1984 Doublethink

All of the constant messages and propaganda causes citizens to have no time for independent thought. The constant stream of propaganda is designed to make everything the Party does, look like a glorious success. Everyone thinks the Party is doing well and is a necessity when in reality, the people would be better off without the Party. No matter where the people go, the Party provides a constant barrage of information, mostly untruthful, meant only to occupy their time. The Party also thinks down upon the family structure. The Party undermines families by letting their children into an organization called the Junior Spies. The Party then brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents. They are told to report any problems and signs of disloyalty to the Party. Mrs. Parson’s children are in the Junior Spies. Mrs. Parson is even afraid of her kids accusing her of a thoughtcrime or any disloyalty. The Party also forces the public to suppress and disband their sexual desires almost completely. They are forced to treat sex as merely a job where the only purpose is the creation of new, loyal, Party members. With such a lack of sexual freedom, it is obvious why Winston wishes to overthrow the Party and the face of Big Brother. When Winston is being tortured by O’Brien, Winston submits to O’Brien’s power. O’Brien is holding up four fingers and yet Winston says there are five. He is accepting anything

In 1984 the political manipulation of technology oppresses the people of Oceania and leads to the downfall of individuality and of the qualities that define humanity. Telescreens and the Internet are used not for entertainment purposes but to monitor people’s lives.

In the book, Orwell shows how people are affected by the telescreens when Winston says “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen.” (Orwell ) This suggests that the Party’s surveillance tactics are so advanced that even your thoughts might betray you and get you into trouble. It also shows that people have lost any sense of freedom that they previously had. The implications of this are that the government is forcefully manipulating the people so as to avoid any rebellious behavior but in the process, it has also taken away their privacy. The idea of being heard or watched by something when you think that you have privacy is something that has traveled through time and still exists today. An example in modern American society could be how the brand-new Alexa is said to “record snippets of what you say in the privacy of your home and store it on Amazon servers.” (Tsukayama) This shows how even in modern times that there are means that might be used to spy on people and keep track of what they say and do. This is important because an American society that is said to be democratic and free still has a sense of secrecy and loss of privacy. The people in this society should find it troubling that they don’t have privacy the same way that people in a totalitarian regime had lost their freedom.

“I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don’t want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.” (Orwell 72). These are not the words of a man bereft of virtue. In fact, with these words, Winston Smith expresses his frustration at the falsehood the Party represents. This is, after all, a régime that perpetuates its repression through “double speak.” Its slogans displayed through Oceania are: “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (Orwell 14). Winston Smith’s world is a world where all that is noble is forbidden, and all that is forbidden is noble. Truth and lies are intertwined to the extent of being indistinguishable. The awareness that Winston Smith possesses makes him an uncommon, if not extraordinary man. It is because of this awareness that he rebels against the tyranny of the Party and refuses to conform or adapt, and walk the predetermined path of a meaningless existence that has been chosen for

In George Orwell's "1984" society is manipulated and guided by an organization called the Party and an anonymous figure named Big Brother, who is used as God. One of the main aspects the Party controls is truth or tries to control is truths in the society and the truth in the minds of the individual themselves. The Party creates what they want to be true to make the individuals ignorant so they can manipulate them easier. This twist of the truth by the Party makes it seem like truth doesn't actually exist, but for Winston it does exist or it once did. Truth does exist if the individual is rebellious to the extent to where it will not get them vaporized and Winston is one of those rebels. He and others are able to experience

Throughout the novel, Orwell makes it clear that The Party needs doublethink to abstain the amount of power they have. Doublethink is where one believes in two contradictory beliefs or opinions. The way the Party fulfills their need of the people using doublethink is with constant propaganda and sayings. The slogan “Ignorance is Strength” is especially controlling. If the people are kept ignorant, the Party remains it’s strength. Another example of doublethink and propaganda would be the slogan “Freedom is Slavery”. The people believe they are free, but in reality, they are slaves to the Party; they do as they are told or consequences are present. As long as people use doublethink, the Party will remain intact. While Winston is being tortured,

In the story Winston Smith is afraid of having his humanity revealed. It's a crime to have a mind of your own. The Party and Big Brother brainwash the citizens of Oceania making them believe false information that they have to agree with. They have power over everyone because of totalitarianism. And Winston is rebel that thinks for himself and writes down his thoughts in a diary which later he does get caught in On page 305 it states, “But the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning.

The Party is constantly streaming propaganda into the lives of people living in Oceania and the things being said have been deemed to be the truth by the Party. The three slogans of the Party are, “War is Peace/Freedom is Slavery/Ignorance is Strength”. Big Brother is the symbolic figurehead of the Party who is equally significant as these slogans. Early in the morning, Winston reads these words above the entrance to the Ministry of Truth where he works and is now wondering if the Party will be in power forever. He pulls out a coin to look at what is inscribed, “There [on the coin], too, in tiny clear lettering, the same slogans were inscribed, and on the other face of the coin the head of Big Brother [...] On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrapping of a cigarette packet—everywhere” (Orwell 27).

In 1984, when Winston tries to piece together the history of Oceania, however doublethink has altered his perception of what is truth and what is fiction, “His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink (Orwell, 44).” The three slogans of the party: "War Is Peace; Freedom Is Slavery; Ignorance Is Strength (Orwell, 6)” are obvious examples of

What is real? This is a question that many of us don’t ask ourselves, we spend our days believing what we see as truth, but that is not always the case. In George Orwell’s book 1984 and in No One Died in Tiananmen Square an article by William Lutz, what we perceive as reality is put to question. Our reality exists in our own minds each one of us perceives life a different way, but since the mind can be manipulated the so our reality. One of the various (and most used) ways our reality can be manipulated is with propaganda.

“Fake news thrived during the 2016 presidential election because voters were edger for information”(Mercer 1). In the novel 1984, Winston works for the outer party. Winston’s primary job is to change news, history, and events as needed by the party. The party uses the altercation of events to make people think the way the party wants them too. This keeps them in a limbo state never questioning the party or its intentions. Today, just like in 1984, media and technology are being altered to control humans.

In 1984 Winston works at the ministry of truth. His job is to alter and rewrite history according to the party’s needs. Big brother teaches and practices any knowledge that they believe the citizens should learn about. The citizens in Oceania listen to radios, read signs, and even newspapers that has been altered to the party’s liking. Winston gets his assignments from a phuematic tube, he must change or add to the articles to make sure that the party is always proven right.

Oceania is what we call a totalitarian society where the government controls the people using many different tactics some would not consider to be morally correct. The Party controls the citizens by inflicting fear into their minds so they don’t think the wrong things, feel the wrong way, or even look the wrong way at somebody. They call these things face crime and thought crime. Even the “wrong” expression could get somebody in trouble for doing a face crime (The Darker Self 90). The fear is that by committing these crimes you are essentially placing yourself into a world full of torture and maybe even death (Becnel 73).

For the Party, the past not fixed and permanent; its reality is evident only in records,” (Becnel 11). Throughout the novel, it was often mentioned that the Party hired workers such as the main protagonist, Winston, to alter history the way they wanted it. If the Party has control over what was written down in history, they can easily manipulate their citizens to believe anything that they claim is true. This ability of control over history has also opened up the opportunity to alter the memories of the citizens of Oceania. Being able to control the memories of the people and causing them to believe one thing and another is an example of doublethink. The Party used doublethink in order to increase and strengthen their power over the citizens.

It is very understandable to argue with the point of view that fact does not matter, in fact, this is perhaps the single policy of Oceania that Winston is most against. At one point Winston muses that “if [Oceania] could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death” (35). And he is right, that is a terrifying thought. “Truisms are true, hold onto that!” is the rallying call of logic, it says that “two plus two make four” (93). That is what most ordinary people will hold onto, the belief that a true statement deserves recognition as such no matter if most people claim as such. At various points in the book Winston wonders that “perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one” (82). He flip-flops between the two sides but at one point, the point that people most agree with him, he decides that “if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad” (223).