Examples Of Propaganda In 1984

Forms of Propaganda in 1984 by George Orwell

1984 by George Orwell, portraits a dystopian society, lead by a totalitarian government which uses many different forms of propaganda to control the populous. These forms of propaganda include psychological manipulation, including destroying facts of the past. Another form of propaganda is fear, including constant surveillance. There are also more typical forms such as euphemisms and transfer. Through these forms of propaganda, the government controls the actions and thoughts of the populous, but also their lives and how they live them.

One of the forms of propaganda used by the totalitarian government of 1984 is transfer. Transfer is when feelings or ideas are shifted to a person, from another

person. In this book, the oppressive party encourages the people to focus all their hate on Emmanuel Goldstein and the Brotherhood, rather than the Party itself in something called the Two Minutes Hate.

Emmanuel Goldstein is explained as “...the renegade and backslider who once, long ago (how long ago, nobody quite remembered), had been one of the leading figures of the Party…” (p. 11). This shows how the government in trying to blame everything on Emmanuel Goldstein, so that their loyal followers will not question them, and rather hate Goldstein as much as they do. You can see an example of Transfer on page 11, in which the Two Minutes Hate just began. Here Orwell wrote: “As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the enemy of the People had flashed onto the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience. The little sandy-haired woman gave a squeak of mingled fear and disgust.” (p.11) This shows again how the oppressive party of 1984 uses Goldstein in a way, that nobody will rebel against them, because they aren’t aware of the fact that they are angry at the government, not Goldstein. The next form of typical propaganda is euphemism. Euphemisms are more polite and indirect ways to say something that may be seen as harsh or impolite or suggest something unpleasant. Euphemisms are not used in a conventional way here and are used more as an opposite of euphemism or an ironic form of it. An example of this

anti-euphemism is the day Syme vanishes. Here Orwell wrote: “Syme had vanished… A few thoughtless people commented on his absence. On the next day nobody mentioned him. On the third day Winston went into the vestibule of the Records Department to look at the notice board. One of the notices carried a printed list of the members of the Chess Committee, of whom Syme had been one...Syme had ceased to exist he had never existed.” (p. 147). This shows, that vaporization is in fact worse than dying, so calling death vaporization is not euphemism, because it is worse. It is more like an anti-euphemism. When somebody says that someone has passed away, it sounds better than died. However when someone says that somebody has been vaporized, it is worse than death, because it is as though they have never existed and nobody can prove they ever did exist. These forms of propaganda have been used throughout history to control and change the minds of the people, from recruitment posters to acne medication ads. Therefore the use of these propaganda forms makes sense, especially considering that Orwell was trying to warn people of what governments are capable of.
Psychological manipulation plays a big role in 1984, as most things that the oppressive Party does, manipulates the society they lead. The Party destroys evidence of any past wars and destroys evidence of certain people having ever existed, which destroys what the people lead by the Party believe to be true. The Party therefore has total control of thoughts and of the history. One example of this is when Winston is trying to convince Julia of the fact, that they had in fact not always been at war with Eurasia. Here she says: “”I thought we’d always been at war with Eurasia,” she said vaguely. It frightened him a little...He argued with her about it for perhaps a quarter of an hour. In the end he succeeded in forcing her memory back until she did dimly recall that at one time Eastasia and not Eurasia had been the enemy.” (p. 154) Here you can see, that the Party erases all evidence of any other wars, so that people cannot remember a time when those wars were not happening. The oppressive Party of 1984 is trying to seem more reliable and they do not want anything that can prove them wrong. There is no historical proof of any war before this one. The government of 1984 also tries to take away all ability for people of this society to think on their own. When Syme is trying to convince Winston of the greatness of Newspeak, he says “ Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” (p. 52) This makes it clear, that the tyrannous government of 1984 is trying to make thoughts against them impossible, making everybody just follow them like sheep. The Party of 1984, does not want any rebellion against them, which you can tell, because they are making any form of rebellion impossible.
The oppressive government of 1984 uses fear as the main use of propaganda. The characters of this book fear for their lives and fear torture and vaporization, as they do not agree with the ideas of the party. A couple different methods are used to enforce fear in the community. One of these methods is the encouragement for children to spy. An example of this is when Mr. parsons is speaking about his children and says: “All they think about is the Spies, and the war, of course. D’you know what that little girl of mine did last Saturday… slipped off from the hike, and spent the whole afternoon following a strange man… when they go into Amersham, handed him over to the patrols.” (p. 57) This is clear evidence of the fact that children, young boys and girls who are far from developed, are brainwashed from the beginning to think what the Party tells them and to spy for the Party. The government of 1984 tells children from the beginning what they must do, and them being children who think and believe what you tell them, they follow the directions of the Party. Another enforcement of fear is the thought police and how they always watch, pretending to be friends and allies, but instead spy and tell the Party everything. Something that very clearly shows what the Thought Police does is when Winston and Julia are in their hideout and are caught by Mr. Charrington, a member of the thought Police. Here it is written: ““It was behind the picture,” breathed Julia...and then another quite different voice, a think cultivated voice which Winston had the impression of having heard before, struck in… It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police.” (p. 223-224) This quote proves that the Thought Police makes you believe one thing, makes you trust them, but then turns on you and turns you into the Party. Mr. Charrington was a trusted character for Winston, however Mr. Charrington was the person that was endangering Winston and Julia from the beginning. He was watching from the beginning. You can see that he was watching the whole time when it says: “He usually stopped to talk with Mr. Charrington for a few minutes on his way upstairs...He seemed glad of the opportunity to talk.” (p.150) Mr. Charrington was glad to speak, because he wanted to gather more information that could be used against Winston and Julia. This becomes clear later in the book. There is constant surveillance for all characters, whether it is the Thought Police or the telescreens, which is also visible in this quote. Fear was a very important element for Orwell in 1984, because it shows how bad life really is under a totalitarian regime, which Orwell was trying to do in order to warn people.
Orwell was very afraid of totalitarian governments and tried to warn people of this through his writing. It is visible, how the oppressive government of 1984 controls its populous using forms of propaganda including psychological manipulation, which means destroying facts of the past. Another form of propaganda is fear, including constant surveillance. There are also more typical forms such as euphemisms and transfer. Through these forms of propaganda, the government controls the actions and thoughts of the populous, but also their lives and how they live them. In Orwell’s presentation of different forms of propaganda, he has made the true intent of totalitarian governments very clear.