The Role Of Government In 1984 By George Orwell's 1984

Hunger, pain, and desperation ravaged the nation of China during its two major revolutions in the twentieth century. However this time had also been a time of prosperous advances in technology and a significant rise in reputation and population. The People's Republic of China went through a drastic change in culture and as a nation under a communist government. The methods that this government had used under Mao Zedong's direction, can also be seen used by the government in ‘1984', a novel by George Orwell. Both governments used their powers to control their nation and citizens to an extreme. Under Mao Zedong's government, the Chinese suffered from state-controlled media, destruction of traditional cultural practices and the subversion of youth,
Tradition as well as innovation and creativity are all things that aids with the progress of improvement. Mao Zedong’s vision is to sculpt a completely new China with an economy to rival that of the United States of America. According to Mao’s government, tradition is what is holding the nation back. Therefore, phasing out the ‘Four Olds,’ was one of his biggest steps. The four things that Chairman Mao wanted to eliminate include old ideas, customs, culture and habits. Destroying the past had been a part of the Cultural Revolution, led by Mao Zedong himself. Books, artifacts, furniture and art had been ordered to be destroyed by Mao’s army, the Red Guards. Any writing that had disregarded his ways were to be eliminated. Whoever was in possession of anything old or different to the government was subject to violence and persecution. In Orwell’s 1984, the past is also a negative aspect. Winston Smith, the protagonist, works as an Party member who helps rewrite the past. Oceania is only exposed to altered records as,“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place” (Orwell, 42-43) which shows that there is no truth behind what they believe in. Nevertheless, since the Party announces that this, in fact, is the truth, then there is nothing else for citizens to believe in. There is no evidence whatsoever. Plays, art, books and events are all obliterated or modified by the Party’s commands. In both ‘1984’ and Mao Zedong's communist China, the past is what is said to be restraining their respective nations from success. Therefore, their method is to exterminate the stories of the past of which their nations came from and to rebuild a completely different one. This approach by the two governments reconstructs the actual truth and instead conjures up