Doublethink in 1984

Many countries believe that propaganda helps to institute a necessary level of patriotism in their citizens. Most authoritarian governments, the type of government that Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell illustrates, use propaganda. However, the use of propaganda also limits the freedom of people since propaganda can control thought and speech. Propaganda can influence people to believe that their country is the best country by either exaggerating the positive events that are happening in their country or by showing negative events that are happening in other countries. Nineteen Eighty-Four is more about the dangers of the government controlling people’s thoughts by propaganda than the dangers of an authoritarian government system.

In the novel 1984 ever since the beginning of the book propaganda has been used by The Party to have absolute control over its people. The Party used a varieties of techniques to maintain their power. The telescreens, child spies, and the thought police. It is made important that the first job of the Party is to break down self confidence in the people. They focus on destroying peoples confidence in their common sense, ability to make their own decision and intelligence. How they party does this is through what they call double think. This is propaganda suggesting that if the people are having other thoughts then what The Party says it is a crime because it isn’t what the “truth” is.

Take a ponder about this: think about all of the books that are revolved around ideas of the future, and all of its preposterous features that are involved with the general topic. Considering this is a very popular topic there are copious amounts of books with the same topic, but to me, there is one that sticks out the most, and that would be 1984 by George Orwell. In this book, George Orwell writes about these ideas in an intriguing way that helps gives us a divergent idea of what life would be like if some of our daily enjoyments were completely forbidden. As the book can be a bit puzzling at times, Orwell used literary devices such as aphorisms, foil, and juxtaposition to help us understand the true meaning behind of it.

For example, if one were to “Doublethink”, one would say the sky is yellow and at the same time claim it to appear blue. Doublethink pits logic against logic; it allows you to reject morality, but then claim it to be true. While employing doublethink, one can forget certain knowledge, and then draw it back into memory when it comes of use. By utilizing doublethink, one can control one’s memories by choosing to forget an occurrence or experience. The process of “Doublethink” runs rampant in 1984 as it is heavily displayed in the society. For example, the Party’s four ministries have origins in “Doublethink” as the Ministry of Plenty supervises resource shortages, the Ministry of Love emits maltreatment and harsh retributions, the Ministry of Truth who unfurl propaganda and adulterate historical knowledge, and the Ministry of Peace who instruct war (Orwell 7). Also,

George Orwell’s book - 1984 - is mainly about how people are struggling under a totalitarian regime in London that has set out strict rules that it uses to control the people and remain in power. He wrote this book in 1949 right after the end of the second world war. Orwell’s purpose for writing this books was partly a reflection on his present - the war-torn countries, the communist governments and the sheer politics of his time. He was also predicting the fate of the world in the future as it relates to his present. In the process, he created words like thought crime, thought police, proles and several others that have entered common use soon after. The fact that some concepts like doublethink, memory holes, newspeak and telescreens that

These contradictions throughout the society serve as a confusion of what is right compared to what is wrong throughout their society. The people don’t know whether to believe in the things their government says or not due to everything being a contradiction. For example when Winston starts writing his diary of thoughts against the government, it is due to the fact that he doesn’t know what is right or what he should do if he doesn’t agree with the government's opinions on different ideas. Therefore, he feels that the only thing he can do is what his mind tells him to do, and that is to write his thoughts down against the government in the form of his diary. The doublethink philosophy makes the people question what is right

In Professor William Shaw’s The Organization and the People In It, Shaw delves into the debate that is affirmative action. According to Shaw, “affirmative action means programs taking the race or sex of employees or job candidates into account as part of an effort to correct imbalances in employment that exist as a result of past discrimination, either in the company itself or in the larger society”(Shaw, p. 437). Affirmative action promotes the diversity of job opportunities for both genders and all races. Some of the opportunities can cause an unfair advantage to minorities when paired against equal or sometimes better-qualified white counterparts. This can become a moral issue by causing unfair advantages to some people. By attempting to level the playing field, affirmative action actually over compensates for potential discrimination and can place white males at a disadvantage. Affirmative action attempts to balance the application system for college or postgraduate work, however at the expense of some qualified students.

