Preview

The Act of Manipulation Is to Control or Influence Someone or a Situation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
256 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Act of Manipulation Is to Control or Influence Someone or a Situation
The act of manipulation is to control or influence someone or a situation. Throughout all of history there are many examples of manipulation enacted by a person in higher position. George Orwell captures the act of government manipulation in his literary work Nineteen Eighty-Four. The predominant type of manipulation in Nineteen Eighty-Four is psychological. The government uses brainwashing, fear of thought, and fear of the party to control the psychological state of society.
George Orwell demonstrated the technique of brainwashing demonstrated throughout the whole novel. George Orwell introduces the reader to the idea of brainwashing when ‘Two Minutes of Hate,” a daily two-minute period is aired on large telescreens throughout the city and in every home. “Two Minutes of Hate” a strategy for brainwashing used by the party, presents the party’s greatest enemy. A terrible sound accompanies Goldstein’s image in order to trigger people’s feelings of frustration, and therefore sight of Goldstein becomes implanted in the brain associating the two senses with a negative concept, therefore allowing the government to control societies psychological feelings. Another example of brainwashing is evident when the party forces Winston, the main character, to face his fear of rats. Rats are used to intensify Winston’s fear forcing him to a point of breaking his spirit of independence. Winston surrenders and lets go of all his personal emotion. George Orwell explains how the use of brainwashing by the government has allowed them to convince society that 2+2=5. Government can psychologically control society by brainwashing the people.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Both persuasion and manipulation are acts to change the perception of another individual. Persuasion is a more honesty method of doing so, when you persuade someone, you use information that you have knowledge of and present it another individual. Manipulation is more of an act submission. Manipulation is using what you know about the audience and their feelings of a…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    1984 Winston's Villainy

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This had a powerful impact on Winston. A perfect example of this occurs when O 'Brien is torturing Winston, and he talks to Winston with "the air of a teacher taking pains with a wayward but promising child" (204). O 'Brien adopts this friendly and compassionate tone in order to guide Winston to the answer he desires. Winston 's refusal to cooperate is so upsetting that "O 'Brien 's manner grew stern again" (205). He then proceeds to torture Winston until Winston repeats the correct answer to O 'Brien 's satisfaction. O 'Brien uses this method on Winston throughout the book to trick Winston into feeling safe and secure enough with O 'Brien to open up to him. Why did this continue to work? It worked because O 'Brien was able to manipulate Winston 's need to find someone to talk to who understood him. For Winston, "it did not matter whether O 'Brien was a friend or an enemy" (208). The important thing was "O 'Brien was a person who could be talked to" (208). Orwell wanted the reader to understand the lengths a person would go to, even facing the possibility of death, when their lives are suppressed by a government or entity. By sharing his fear of a totalitarian society and unveiling its nature, Orwell hoped to prevent the spread of…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Occurrences such as the Two Minutes Hate, a ritual that the citizens of Oceania religiously take place in, are common in 1984. "The next moment a hideous, grinding, screech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one's teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one's neck. The Hate had started (14)". Orwell was not subtle when creating this "Hate". Starting at first impressions, with the name, Two Minutes Hate, symbolizing the corruption of life without trust, he foreshadowed for the readers what was to come. The opening of the Two Minutes Hate gives a peek into the horrid reality of Winston's world. With the first few words, "hideous, grinding, screech", Orwell gives the reader's senses a rude awakening. Then he treks on to give even more imagery, portraying, yet again the gloom. The description of a "monstrous machine running without oil" is a parallel to the way most citizens of Oceania's, including Winston, lives were running. The people are subconsciously forced to participate in all the acts of the Party. They are worked to death with no chance at any human comforts, such as expression. A machine without oil eventually breaks down, a foreshadowing of Winston's bleak and inevitable eventual break down to…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “When Winston is in the two-minute hate, he describes Goldstein as being a sheep, even his voice turns into the bleat of a sheep.” (pg.17). The referencing of a sheep in literature symbolizes a follower. “The hate rose to its climax…and for an instant the face turned into that of a sheep.”(pg.17). In Orwell’s story, Goldstein’s face on the telescreen turns into a sheep when all the party members get all riled up. This is an allusion done by Orwell to make the reader connect the party members to sheep. The climax of the two-minute hate is when Goldstein is bashing everything Big Brother has worked so hard to achieve in Oceania, and that is when the party members start getting annoyed. Although the question is why do they get annoyed? The party members are brainwashed and do not want what supposedly happened to Goldstein to happen to them. The party members are to be seen as sheep because they all follow Big Brother, their leader, and they do as their told and are punished accordingly if they disobey. They have no say in anything therefore, they might as well be…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    George Orwell was the pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair, and he was famous for his personnel vendetta against totalitarian regimes and in particular the Stalinist brand of communism. In his novel, 1984, Orwell has produced a brilliant social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia, that has made the world pause and think about our past, present and future, as the situation of 1984 always remains menacingly possible. The story is set in a futuristic 1984 London, where a common man Winston Smith has turned against the totalitarian government. Orwell has portrayed the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control. The way that Winston Smith, the central character, has been created is purely to delve particular emotions from the reader, as he struggles against the totalitarian rule of Ingsoc. The reader is encouraged through Winston to adopt negative thoughts on communist rule and the themes of the dangers of totalitarianism, psychological manipulation and physical control are explored through Winston's journey. Through Winston's resistance and ultimate downfall, the reader is able to fully appreciate O'Briens reasoning, "Power is not a means, it is an end."…

