1984 Analysis

1984 Ministry of Truth Essay I think that too much control by the state creates a dystopian world where no one is truly alive, or human. The whole story of 1984 expresses that idea: control. By having control, you have power, which is the main goal of the party. In this essay, I will express how the Party tries to gain control through the Ministry of Truth by three means: education, news, entertainment and the fine arts. The Ministry of Truth weakens the people through education, especially language. Newspeak, the language that the Party is creating, is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suits the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim is to make any alternative thinking—"thoughtcrime", or "crimethink" in the newest edition of Newspeak—impossible by removing any words or possible constructs which describe the ideas of freedom, rebellion and so on. One character, Syme, says admiringly of the shrinking volume of the new dictionary: "It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words." The Party has the people or workers believing that the destruction of words is beautiful. By reducing their language, like abolishing all synonyms of “good” and just simply having “good, gooder, goodest and plusgood” makes the vocabulary of the people limited, which allows the Party to control their minds and let make sure that they do not think of any rebellious ideas against the Party. It literally, makes them into robots, with limited thinking and with the Party controlling them. The Ministry of Truth is also responsible for the distribution of news, which most of the time is false or changed. For example, if Big Brother makes a prediction that turns out to be wrong, the employees of the Ministry of Truth go back and rewrite the prediction so that any prediction Big Brother previously made is accurate. This shows that the news that you would receive in the present, may be changed in the future and you would have to believe that Big Brother was right all along. Also, Goldstein writes that the war never advances significantly, as no two allied nations can defeat the third. The war is simply a fact of life that enables the ruling powers to keep the masses ignorant of life in other places—the real meaning of the phrase “WAR IS PEACE.” This tells that the news of whatever war that Oceania is at with Eurasia or Eastasia is actually just a way to make the people’s mental capabilities limited, which in return makes the Party gain total control. The Ministry of Truth is also responsible for the production of entertainment and the fine arts. The main entertainment is the pornography. Here’s an excerpt from the book, describing the main entertainment produced:
“There was a whole chain of separate departments dealing with proletarian literature, music, drama, and entertainment generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator. There was even a whole sub-section -- Pornosec, it was called in Newspeak -- engaged in producing the lowest kind of pornography, which was sent out in sealed packets and which no Party member, other than those who worked on it, was permitted to look at.”
(Part I, Chapter IV) This part of the book shows, like Winston said in the book, that the proles make up about 85% of the whole population, and if they only knew what were the wrongdoings of the Party members, they might act against it. The Party generates this entertainment and fine arts only to the proles so they can be distracted and not rebel. This shows the Party’s control and how they trick those dangerous to them, for their own benefit. It’s for power, which they gain through control. I think that 1984 by George Orwell shows a great deal of things that actually are happening today. This book is a warning. I think by analyzing one of the four ministries, the Ministry of Truth, it has told a lot about the world today and how the greed for power is increasing. If the higher people gain control over the people, they will have power. By letting them have power, it not only corrupts one person, but the society at a whole. This is why I think that too much control by the state creates a dystopian world where no one is truly alive, or human.