Literary Analysis Essay: 1984

by George Orwell
Posted on May 24, 2013

No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky. Bob Dylan said
this probably not knowing its profound connection with George Orwells novel
1984, but the as well could be in 1984. Orwell depicts a totalitarian
dystopian world where there is no freedom and citizens are being
brainwashed constantly. Without any sense of individual fairness, people work
for the party just like the gear wheels in a machine. In order to achieve this,
the politicians in 1984 suppress peoples thinking and eliminate their
freedom by creating fear through propaganda, strict laws and incessant
surveillances.

In 1984, lies, myths and false information controls the thinking of the
citizens. The Party uses propaganda as the deadliest weapon of control.
Propaganda increases the citizens morale and makes them think that what
the party tells them to do is always right. There are mainly two types of
propaganda, one changes truth, so-called doublethink, and another creates
fear. Doublespeak can be seen frequently in the world of 1984. The partys
big slogan WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS
STRENGTH. (George Orwell, 4) is an good example. The idea of the slogan is
to convince the citizens that what they want, is what they already have. Only
war can make peace and harmony, so peace is no longer peace, it becomes
war; anyone who is slaved and wants freedom, he already has freedom; you
can only strengthen yourself by not knowing things and being ignorant. The
slogan changes truth and make the citizens believe that anything they want
other than what their government wants can only make them unhappy,
therefore, no one will consider rebellion because they believe the Partys way
of governing is the best and only way. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU
(George Orwell, 3) is another core slogan. It is nearly everywhere in the
country and usually presented beneath the picture of Big Brother on a poster.
It creates fear of obliterated privacy among citizens by alerting them that
they are watched all the time. At the same time, the slogan also emphasizes
Big Brothers power to tells the citizens that they are indeed safe and
protected. The party uses this to make them believe that within the party
nothing can go wrong, and without Big Brother they will not have such lives.
Everyone thinks he is safe in Oceania because of the Big Brother, but they
are in fact in danger, all the time.

The laws is another powerful tool for politicians in 1984 to limit

citizens freedom. No parties, no dates, no love, no citizens walk on street
after curfew, laws are everywhere in Oceania. Although these are strictly
implemented, they cannot be called laws theoretically because they are not
written in a system. There is no written laws in 1984, there is no such thing
as constitution or court, but that is exactly how fear is created, as citizens are
always living in uncertainty. For example, And yet it was a fact that if Syme
grasped, even for three seconds, the nature of his, Winstons, secret opinions,
he would betray him instantly to the Thought Police (George Orwell, 30).
There is no law that defines thoughtcrime However, Winston could be

arrested any time for committing thoughtcrime by even a tiny facial twitch
suggesting struggle, and his nervous system literally becomes his biggest
enemy. Since there is no written law, the Party can change and adjust the
strictness of laws freely as it wants, citizens never know if they have
committed any crime, therefore no one is brave enough to defy the Party by
any level, so fear is created. In addition, Newspeak is another law that is
enforced to solidify the Partys control. Humans use language to express their
ideas, by eliminating words and replacing emotional words such as
excellent, wonderful and fantastic by a single word good and its
comparative degrees plusgood and plusplusgood. Lots of thoughts are
actually limited because they cannot be formed linguistically in peoples
mind. Citizens then cannot have their own critical thinking, and only do what
they are told to do, they work just as computers, which surprisingly only have
two words.*

Surveillance is almost everywhere in Oceania, the mostly used way is

television. There is a two-way screen, so-called television in every apartment
and on street but they only serve the purpose of monitoring and propaganda,
the Party gets simultaneous image of what its people are doing. Even facial
expression can be detected. Only senior members of the Inner Party have the
power to turn them off for a short period. Children are also used to keep track
of their parents, The children, on the other hand, were systematically turned
against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations
(76). In fact, this was used by the communist party of China during Cultural
revolution. With extremely mighty surveillance, citizens cannot express their
ideas towards the negative side of the Party at all, and even thoughts are
controlled because the Party can reeducate people for an incorrect facial
expression

By using language as a tool of control as well as the evidence for

sentence, Orwell creates a world where language, a word or a sentence, can
determine ones life. Through language plays the key role in the Partys
propaganda, strict laws and surveillance, total physical control as well as

phycological manipulation is achieved. In Oceania, thoughts are suppressed

until them vanish after generations. In this world, nothing is free, even a bird.