    • 2273 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This woman in this quote has only known hate week and she see’s it as a normal activity in everyday society. In addition, “The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obligated to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. ”(Orwell 17) . Even the people in the book if they did know they were being brainwashed they had no choice in getting out of activities like Hate Week. The government ultimately has total dominance of most everything but can’t control those like Winston who ultimately escape their manipulating…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    [___] The excerpt from the movie begins with Party members gathered together participating in Two Minutes Hate, watching short clips of people such as Goldstein, a figure to which the Party direct the peoples hate towards. Through Two Minutes Hate, Orwell highlights the degree of control…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nineteen Eighty-Four is an American typical that probes the human mind in regards to control, corruption, power, and society. The author, George Orwell, suggests in an indirect matter that the regime will eventually become corrupted and attempt to use power which forces people to abide by the set rules. He portrays an imaginary dictatorial society in which citizens have no freedom and are being constantly brainwashed. Having no sense of fairness to individuals, the regime uses them for work. To attain this, the legislators in the story pacify individual's way of thinking and abolish their freedom by instituting fear through strict rules, commotion, and persistent surveillance.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Manipulation may be a horribly effective word. Individuals have a tendency to utilize this move consistently to impel what they require in life. By misleading individuals or deceiving them into seeing a precise reason for read, individual’s addition power. To skilfully utilize the office of control an individual ought to utilize someone else 's shortcomings. By utilizing an individual 's feelings against them, they will be controlled effortlessly. In the novel “Oryx and Crake”, many of the characters of uses these techniques virtually to realize their goals.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    1984

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In 1984 manipulation is aimed to change the perception or behavior of others. This quote is stated “Thoughtcrime was not a thing that can be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” O’Brien saw the words “Down with big brother” written in Winston’s journal. Winston panicked, because he knew that no matter what he did to his journal, no matter how he rephrased what he said there’s no erasing what he wrote. Big brother is always watching, he knew that they would soon catch on to him knowing that he doesn’t agree and that he’s not on their side.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Totalitarianism In 1984

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the novel 1984, George Orwell utilizes diction and figurative language to portray how a totalitarian government dehumanizes the lives of its people and obliterate their thought. In the beginning of the novel, Winston helps the reader visualize an important Newspeak worker at the Fiction Department with “two blank discs instead of eyes” (53). The usage of “two blank discs” is to describe the person’s eyes as a bleak image of thoughtlessness. Instead of simply allowing the reader to visualize the actual characteristics of the person’s eyes, Orwell uses “two blank discs” to show that the person accepts the dictatorship. This is enforced by the government, by following all orders the government gives…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you think you can be brainwashed? Most people will tell you that they could not be brainwashed or manipulated into doing something against their will, but in reality most of us can be convinced into doing something we would not normally do. George Orwell, in his novel “1984”, shows how mind power can influence people and society. The group that controls the mind power is known as the Party, and the state where this society lives is called Oceania. The only way the Party can maintain total power over a large population within Oceania is by insuring that past is controlled, by keeping people under constant fear through the use of telescreens and violence, and by an ongoing brainwashing to love the Big Brother.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Paper

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Manipulation has been a part of the human culture for as long as anyone can remember. Manipulation can be ones worst nightmare for the fact that it is not only easy to be manipulated by others, but it is also easy to be manipulated by your own self. When someone wants something so bad, and is told by others that it will happen, you can have it; eventually, you can’t help but think what you can do to get it faster. For example, in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth shows that manipulation and persuasion will lead to one’s fate.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He and Alex were lead to a similar fate. Although the constant attempt by Big Brother to have total control over all citizens of Ociania by propaganda and telescreens did not work on Winston, the torture and room 101 let him understand "double think" and learn to love Big Brother. Big Brother could make him believe anything, "Then almost without a pause he wrote: two and two make five."(Orwell,239) A the end of 1984 Winston believed "He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."(Orwell,256) Propaganda and brain washing can have positive and negative results on a society, both are presented in these novels. No matter what the result on society, the outcome on the person is always harmful. In 1984 Winston became compliant to the government and the rest of society. Any rebellion…

    • 992 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mass Media Persuasion

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Effective persuasion is central to public relations. Persuasion is a feature of most informational communication and organization-public messages. According to Bryant, persuasion is “the process of adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas.” This process of adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas is very important, because this transaction takes place daily in many facets of our lives. Some of the areas where persuasion is used to sway public opinion are in the news, advertising, and political campaigns. In the world of commerce individuals and businesses thrive off swaying public opinion in their favor. You need persuasion in efforts to sell products and services, efforts to convince stakeholders to trust and support organizational initiatives, efforts to convince legislators to pass favorable regulations, and just simply the effort to exert interpersonal and group influence in order to achieve one’s goal.…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays