Totalitarianism In George Orwell's Novel 1984

Great Essays
In a society under a totalitarian government, control is everything. George Orwell’s novel 1984 is based in a totalitarian country know as Oceania. Oceania is broken into three social classes: the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proletarians. The novel is narrated through an Outer Party member and main character, Winston Smith. Winston narrates his experiences of rebellion against the iron fist known as the Inner Party. The society’s leader, Big Brother, makes it so all members of the Party must believe exactly what they want them to in order to eliminate all individuality. If a Party member decides to stray from the mentality Big Brother is instilling they would be conditioned back into the perfect orthodox Party Member through physical and psychological torture and manipulation. The Party would condition its members when they seem fit by using techniques such as physical torture; intellectual deprogramming, sensory deprivation, …show more content…
O’Brien is explaining to Winston that reality is only what you believe it is and the Party only wants members to believe the collective reality. O’Brien also tells Winston:
We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn-by degrees, Winston. There is nothing that we could not do. Invisibility, levitation-anything. I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wished to. I do not wish to, because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth century ideas about the laws of nature. We make the laws of nature. (Page 264-265).
The Party feels that if they have the power to control someone’s mind they have complete control over their life. Another control technique is hopelessness; the Party assures its members that even if you die the Party never will, you mean nothing to the Party, you are

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    1984 by George Orwell was published in 1949 to inform people of the dangers of totalitarian regimes that were uprising during this time period. George Orwell lived during a war filled time where he personally experienced totalitarian governments. To express his fear for these governments, Orwell published many novels including 1984 to describe his experiences he first handedly discovered within many citizens who live under this type of government. In the novel 1984, the main character, Winston Smith, lives in a totalitarian government under the rule of Big Brother and is regularly monitored by the secret police. Winston attempts to revolt against his government with a coworker, but he is captured and brainwashed by the secret police and…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1984 Rhetorical Analysis

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1984, written by George Orwell in 1949, is a dystopian novel written from the point of view of a common citizen named Winston Smith. 1984 is a year where there is a totalitarian government, ruling by the name of “Big Brother,” in the country of Oceania. Winston begins the story by writing his thoughts into a diary, which is banned by the Party, knowing that he will eventually become found out and put to death. The novel covers his story, along with his experiences with Big Brother. Overall; however, the novel produces a highly foreboding tone of hopelessness, shown through literary devices such as: irony, paradoxes, and the tone.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Winston could not continue with his argument, because every time Winston would make a decent argument, O’Brien would pull the dial and put Winston into a large amount of pain. Analytically, O’Brien is correct because his methods with result in, “making him suffer, and making them full on obeying.” (276-277). People are able to be tortured so much that they cannot remember or associate with friends or even family, and it is easy to mind control children.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1984, George Orwell presents a dystopia, the complete opposite of the perfect world. The setting is a post-war situation, based on reality after the world wars. The main character, Winston Smith, faces oppression everyday and is completely controlled by the media. Citizens are brainwashed and manipulated by the Party, the only political party allowed in Oceania. The situation Orwell describes is eerily similar to the one in Germany during the second world war.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The world is full of various types of people, places, and societies. Each society has its owns laws that regulate the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties. In the novel 1984, the society the people live in is called totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state. The society the novel takes place in is Oceania.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this novel Winston shows how he can be manipulated by the Party and society into believing what they want. For example when O’Brien is torturing Winston to “cure” him into believing what the Party believes, he takes everything Winston…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In 1984, by George Orwell, the party got into power by killing the part of Oceana’s population that didn’t approve of the party. This is not a special strategy in itself, it has been attempted in places like World War 2 in Germany. However, Hitler’s deception is nothing compared to the tricks the party uses to make sure that nobody fights them to get their freedom back. The party is able to get away with killing so many people to stay in power because of a few different reasons. The first is that they reward citizens who report other citizens for doubting the party.…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people express their feelings through face expressions which make this saying true, saying that the Party owns the faces and body of the people. However it was hard for the Thought Police to track down Winston because he acted normally, but once he does something unorthodoxy they instantly know. The Party also creates their own language called Newspeak which slowly diminishes the advance vocabulary in the English language. They do this so it 's harder for the citizens to say anything bad about the party, creating others to not learn what people 's different opinions. The Party’s last method is creating their citizens minds less complex, this is like the other methods, but this methods is through books, “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already” (201).…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    How would you feel if someone could read every single thought you have? I can’t imagine anything worse. The citizens of the community in 1984 lived with that every hour of every day. They had no life outside of what the Thought Police allowed. They could not trust anyone because everyone was schooled to spy and report on any activity of another person, including husbands on wives, children on parents, friend to friend.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Totalitarianism is a political system in which a society is completely ruled by the government or any authority in power. Elements of this type of government ruling has been present throughout history starting from the 1920’s with Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to present day North Korea who has been ruled by the same family since the 1940’s. George Orwell, author of 1984, was inspired to write the dystopic novel after experiencing the horrific ending of World War II where many countries were overtaken by dictatorships. He decided to write the futuristic novel 1984 and base it on a totalistic society because he wanted people to be aware of what could happen to society if individuals’ rights and freedom were taken away. In his book, Orwell…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sawyer Linkowski Ms. Lee English 12 3/6/15 1984 In the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, a man named Winston lives in a totalitarian society ruled by a government that call themselves the "Party". The Inner Party controls every aspect of the Outer Party 's (the average people) lives. This includes the future, and even the past, and does not leave any room for individuality.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He understands how the Party controls the people, but he doesn’t really understand why. Throughout the novel, he struggles with this question along with feelings of doubt towards the Party. Another example of how Winston is alienated from society is during the Two Minutes Hate, everyone chants at the telescreen, but Winston does not feel the same way as the others until “Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair” (Orwell 16). During the Two Minutes Hate, Winston’s ability to think still occurs, while everyone else is shouting at the telescreen up to this point. Orwell also produces alienation for Winston through Winston’s relationship with Julia.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Winston, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows (Orwell 103).” This concept is the central idea posed within the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell’s dystopian future presents a frightening reality in which human rights are considered criminal in nature and unnecessary for society. The tyrannical leading group, known as the Party, controls every aspect of human life for the sake of power, therefore eliminating free will.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1984 The consequences of living with a totalitarian government has never been so clear before, having privacy is no longer a right you have. In the novel 1984, English novelist and journalist George Orwell, illustrates the alarming abusive nature of a totalitarian government, but even more so it 's penetrating analysis of the psychology of power and the ways that manipulation of language and history are used as mechanisms of control. Throughout the eye-catching novel, the author attempts to show what life would be like in a world of total evil, where those controlling the government kept themselves in power by mesmerizing the people generally. Winston Smith, an everyday man, is dissatisfied with how the political party conducts,…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Succumbing to Propaganda The human mind is not so bold and clever as humanity boasts it to be; it is rather gullible and sheltered as it can easily be persuaded by the use of propaganda, a tool that can be represented either orally or visually and is used by people to provoke a reaction from the targeted audience... In George Orwell’s 1984, it is apparent that the once Enlightenment-fueled human reasoning revolution is succumbing to the Party of English Socialism’s well-rounded and sophisticated propaganda. It is evident in their outreach; it can hardly be doubted that they have perpetuated a fear of omnipotence and all-seeing, therefore deterring opposing views to the propaganda; it is evident in the Party’s general doctrine, which declares…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics