Totalitarian Regime In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

Countless totalitarian regimes throughout history have exercised their power and asserted their dominance through the dismantling of the free press, dissemination of misinformation and violence, all in the name of enforcing conformity to state doctrine. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell describes this idea in detail within the context of the fictional state of Oceania through his now oft-referenced quote, “two and two make five.” In his effort to warn against the effects on totalitarianism on the governed peoples, Orwell shows in his writing how the fictional Party can control all aspects of life by simply dictating what information is present among the populace to the point where citizens will believe anything the Party says. Through …show more content…
As soon as the protagonist Winston Smith enters his apartment, he is instantly confronted by a telescreen “babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan.” However, in the exposition, the setting of the novel starkly contrasts what the Party is choosing to publicize through the telescreen. Winston’s London is a dilapidated, run-down mess of neglect and poverty. The state of the environment which surrounds Winston is reflective of Orwell’s purpose in writing Nineteen Eighty-Four. In his effort to warn about totalitarianism, the book starts off with a description of London and Winston’s decrepit apartments. Orwell then juxtaposes this with what the Party chooses to broadcast through the telescreen, which gives no indication of anything in Oceania being awry. Unfortunately, as seen further into the novel, what seems like the vast majority of the populace does not pick up on the Party’s doubtable broadcast through the telescreens. They have come to believe the Party doctrine without thinking twice because they do not know better. When Oceania’s allegiances quickly change in the war abroad and the name of the enemy is changed mid-speech, the massive throngs of people gathered to hear the speech barely bat an eyelash, changing their own beliefs right away. Orwell uses this event to evoke disbelief in readers, that anyone would actually believe what the Party is saying since it appears clearly false to the reader. However, this is Orwell’s very point, that totalitarian regime can create a world in which everyone believes whatever the Party wants them to by making the Party themselves the only source of information available. Through this, the Party can even make people believe that two and two make