Control In The Book 1984 By George Orwell

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“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.” Adolf Hitler’s quote has a strong connection to the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The Party, the “government” in the novel is very controlling. Like Hitler explains in his quote the Party controls the textbooks and everything else in their society. They have workers that rewrite history everyday to make it seem the Party is always right. The Party’s control and decisions deteriorate the society more and more everyday. In George Orwell’s 1984 he argues that a totalitarian government has the capability to physically and mentally break down individuals and then rebuild them the way they want by using torture and the destruction of emotions and personal thought. Orwell’s warning is that…show more content…
The first idea that is consistently shown in this novel that supports the theme is torture. In the last part of the book especially, torture is used to break Winston down until he is nothing but skin and bone. “They slapped his face, wrung his ears, pulled his hair, made him stand on one leg, refused him leave to urinate, shone glaring lights in his face until his eyes ran with water; but the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning.” (Orwell 241) Torture was a way the Party pulled confessions out of people. They used everything they could to break the prisoner down until he was nothing but a body and a mind they can brainwash to use to their advantage. Torture was just another way to show that the Party was in control and they could do whatever they needed to pull information out of the people they captured. “They wore them down by torture and solitude until they were despicable, cringing wretches, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing, and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for…show more content…
The modern world has not followed this warning. Governments around the world use their power in a way that is over the top. “Sometimes, it [government] tries to persuade us to adopt a particular position, regardless of its efficacy.” (Hamiliton and Kosar) In an article from the Washington Post called “How the American Government is Trying to Control How You Think”, it talks about how the American government is over controlling their citizens’ lives. Instead of trying to inform the people about a certain topic they take control of how one should think and what side they should take. They persuade more than inform by taking control of how one’s opinion should be. This is basically controlling a person's thought process and how they feel about something. “The CIA immediately hit back at the report, saying in a statement that the program was ‘effective’ and substantially helped its understanding of al Qaeda's tactical operations and goals.” (Collinson and Perez) On CNN News there is an article called “CIA Misled Public on Torture” that talks about how the CIA lied about a torture detention center. They told the public that the torture was not that bad and caused little damage, but in reality many people died. In this quote it shows that the CIA is suggesting that the torture they performed was for the good and was an overall good

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