An authoritarian regime demands blind obedience by it 's citizens and wants to completely wipe out individual freedoms. There are many popular methods of doing so that have been used by governments since the beginning of time. These methods are generally indistinguishable by the average citizen since that citizen 's mind is being controlled by their government. George Orwell 's novel,1984, embodies this theme through Big Brother; who is the enigmatic dictator of Oceania. Big Brother uses all possible methods of oppression to control the people of Oceania, such as language control, creating philosophical crisis ' and a warfare state of mind in it 's citizens. Big Brother is a metaphor for the autocratic governments of today, and can be used
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This destruction of words happens because Big Brother believes, “...if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” The Party feels as though if words such as freedom are abolished; the concept will follow. Orwell furthers this idea when Syme explains the intent of the new dictionary. He says, “In he end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” (55) By doing this, the Oceanic government controls the minds of it 's citizens and their capability to voice their opinions, which is a form of oppression. Secondly, Newspeak is only a recent language; Oldspeak is Oceania 's former language. Winston and his coworkers jobs are sometimes to change documents into Newspeak, after making other revisions, so eventually nobody will know, or even remember Oldspeak. This act makes the whole process of falsifying documents unnecessary, since nobody will be able to translate the old language. This …show more content…
The way the government is set up, truth cannot exist, because Big Brother would be exposed as hypocritical and inaccurate in their slogans and announcements. This idea is most clear in Winston 's description of the Newspeak word “doublethink”, which he explains as, “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them;” (37) Doublethink is very prevalent in Oceania since truth is fallible. Big Brother wants people to believe whatever the Party says, despite any logical absurdities, which is impossible without doublethink. By doing so, society questions even simple math, which is evident when Winston realizes that, “In the end the party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” (83) This idea seems insane, but Winston further explains, “For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in
This destruction of words happens because Big Brother believes, “...if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” The Party feels as though if words such as freedom are abolished; the concept will follow. Orwell furthers this idea when Syme explains the intent of the new dictionary. He says, “In he end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” (55) By doing this, the Oceanic government controls the minds of it 's citizens and their capability to voice their opinions, which is a form of oppression. Secondly, Newspeak is only a recent language; Oldspeak is Oceania 's former language. Winston and his coworkers jobs are sometimes to change documents into Newspeak, after making other revisions, so eventually nobody will know, or even remember Oldspeak. This act makes the whole process of falsifying documents unnecessary, since nobody will be able to translate the old language. This …show more content…
The way the government is set up, truth cannot exist, because Big Brother would be exposed as hypocritical and inaccurate in their slogans and announcements. This idea is most clear in Winston 's description of the Newspeak word “doublethink”, which he explains as, “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them;” (37) Doublethink is very prevalent in Oceania since truth is fallible. Big Brother wants people to believe whatever the Party says, despite any logical absurdities, which is impossible without doublethink. By doing so, society questions even simple math, which is evident when Winston realizes that, “In the end the party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” (83) This idea seems insane, but Winston further explains, “For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in