Interpreting 1984

5 Pages 1166 Words

In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the Party of Oceania is able to control several things that we may think impossible to control. The party controls the people of Oceania psychologically and physically. Controlling not only the people, the Party also controls every source of information, operating and rewriting the content of all newspapers and histories making Oceania look like the only power worth living for.
The Party flood its subjects with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind’s ability for independent thought. The telescreen in every resident’s room blasts a steady flow of propaganda designed to make the past and present failures of the Party appear to be triumphant successes. The telescreens also monitor behavior everywhere the people go. Citizens are constantly reminded, especially by means of the ever present signs reading “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,” that the authorities are studying them. The Party challenges family structure by introducing children into an organization called the Junior Spies, which brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any example of disloyalty to the Party. The Party also forces individuals to hold back their sexual desires, treating sex as simply a duty which ends in the creation of new Party members. The Party then directs people’s unexpressed frustrations and emotions into intense, wild displays of hatred against the Party’s political enemies. Many of these enemies have been invented by the Party specifically for this purpose.
In addition to manipulating their minds, the Party also controls the bodies of its subjects. The Party constantly watches for any sign of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes, even a tiny facial twitch could lead to an arrest. “Your worst enemy…was your own nervous system.” (64). The Party forces its members to undergo mass morning-exercises called the “Physical Jerks”, and then to work long, gruel...