1984 is a novel that embodies everything that is wrong with government; it exemplifies totalitarianism and all its harm to the common man. A quote by Benjamin Franklin says “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” In the novel 1984, George Orwell uses the Party’s restriction of peoples’ rights, their ideology, and their ability to, essentially, “brainwash” civilians to convey this message and to galvanize the theme that people who allow themselves to be manipulated by a higher power for long enough will often lose their sense of reality and believe what they know is not true. To begin, George Orwell’s invention of “the Party” is used a representation of a totalitarian
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The basis of the Party’s ideology comes from a book in the novel called “The Theories of Oligarchical Collectivism”; with each of the chapters highlighting a different slogan of the Party. In the chapter titled WAR IS PEACE it says “The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living,” (Orwell 188). The citizens of Oceania give up their freedom of thought to comply with the principles of doublethink so they can receive protection from what they believe is a war. However, because they exchange this liberty for, what is really, a false sense of security (since a continuous war is the same as not having a war at all), they really only get a limited supply of food and a sub-par standard of living. This conveys the theme by showing what manipulation can get people to submit to; using doublethink and their ability to manipulate the past, the Party has convinced people that this is a legitimate war they are fighting, even when the enemy suddenly changes but per the Party, has never changed at all. By changing all existing records, they can make people believe that their quality of life is improving when it is actually getting worse. Although people are consciously aware they are being manipulated, doublethink, a fundamental element in the Party’s ideology, causes them to lose their sense of reality and believe what they know isn’t
The basis of the Party’s ideology comes from a book in the novel called “The Theories of Oligarchical Collectivism”; with each of the chapters highlighting a different slogan of the Party. In the chapter titled WAR IS PEACE it says “The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living,” (Orwell 188). The citizens of Oceania give up their freedom of thought to comply with the principles of doublethink so they can receive protection from what they believe is a war. However, because they exchange this liberty for, what is really, a false sense of security (since a continuous war is the same as not having a war at all), they really only get a limited supply of food and a sub-par standard of living. This conveys the theme by showing what manipulation can get people to submit to; using doublethink and their ability to manipulate the past, the Party has convinced people that this is a legitimate war they are fighting, even when the enemy suddenly changes but per the Party, has never changed at all. By changing all existing records, they can make people believe that their quality of life is improving when it is actually getting worse. Although people are consciously aware they are being manipulated, doublethink, a fundamental element in the Party’s ideology, causes them to lose their sense of reality and believe what they know isn’t