1984 By George Orwell

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. In 1984 by George Orwell, these are slogans held by the party called IngSoc. It stands for English Socialism and it is the governing body of Oceania, which is modern-day Americas, United Kingdom, and South Africa. This government is totalitarian, it has complete control over its citizens. The people don’t do anything without the government knowing about it, and even thoughts are not safe. If you don’t think like everyone else, they can tell, and you disappear by Thought Police. There’s a book that is similar, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this book, only books are banned, but people don’t think there either. Now, there’s a saying, ‘Knowledge is Power’. If you don’t think for yourself,
The citizens see no reason to fight against the government because they don’t know that there is anything better. All over Oceania, there are giant posters of Big Brother, who is the personification of IngSoc. It is unclear whether he actually exists, but it’s likely he’s made up to give the people someone to worship. These posters of Big Brother give the impression that he is always watching. Not only because of how scary and accusatory the pictures of him look, but also under every poster there is the phrase, ‘Big Brother Is Watching You’. “At one end of [the hallway], a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man about forty-five, with a heavy black mustache and ruggedly handsome features… It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move.” (3). Every day, the citizens take time to participate in the government-mandated Two Minutes Hate. The Hate is taking two minutes to get all their anger out on this guy named Emmanuel Goldstein. He was said to be a founder of The Party with Big Brother, but then became a traitor. It’s likely he also does not exist, but just giving the people something for an enemy. People will band together better against one common enemy, even if that enemy is totally
Or, they thought they did, but I’ll elaborate on that later. The main character, Winston Smith, meets a girl named Julia. They both hate the party, but for different reasons. Winston knows that things the Party says contradict each other all the time, but there is no way to prove it. He needed at least one other person to confirm his truths. That’s why he likes Julia, he can feel powerful because he thinks against the Party, along with someone else. He has the knowledge that the Party is fooling everybody. It is scary though, because even though Julia defies the Party, she also fully believes them sometimes. There are three Sovereign nations in this world. Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. These three states are always at war. IngSoc says that one is an ally, one is the enemy, and that it has always been that way. This can flip on a whim, and everyone simply believes it. In the story, Julia and Winston are talking about the war, and at the time, Oceania claimed to be at war with Eurasia. Four years ago, they claimed to be at war with Eastasia. Julia admitted that she never noticed the change. “‘I thought we’d always been at war with Eurasia,’ she said vaguely. It frightened him a little.” (146). The party has such a strong grasp on reality that it is almost impossible to disagree with them. After all, where is the proof? Most of the citizens don’t want to defy the