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Literary Criticism Of Brainwashing In 1984

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Literary Analysis on Brainwashing in George Orwell’s 1984 The novel ‘1984’ by British author, best known by his pen name, George Orwell takes place in dystopian London during the mid-nineteen eighties. The British Isles, together with the Americas, southern Africa and Australia, are all part of the super state Oceania. In 1984 Oceania is one of only three nations left in the world, the other ones being Eurasia and Eastasia. Of course, that is if you were to trust the information given by the totalitarian, all-controlling and all-knowing governing party. The protagonist, thirty-nine-year-old Winston Smith, is a member of the “outer” party and works at the Ministry of Truth. There he is one of many who day after day work, ironically, with the falsification of historical events for the benefit of the party. However, Winston secretly hates the party, but that is something he has managed to hide from the “thought police” his entire life. It is not a small achievement either, since the telescreens, televisions which also operates as security cameras, are everywhere, keeping the people of Oceania under constant surveillance. As little as a facial expression at the wrong moment could potentially give you away as a “thought criminal”. To showcase this to the people, the party …show more content…

Winston, as mentioned, works at the Ministry of Truth. His job could be described with the common saying “history is written by the victors”. Winston makes the party the inventors of the helicopter, airplane and steam engine. He also makes their every prediction, the number of produced shoes during a year for instance, line up perfectly with reality. This is done mainly by “rectifying” textbooks and old Times articles. Original literature is sought up and destroyed by some party authority. Because if the party, evidently, is always right, why would anyone assume that their views or anything else the say could ever be

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