel 1984 by George Orwell

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Recommended: Critical interpretations of 1984

In the novel 1984 ever since the beginning of the book propaganda has been used by The Party to have absolute control over its people. The Party used a varieties of techniques to maintain their power. The telescreens, child spies, and the thought police. It is made important that the first job of the Party is to break down self confidence in the people. They focus on destroying peoples confidence in their common sense, ability to make their own decision and intelligence. How they party does this is through what they call double think. This is propaganda suggesting that if the people are having other thoughts then what The Party says it is a crime because it isn’t what the “truth” is. The telescreens are used to instill fear in the people of oceania.”There was no place you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously”(107) From this quote you can clearly see there was no place to hide from The Party. Every you go they have eyes and ears on everything you do or say. This inserted fears into the lives of the people in thinking that The Party was right and in control. A perfect example of instilling fear in the people was when winston wrote in his journal “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(18) and he started to panic because he as afraid the telescreen had seen what he wrote down. Telescreens were also used to put put false lies and news reports brainwashing the citizens of Oceania. The Party decides what exactly to tell the public even if it isn’t accurate. The Ministry of Truth is responsible for the Party's publication and information. The citizens of Oceania were under constant influence by propaganda. “And if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie pas... ... middle of paper ... ...arved and tortured it’s victims with their worst fear Room 101. Nobody was released from The Ministry of Love until you believed in what The Party wanted you to believe. The Ministry of Plenty is the correct name but only for The Party. As you went down the food chain the less food the people got. If you were part of the Outer Party you got second hand tasting food and Proles were basically starved, but if they decided to rebel they would be tortured so they continued to obey The Party. Throughout the whole book The Party is clearly in charge of what goes on and they only way they are successful is through propaganda and fear. The Party inserts fear in the citizens making them not being able to rebel in fear of their lives. “But it was alright, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”(298)

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