Manipulation in 1984

The totalitarian regime of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler have left a mark of daunt and intimidation worldwide. George Orwell’s novel, 1984, depicts the futuristic world based on the events that arose in the past. Citizens are portrayed as thoughtless corpses detached from the past, their memories, and themselves. In the superstate, Oceania, Winston works as an Outer Party member, where the Inner Party oppresses the Outer Party officials by engrossing complete domination. Citizens are isolated upto a point where they have no social skills and no right to be skeptical against the government. In this fictional dystopia, the Inner Party uses many tactics such as mind control, surveillance, and physical violence to tie the Outer Party members where they have to obey unquestionably.

Maintaining complete authority on the Outer Party members, the Inner Party expects submission towards their power. The government develops a new language, Newspeak, and demands the citizens to learn it. Any rebellious words from the old language, Oldspeak, are eradicated every year, “...to narrow the range of thought… [and to make] thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words to express it.” (46). Through controlling the language, the government successfully chastens the Outer Party. The citizens of Oceania are propagandized to a range that they can’t identify the false contradictions of Big Brother. As a matter of fact, the government doesn’t tolerate any resistance from the citizens and demands for them to accept any lie or truth they are told; “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” (80). The Party’s power is situated in reducing the citizen’s intelligence, gradually taking control over their mind.

Through constant observation, the Inner Party records the citizens activity with telescreens—a device where you can see visually—confirming that no person views the government as an iniquity. Winston explains, “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.” (6). The telescreens are able to perceive the lowest sounds, leaving no place for the citizens to hide and scheme secret conspiracies against the government. Mr. Charrington is a hoaxed storekeeper who assures Winston that he won’t be reported to the Thought Police to rent the room above his store, which is an utter lie. Winston discovers that he was watched when he was planning to revolt against the government, because “The picture [of St. Clement’s church in the room] had fallen to the floor uncovering the telescreen behind it.” (182). The Inner Party officials impersonate themselves as people who support the act of revolution towards the government to catch what citizens feel for the government. With constant surveillance and monitoring, the Inner Party gains a clutch that they exploit and use like a puppet.

To preserve the name of “Big Brother”, the party uses physical exploitation, generating a consistent fear. The Inner Party uses the worst thing in the world, Room 101, to incorporate fear in the mind of citizens so they hold them in their hands. The officials use the prisoner’s worst nightmare or phobia to shock them to break down their resistance. A victim yelled, ‘“I've got a wife and three children… You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!’” (195). The government builds so much tremedation in the eyes of the citizens, that they ultimately surrender their love for the government. In a state of panic, Winston exclaims, ‘“Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!’” (236). Unintentionally, Winston is forced to betray his attachment for Julia and gives up because his worst fear, rats, are right in front of him. With a perpetual power of creating horror, the government succeeds in maintaining control.

George Orwell’s novel, 1984, The Inner Party pokes the core of a human’s feelings making them slam their face on the ground.

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