1984 Structural Functionalism Essay

George Orwell’s novel, 1984 can best be analyzed using structural functionalism as this society does not allow for competition. The whole point of Big Brother is to keep the people in this society from rebelling because Big Brother is always watching through the telescreens which appear all over within the novel. The government comes up with jobs like Winston’s in order to lie to its citizens to keep them happy or at least willing to do the task at hand to keep the society going. The relation of the jobs and the number of people assigned to similar jobs suggests an interdependence and these jobs keep the people doing what the government wants them to and keeps the society moving smoothly, without disruption. When Winston writes in his diary, “Down with Big Brother” he moves from being a functional cog in the machine to becoming dysfunctional, according to structural functionalism. The most prominent manifest function in 1984 is manipulation of the masses. The government has manipulated the past by controlling the present and controls the present because they have manipulated the past. The …show more content…
When Winston goes to meet with O’Brien it is made abundantly clear that everyone knows they are being watched via the telescreens as O’Brien turns off the telescreen to speak with Winston. This was to buy Winston’s trust as we learn later in the novel that O’Brien has already been changed by the Party and is now one of their agents and a member of the Inner Party. Turning off the telescreen was supposed to symbolize that the Party was no longer watching and that O’Brien’s home was a safe haven even though this was really the opposite. So the Party was able to employ not only the use of the telescreen to learn of rebellion but the act of having its agents discontinue use of the telescreen to gain more information of any