George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1949, influenced by several events of the early 20th century. Totalitarian dictators like Stalin who ruled through terror and executed millions contributed to Orwell's dystopian vision of the future. He was concerned about privacy issues like government surveillance, corporations collecting consumer data, and employers monitoring employees. Orwell depicted extreme forms of psychological manipulation and physical control by the ruling party in 1984 to gain absolute power, including constant reminders of being watched, endless propaganda, rewriting history, and torture.

1. It was Orwell’s vision
of the future

2. • Several events of the early 20th century,
including contributed to Orwell's mood in
writing 1984.

3. Why Write
1984?

6. The bomb changed people's perceptions of the
potential outcomes of warfare and made people
contemplate the future of the human race.

8. . For example, in 1949, Stalin was the dictator of the
Soviet Union. He ruled by terror and executed millions
of people, including people who had helped him rise to
power and peasants who opposed his collective
agriculture program.

9. Privacy
1984
• Telescreens are
everywhere (except for
where the Proles live and
work).
• Workplace monitoring—
Winston can't look at a
note on his desk or dwell
too long on a single
document.
• Thought Police interpret
people's facial expressions
and voice intonations.
• Spies—one never knows
whom to trust.
Today
• FBI surveillance
• Corporations collecting
data on consumers
• Internet privacy issues
• Drug testing at the
workplace or school
• Employers monitoring
employees' e-mails, phone
calls, or bathroom usage

11. Absolute power, corrupts absolutely

15. The psychological manipulation stems from the constant
reminded that "Big Brother Is Watching," the endless
presence of the telescreens, the constant stream of
propaganda, the "Hate" moments, etc. Most of the forms of
manipulation are developed through technology and
fictional enemies created by the Party to do just that -
manipulate.

16. The use of language as mind control is one of Orwell's
masterful messages left in 1984. The use of newspeak -
which had the goal of altering the structure of the language
so that it would be impossible to even conceive certain ideas
since there would be no words with which to describe or think
them - is prevalent throughout the novel. The constant
refinement of newspeak causes its effects to bleed into that
of the psychological manipulation and the control of
information.

17. Physical control is expressed through the mandatory
workout times with the Physical Jerks, the long and
monotonies days of work, and the continual state of
exhaustion. In the last book, the idea of physical control
develops more fully when Winston is subject to physical
torture until he breaks and agrees with all The Party says.