Preview

Struggle Of 'Big Brother In George Orwell's 1984'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
685 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Struggle Of 'Big Brother In George Orwell's 1984'
Beauchamp compares the conflict of Big Brother and Winston with Christian myth of Adam against the God, the man’s first disobedience. In 1984 the state (Big Brother) is represented as God who demands absolute devotion and admiration. Winston in this case is like Adam who breaks the rules and betrays God. Later on, he will be punished for his deeds. The state that is described in the novel has the power over its citizens. The party in 1984 is the perfect image of a totalitarian government. They do not control only the behavior of the citizens but also control their mind, thoughts, their love and focus. Another difficulty introduced in 1984 is that even if citizens want to rebel against the party they do not dare to do anything because they are …show more content…
The point of the party is to keep citizens in a real exhaustion by telling them to do the morning exercises and then go to work in the agencies of the party. The state benefits by keeping the citizens in exhaustion because in this way the citizens are busy and tired from working and can be manipulated easier. Citizens have no free time to think about the circumstances they live in. They have no time to analyze the manipulations of the Party because they are occupied by doing works the state obligates them. Winston works in the Ministry of the Truth, which actually is the ministry of lies and manipulation. They change the history and the newspapers in the favor of the Party. All names of the ministries contrast their real work, for example: The Ministry of Truth produces lies and manipulations, the Ministry of Love is a place of torture and punishment, the Ministry of Peace makes war, the Ministry of Plenty controls the food and keeps people hungry. In Newspeak they are known as MiniTrue, MiniPax, MiniLuv, and MiniPlenty. Citizens believe that life was much worse before the Party came to power. They have no idea that they are living in the worst nightmare ever. The Party destroys family structure, does not allow their citizen to keep records, documents, photographs, have friends or fall in love. The sexual relation was allowed only to create new Party members. Even a facial expression or a thought that would question the power of the Party (a thought-crime) can lead to an arrest. In this case, even your own self can be your biggest

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    One of the most obvious and powerful developments seen in1984 is the extreme government control in the lives of society. The Party's slogan "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past" (Book III Ch. II) plays an integral role in bringing out the theme of how the Party controls information and history in the novel. By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all of its actions in the present. "So long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never become aware that they are oppressed" (Book II Ch. IX). This complete power that the Party has over information and history; means that it is able justify all of its actions in the present. With their Ministries the government can monitor all that goes on within the society and correct it before there is a rebellion. The Ministry of Truth, arguably the most influential, demonstrates another way in which the Party controls every source of information. This Ministry of Truth is in charge of doctoring the pages of history, so it fits in with the Party's ideology. This enables the Party to erase the parts of history and…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cellphones and technology have become a major part of todays’ society. A totalitarian government is centralized and has total control over its people. On the other hand a democratic government makes major decisions through majority vote. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Winston’s perspective depicts his life living in Oceania under a totalitarian. In this age of cell phones and mobile devices equipped with recording capabilities, when anyone says or does could wind up on the “internet” within minutes, showing similar tactics as Big Brother, but not entirely. Oceania’s totalitarian government is different from contemporary Canada by eliminating independent rights, creating psychological control and allowing no freedom of any sort.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout 1984, the party uses an excess amount of ways to observe and declare dominance over the people. An omniscient image known throughout book would be “Big Brother” appearing on countless walls and buildings. Big Brother, one of the novel’s central symbols, represents, Government regulation and the Party within the society.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main questions of the novel 1984 is could Big Brother fall. There are many possibilities that contribute to the thought of the fall of Big Brother. Such as the way Big Brother pushes people around like Winston to make them want to rebel. One proven fact in history is that most totalitarian governments do not last such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union. The fact they are always at war with one of the other main super powers. "But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? The proles themselves if realized their power could overthrow the party.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People never accept these Truths because many don’t know the difference between right and wrong. For example, “Ignorance is Strength”(Orwell 26). If you told someone who wasn’t educated what the quote means that person would believe you because that person hasn’t had any other form of education. The people of 1984 are controlled in every form most everyone expect for Winston believes what Big Brother says. In addition “War is Peace”(Orwell 26), is another example showing how you can manipulate people with words.