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Big Brother's Techniques Unfolded

Decent Essays

1984, written by George Orwell, is a story that takes place in a country called Oceania, where the ruling Party and its leader, Big Brother, seeks absolute power over its people. Towards the end of the story you figure you out that Big Brother isn’t a real man. Big Brother’s soul purpose is to be a hero for the people. In actuality, he is imaginary and the Party is behind Big Brother. The Party uses Big Brother to be able to exhibit itself to the world. His function is to be a focusing point of love, fear, and reverence, all which are emotions that are more easily felt towards an individual rather than a group. Also through Big Brother, the Party can gain absolute power through a series of techniques. Some examples are physical and mental restrictions, surveillance, and degradation of expression and language to gain control of the people's minds. Physical and mental restriction include a world void of any intimacy between two people and of family loyalties and close friendships. “The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act” (65). Anything that could disrupt loyalty to the Party was a threat and must me eliminated. Love is a powerful act that can destroy the power of the Party. All marriages must be approved by the Party. If the Party senses a physical attraction between the two, the marriage is denied. To the Party, the

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