Examples Of Propaganda In 1984

Throughout history, mankind has always been in desire for limitless power and complete control. In order to obtain such power, one is sometimes swayed into using unorthodox ways to gain power. In George Orwell’s 1984, it is shown how the Party uses dictatorship, manipulation, and cruel punishments in order to maintain a totalitarian society. Throughout the novel, the Party creates a hostile environment for its members, constantly observing and punishing disobedience and disloyalty. The novel showcases how the Party constantly showers the people with propaganda in order to shift them in favour of the Party. Furthermore, the Party rewrites history to ensure that society only thinks and believes what the Party tells them. Therefore, a society

is made to become totalitarian through the government’s use of fear and manipulation, resulting in society to become enslaved by those in power hence losing its free will and judgement.
The Party instills fear into people’s lives so that they are forced into following the rules set by the Party. The environment created by the Party is one where people are always being watched and one where an individual must succumb to the pressures and expectations of the Party. Even in their own homes people must be wary of their actions, “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away” (Orwell, 65). Party members are never truly alone and are always in fear of being watched or caught in the act of thoughtcrime or facecrime. During hate week, people must express the correct reaction in order to remain undetected by others. Even within family people were constantly watched, Parsons for example was turned in by his own daughter for thoughtcrime. This hostile atmosphere the Party creates makes people live in fear of getting caught, this being evident when even a brainwashed fool like Parsons ends up in the Ministry of Love. To add on, since people are constantly being turned against each other there is no one left to trust in such a society. As a result, one’s only choice is to follow orders or risk getting caught and vapourized. Not only does the Party use fear and constant surveillance to control society’s actions, but they also manipulate society’s thoughts in order to obtain complete power.
The Party uses propaganda and manipulates the minds of society so that it can fully control the thoughts of the people.

The entirety of the Party itself is based on manipulation as stated by the Party slogan,“WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (Orwell, 7). The Party promotes the phrase war is peace because of the fact that when a country is at war its people only have one main concern, the enemy. When society lives in fear of war, the people do not think about how the government is treating them, but are more concerned with defeating the enemy and helping their country prevail. As a result, the Party benefits from the fear of war by creating the illusion that they are doing everything in their power to ensure victory. An example of this being when the Party sends out fake statistics of productivity or when news is spread about recent victories against the enemy. In addition, the phrase freedom is slavery is also greatly advocated by the party. The Party portrays Big Brother as all-knowing, and tricks society into thinking that Big Brother knows best for the people. The Party makes people think that by mindlessly following Big Brother, all decisions and responsibilities will be left to him making their lives easier, hence true freedom is becoming a slave to the Party and following all orders. Similarly, ignorance is strength is how the Party keeps society under control and not rebelling. The Party manipulates people by keeping them stupid so they do not

form personal opinions or care, and so they do not know anything other than Big Brother’s orders. Moreover, the Party attempts to attain complete control of people’s minds even through the language, newspeak. Newspeak is utilized since it requires less thought and less words to put the point across. As less words are left in the vocabulary, newspeak limits one’s thought process which in turn makes the mind easier to control. To further create a totalitarian society, the Party does not stop at control of minds or actions, but is also in control of history and fact.
The Party further creates a totalitarian society by being able to control and manipulate history.

Everything that people can know and learn come from historic records, books, and pure fact and logic. When a government is in control of such things, total power can be achieved “Who controls the past, ran the Party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell, 37). Since the Party is in power, they control the present and in turn can control the past which influences the future. In the novel, the Party changes the past so often that people do not know what is real or what is not real. This creates a feeling of uncertainty amongst society and leaves them with no choice but to believe exactly what the Party is telling them. An example being when the Party changed who they are at war with, but no one questions the change since all evidence of it has been removed and changed by the Ministry of Truth. In addition, since the Party themselves are rewriting history they can make it so they are always right and doing good for the country. To add on, since the Party controls all records they also have the ability to erase/vapourize people and events from existence. This gives the Party the ability to remove all flaw from their system and to remove anyone that can oppose them. This manipulation of the past helps the Party keep society uniform and perpetual so that there can never be an idea or person in existence that opposes them. Moreover the

manipulation and control of the past help the Party maintain a totalitarian society.