Power is the catalyst which establishes government, leaders, societal hierarchies and civilisation. It is an inseparable part of human nature, which is reflected in pop culture and literature. In an excerpt from 1984 by George Orwell, the theme of power and the abuse of power is privileged, and the allocation of the power in that society is discussed. Lord of the Flies, contrarily, depicts a scenario in which the individual has complete power, and constraints of authority and civilisation are removed. In the trailer, the composer uses film language such as dark music and jump shots to chaotic scenes to demonstrate the effects of complete freedom and the danger of it. Winston Churchill’s 1947 commentary that “Democracy is the worst form of

“If he thinks he floats off the floor, and I simultaneously think I see him do it, then the thing happens,” (Orwell, 278) which in this case the majority of us do not realize how we believe in two circumstances that greatly contradict one another. Despite the fact that we often utilize doublethink today and at occasionally question each other, in 1984 it was commonly practiced and no citizens ever questioned it due to doublethink being a routine. Thus, doublethink does not only be brought upon in this novel but today and certainly from here to eternity.

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,

Affirmative action is an excellent example of doublethink. Affirmative action is the idea of ending discrimination by basically practicing it. Affirmative action says that no matter how many qualified people there are for a job there has to be a certain number of minorities let in. Which means, in turn, if your white it will be harder to get a job due to affirmative action, because employers will have to hire a certain number of minorities even if they are not as qualified as you. This is to justify for generations of discrimination towards minorities by creating a new era of discrimination toward non-minorities. This is a clear example of doublethink in that one is led to believe that by discriminating you can justify for discrimination. Interestingly

“ War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,”. The following quote originates from the infamous novel, 1984 by George Orwell. The significance of this popular quote was to display an example of the action of doublethink. Doublethink is the act of having two contradictory thoughts at the same time and believing both are true. Doublethink plays an influential role in the novel, 1984. The novel takes place in a super-state by the name of Oceania which covers the entire continents of our America in reality. The main character of this novel is Winston Smith, a thirty-nine year-old Party member who works at the Ministry of Truth correcting “errors” in past publication who has a

Why do people that hate each other so much work better together than people who love each other? People who love each other never get the job done it seems, but people that hate each other get the job done fast and efficiently, have you ever wondered why? You may say maybe they get it done so fast just to get it over with so they don’t have to work side by side anymore, but maybe it might be because they take their work seriously and rather work together side by side rather than do it alone and fail. In George Orwell’s Novel 1984 the society they live in is based on hate yet it survives because they hate their ruler so much they end up confusing it with love and they become loyal under Big Brother's watchful eyes, fighting to please him and continue with his bidding. If any one person in the society is to express their hate for him they are sent to a place like a prison or more like a reform center to learn to disguise their hatred again by basically confusing the people into thinking they love him they manipulate their minds and they create a loyal subject once again, this is why I believe a society based on hate can survive because can easily be confused for love and hate can make a loyal person besides their negative feelings for the society.

In the novel 1984 by George Orwell a man named Winston lives within a dis-utopian society. People within this society keep their emotions non-noticeable because if they go against what the inner circle is teaching than that person would work manually labor for the rest of their life. In the story a party known as the inner circle uses a few slogans and sayings to control everything. The inner circle uses all that they say to brainwash people into believing what they are saying is true. The inner party 's slogans are “War is peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is strength” By using these phrases one can see that the inner circle can manipulate everyone into believing in what the inner circle tells

A novel’s ending plays a very important role on the way it is perceived; for example, a novel could have a great plot and character development but having a dissatisfying ending will just make the reader want to toss it directly into the trash can. In his novel 1984, George Orwell manages to link the events throughout the novel into the most satisfactory ending I’ve read so far: Winston’s death. When reading the novel for the first time I thought O’Brien actually belonged to the brotherhood and was somehow trying to help Winston, then, after reading a few more pages I’d go back and in a way battle that thought with the idea that at the end, Winston would end up inevitably dead. It’s that what makes the ending so great, it was caused by