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a person’s peace of mind is compromised, so is their sanity. The early parts of the novel display the thoughts of Winston as he commits the epitome of thoughtcrime, writing “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”, repeatedly. This series of events being placed in the beginning of the novel throws the reader right into the oppressive government that is The Party, and shows the reader what they are all about. Rebellions are started by those who feel oppressed by their superiors, people who feel like they have no way out unless they fight their way out, start a revolution. Winston’s feelings of oppression are transferred into intense desires to rebel against The Party, specifically wanting to break one of their cardinal rules, no sexual encounters with anyone. He meets a fellow member of The Party who feels an urge to rebel, it is a selfish urge however as she only enjoys the personal thrill. Her name is Julia, and she has an affair with Winston to rebel against The Party, the two fall in love. This proves how quickly rebellious thoughts can turn into life changing scenarios, with Winston and Julia both committing crimes that can change their lives…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The realistic truth between George Orwell's 1984 and today's current time period is evident through both governments use of surveillance through Big Brother and the NSA. The NSA and 1984 are quite comparable in some ways.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Orwell’s’ novel, Big Brother the position of power in society, is proposing the idea that one must adhere to all the demands of the party and also have to have complete loyalty to the party. O’Brien a delegate of Big Brother of the party enlightens Winston that the ambition of the party is to “The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party.”(280). In order to obtain complete and utter control of the people of Oceania the party are willing to eliminate sex to ensure that no enjoyment or loyalty will come from sex and that women and man will not develop any sort of relationship or loyalty with each other, but instead to the party. Along with the notion, with loyalty to party the corruption of young minds and the brainwashing the party is creating a feature generation of no loyalty but the party and that no one can be trusted but Big Brother. While Winston was in incarnating for deifying Big Brother, his neighbour was put in jail with him as well “Who denounced you? Said Winston. It was my little daughter, said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway.”(245). The people of Oceania have been so brainwashed that not even parents with their very own kids show any bonds or loyalty to each other, even the father isn’t upset, that his daughter reported him while he was sleeping and uncontrolled of what he can say he was actually quite happy, this shows the distortion in the…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All societies are controlled by their government in many different ways. Many societies are controlled by a democratic government, while other societies are controlled by dictatorship. These styles of government both have pros and cons. The passage from "1984" by George Orwell distinctly shows that society is a horrible and harmful place to live in because there are certain rules that people have to follow. "It was Mrs. Parsons, the wife of a neighbor on the same floor (" Mrs was a word somewhat discountenanced by the Party- you were supposed to call everyone "comrade"- but with some women one used it instinctively)"( Orwell paragraph 2). In this part of the passage, it is told that there are rules that are needed to be followed in society,…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John F. Kennedy once said, "conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." 1984, a dystopian novel, was written by George Orwell. Remarkably ahead of its time with an ancient publication date of 1949, the novel deals with very modern ideas such as the government overreaching its power, and the rise of technology. The author utilizes the backdrop of an extremely oppressive, totalitarian government named Big Brother to demonstrate that humanity naturally desires nonconformity, but when put in the worst of scenarios, chooses conformity out of self-preservation.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The World Wide Web was created far enough back for most people not to care about the specific date. It is a great asset for school, work, and general entertainment. But, with all the good things it brings, there are some negatives as well. The internet, once a new place of discovery, is now a place of caution with danger lurking around every corner. Lori Andrews writes about the privacy issues of the web in her essay, “George Orwell…Meet Mark Zuckerburg.” Already, in her title she emphasizes Orwell’s rational fear of “Big Brother” is happening now on Zuckerburg’s social media site, Facebook. It is not just Facebook that has fallen to data aggregators invading the privacy of anyone online. Andrews describes data aggregators as people or companies…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “1984” is a text which depicts the story of Winston smith who is a common man or a member of the outer party in the hierarchy of the ‘big brother’ system. The “1984” world is a totalitarian society where the party or big brother tries to control everything, including thought and emotion. Big brother is a dictator ship which controls every movement in society through constant surveillance and harsh penalties for…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why can’t we take control of our privacy? Privacy is a hard thing to control, we all want privacy and the safety it comes with it but we do not want to risk the privacy we lose from this. We can not take control because the government prevents us from liberties such as using our phone, controlling the type of information that one receives and the vigilance that one has to live each day.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In George Orwell’s novel “1984”, privacy is invaded by the authoritative figures, to keep control over the citizens. From the onset, the party hired people as thought police, hiding their identity from the public. In order, to keep an eye on people “a few agents of the thought police moved always among them, spreading false rumors and making down and eliminating the few Individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous …” (Orwell 74). The government of Oceana appointed thought police to assess the behavior of the citizens.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Big Brother is an idea created by the government known as the Party in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. This is the concept that every citizen is being monitored at all times. The novel proves that Big Brother is watching when the characters Winston and Julia are arrested after being surveilled for conspiring against the party.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays