1984 analysis the manipulation of society in 1984 which explains the idea

1. INTRODUCTION
“The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their
methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They
pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for
a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human
beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever
seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.”
1984 was meant as a warning for future generations against the evils of
totalitarism. Although it was only published in 1949, its thesis was encapsulated in
1944, during the World War II. George Orwell, the author, had personal experience
involving the abuse inflicted upon society by totalitarian governments. Not only did he
work for a government like that, which was theme of his Burmese Days (1934) novel,
he also lived for a time as a member of the prole, presented in his Down and Out in
Paris and London (1933) novel.
This essay proposes to demonstrate how the Party and the Big Brother
manipulated the population through psychological means, physical means and the
edition of past events and newspeak.

2. PHYCHOLOGICAL MEANS
The population was subjected to a brainwash in which their only purpose was to
please the Party. Society of under a constant stream of Propaganda and surveillance.
Every house had a telescreen, an instrument which received and transmitted
simultaneously. It could be dimmed, but never turned off.
“Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be
picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the
metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.”
Children were taught from an early age to have affectionate ties with to no one
other than the Big Brother. Due to the propaganda, they turned into violent people
who adored the Party. It was common for children to denounce their parents to the
Thought Police. These children were called child heros.
“Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by
means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into
ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to
rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and
everything connected with it. […] it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their
ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners,
traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals.”
Aside from the telescreen, another method the government used to control
society was a daily event called Two Minute Hate. The first half of this program
pictured Emmanuel Goldstein, the face of opposition, giving speeches against the Party
and the Big Brother. The received reaction was of extreme anger and bloodthirst.
During the second half, Big Brother appears reassuring his people.
“Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of
encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not
distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being”
Big Brother was the face of the Revolution. He’s described as “a man of about
forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features”. His picture
is everywhere. An interesting characteristic of this poster is that underneath it, you can
read “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” and it is mentioned that his eyes seem to

3. follow people wherever they go. That is pretty effective propaganda because it could
be as a blessing or as a warning. If you’re one of his followers, he’ll always take care of
you, and, if you’re one against him, there’s nowhere to hide.
“Even from the coin the eyes pursued you. On coins, on stamps, on the covers of
books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette Packet --
everywhere.”
Another distinguishing characteristic is that Goldstein seems to be the exact
opposite of the Big Brother. While the former has “a lean Jewish face, with a great
fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard.” and a sheep-like quality, the
latter is “black-haired, blackmoustachio'd, full of power and mysterious calm”.

4. PHYSICAL MEANS
Citizens lifestyle was dictated by the Party. Not only did they work long hours,
people were also required to take party in a daily exercise called Physical Jerks. These
two combined ensured that the population was always too exhausted for any sort of
rebellion. On top of that, the sexual pleasure was prohibited. The only purpose of the
sexual act was to procreate. The party’s reasoning for this was two-fold: first of all, it
made sure men and women didn’t bond and that no one would take priority over the
Big Brother. Second of all, the sexual frustration could be transformed into war fever,
which was seen during the two minute hate, and was of great importance to keep the
population under control.
Thoughtcrime was considered the worst felony against the Party. It was said that
this crime meant death and you could never get away with it for long. Wiston knew
from the moment he started rebelling that he would get caught.
A facecrime was a visible symptom of thoughtcrime. A person’s own nervous
system becomes his greatest enemy. People had to be on constant alert not to betray
any internal struggle. Otherwise, they would earn a visit from the Thought Police and
be brought to the Ministry of Love. There they would either be reeducated or
vaporized. If the latter, they would become an unperson. That means they would be
killed and erased from history, as if they had never existed.
“It was always at night — the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden
jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes,
the ring of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases there was no trial,
no report of the arrest. People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name
was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was
wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were
abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word.”

5. THE EDITION OF PAST EVENTS AND NEWSPEAK
Officially, the Ministry of Truth concerned itself with news, entertainment,
education and the fine arts. Unofficially, however, it was responsible for rewriting past
events to fit the Party’s agenda. Wiston, the main character, worked there. He received
slips of paper containing a message telling him what to alter. These messages were
careful to mention that these mistakes that needed to be rectified were misprints. As
soon as all the corrections were made, the slips of paper and the original copies were
assembled and destroyed. The corrected material was then printed and filed. Every
kind of literature or documentation that held any political or ideological meaning was
subjected to this. These rectifications were made so that the Party prediction would
agree with the final result.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the
same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,'
ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'
And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was
true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was
needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory.“
The Party had also developed a new language called Newspeak. It was the
official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of
Ingsoc, or English Socialism. Its principle was to remove any words that were
considered unnecessary, thus limiting the range of thought. The idea was that by
doing this, thoughtcrime would be impossible, because there would be no way to
express it.
“Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word,
with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and
forgotten.”
It was predicted that by 2050 all knowledge of English (oldspeak) would have
disappeared. The whole literature would have been rewritten, not only translated, but
actually changed into something else. The Party’s slogan “War is peace. Freedom is
Slavery. Ignorance is peace” would also have changed, because those concepts
wouldn’t exist anymore.

6. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Orwellian society had its body, mind and past manipulated so
that its only purpose was to serve the Party and worship the Big Brother. It seems like
a foolproof system, except for the fact that the proletariat, which is the majority of the
population, is treated as animal and therefore, disregarded. They have enough
freedom to meet and plot against the dictatorship unnoticed.
“If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there in those
swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could
the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be
overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of
coming together or even of identifying one another. […] Rebellion meant a look
in the eyes, an inflexion of the voice, at the most, an occasional whispered
word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their
own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up
and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could
blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur
to them to do it?”