Why Does George Orwell Use Of Language In 1984

George Orwell was a prominent political writer during the post-WWII era who openly opposed totalitarian governments. In the novel 1894, Orwell creates a dystopian society where the idea of individuality does not exist. The novel takes place in Oceania, a fictional country, where the party and its ruler, Big Brother, seek to have complete control over the population. The party implements many tactics in order to achieve this, such as surveillance, propaganda, and degradation of language to gain control of the population’s minds. Furthermore, the party destroys all aspects of independent thought and identity. Everyone wears the same clothes, eats the same food, lives in the same rundown apartments. Orwell uses many literary devices throughout the novel to display the importance of individuality in a society. Through the use of psychological manipulation, Orwell demonstrates the importance of the individual and independent critical thought.
A party slogan appears in book 1, chapter III, when Winston is pondering about the party’s control of history and memory.
The slogan represents the party utilizing false history to break down the people’s independent thought. The party says, “Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Therefore, if the party controls the past, the party can dictate how the people react and their thoughts, which gives them full control over any critical thought the people may have. The party did just this, they created a history full of misery and slavery which liberated the human. Because of this, the people find safety in Big Brother and they have no reason to question him or the party. Furthermore, controlling the past allows the party to set conditions that justify or encourage their actions and no one will think any different about
it. A common slogan that appears continuously throughout the novel is, “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength,” this is the official slogan of the party. The weakening the independence of an individual mind forces them into a constant state of propaganda-induced fear.This allows the party to force the population into believing whatever they decree, whether it is logical or not. This breaking of the population’s independent critical thought allows the party to establish ministries that contradict their names. The Ministry of Peace is in charge of waging war, the Ministry of Love is in charge of political torture, and the Ministry of Truth is in charge of doctoring history books to reflect their ideology (1984). The same applies to the slogan; war is peace because Oceania has only one common enemy, which unites them. Freedom is slavery because the accumulative will of want and danger is absent. Also, ignorance is strength because the people lack independent thought, so they fail to recognize the contradictions within the party. Furthermore, because the citizens lack independent critical thought, they accept anything the party decrees. This allows the party to control their beliefs and thoughts, which gives the party power over its citizens. For example, When O'Brien and Winston are conversing, O'Brien makes Winston doubt his independent critical thought about if 2+2 truly equals 4. Even though earlier in the book Winston challenged this on his own by saying,
“For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then” (Orwell, 1.7).
The party is able to control the universe because the universe exists only in the human psyche and the party controls the human psyche. The mathematical sequence 2+2=5 also becomes a motif linked to psychological independence as earlier in the book Winston states, “Freedom is the freedom to say the 2+2=4,” (Orwell, 1.7). Furthermore, the motif is brung full circle when Winston traces 2+2=5 onto the table in the Chestnut Tree Cafe after his soul had been crushed (1984).