1984 Analytical Essay Rough Draft

1984 Analytical Essay Final Draft In the novel 1984, George Orwell demonstrates to the people of the future how one governing body can manage to manipulate a whole country such as Oceania. Throughout our past we have seen totalitarian governments take absolute control over their countries. Some examples of leaders of countries that have demonstrated a totalitarian regime are Hitler and Stalin in World War II. Totalitarianism is a manipulative dictatorship that strives to limit the freedoms, abolish individuality, and brainwash its citizens (dictionary.com). In the totalitarian society of Oceania, people are controlled in every possible way. Rhetoric and language are constantly used by Big Brother, the figurehead leader, to maintain power over the society. Newspeak uses meaningless words to keep the thought of rebellion and freedom out of peoples’ minds. Doublethink encourages people to hold two contradictory ideas at once, accepting them both as truth. The Ministry of Truth is devoted to changing past history to conform with current government goals. The author leads us to recognize that all too often, instances of similar attempts at mind control by mass media occur in today's real world. (Johnson, Hayden) Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term totalitario in the early 1920s to describe the new fascist state of Italy, which he further described as: “All within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.” By the beginning of World War II, “totalitarian” had become synonymous with absolute and oppressive single-party government (Encyclopædia Britannica). However, Mussolini never achieved the degree of control exercised by Stalin and Hitler, Fascist Italy was less totalitarian than authoritarian. Hitler was responsible for the rise of fascism in Europe, the Holocaust, and World War II itself. Perhaps the world's most hated man, then and now. Stalin on the other hand helped defeat Hitler in World War II, but killed over 20 million of