“Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing. (Pg. 3)” In 1984 by George Orwell, power plays a major role. Winston Smith is a government worker for the totalitarian state of Oceania, led by the mustachioed dictator Big Brother, where he works in the Ministry of Truth, which is the exact opposite of what is sounds. Winston’s job, even it if is done reluctantly, is to falsify records that go against the country’s current stance on an opinion, or to change historical records to make it seem like Oceania was always at war or allied with one country and not the other. When Winston arrives home from work one day, he decides to channel his rebellious spirit into a diary, a crime
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In the Ministry of Truth’s Records Department, history is rewritten in favor of Big Brother, news reports are falsified, textbooks changed, people vaporized, one moment Julius Caesar was the emperor of Rome, the next there is no Julius Caesar, there never was to begin with, and anyone who thinks that there was or is, must be lying, because all of history says that there was never a Caesar. In Oceania, history is fluid, facts are purely conjecture, and the citizens are in a constant battle against themselves to try to keep up with all the dynamic knowledge, in order not to be vaporized for saying something that was true just moments ago. “The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated” (Pg. 34). Doublethink is the Newspeak word for the act of possessing two contrary beliefs at once, and Crimestop is the Newspeak word for stopping oneself from possessing or believing a contrary or dangerous thought. By exercising Crimestop and Doublethink, the citizens of Oceania are able to believe that …show more content…
Through slogans, language, mottos, and threats of death, The Party seeks to rid itself of all who would dare believe in anything with true emotion, anything but complete obedience and conformity among its citizens is unacceptable. Through its alteration of history and all official records, the government of Oceania seeks to strengthen the obedience of its citizens, it demands complete loyalty, and the only way to accomplish that is to turn its people against themselves, keep them in a constant state of self-conflict, make them think that loyalty and love of their government is a victory, that only once they have committed undying allegiance towards Big Brother, and accepted that whatever The Party says is true, they have won the battle against themselves. Through Oceania’s dehumanization, demoralization, thought control, and forced self-conflict of its people, Orwell shows and stresses the dangers of an omnipotent totalitarian government like
In the Ministry of Truth’s Records Department, history is rewritten in favor of Big Brother, news reports are falsified, textbooks changed, people vaporized, one moment Julius Caesar was the emperor of Rome, the next there is no Julius Caesar, there never was to begin with, and anyone who thinks that there was or is, must be lying, because all of history says that there was never a Caesar. In Oceania, history is fluid, facts are purely conjecture, and the citizens are in a constant battle against themselves to try to keep up with all the dynamic knowledge, in order not to be vaporized for saying something that was true just moments ago. “The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated” (Pg. 34). Doublethink is the Newspeak word for the act of possessing two contrary beliefs at once, and Crimestop is the Newspeak word for stopping oneself from possessing or believing a contrary or dangerous thought. By exercising Crimestop and Doublethink, the citizens of Oceania are able to believe that …show more content…
Through slogans, language, mottos, and threats of death, The Party seeks to rid itself of all who would dare believe in anything with true emotion, anything but complete obedience and conformity among its citizens is unacceptable. Through its alteration of history and all official records, the government of Oceania seeks to strengthen the obedience of its citizens, it demands complete loyalty, and the only way to accomplish that is to turn its people against themselves, keep them in a constant state of self-conflict, make them think that loyalty and love of their government is a victory, that only once they have committed undying allegiance towards Big Brother, and accepted that whatever The Party says is true, they have won the battle against themselves. Through Oceania’s dehumanization, demoralization, thought control, and forced self-conflict of its people, Orwell shows and stresses the dangers of an omnipotent totalitarian government like