George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

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In a dystopian society, citizens are led to believe that the world they live in is something close to a perfect society. No one questions the system, and when someone does so, bad things transpire. George Orwell has constructed that exact dystopian society in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel follows Winston Smith, a man living in a place called Airstrip One. This is society that revolves around psychological manipulation, and where truth is constructed by the social authorities, all in order for Big Brother to maintain power. The Party is constantly overwhelming the citizens of Airstrip One by surrounding them with propaganda, and filling their minds with the Party’s beliefs. In addition, the Party monitors behaviour at all times, including…show more content…
Each individual’s mind is occupied with the Party’s beliefs on a daily basis, this being done through the use of continuous propaganda – even in very subtle ways. Winston Smith has a clear understanding of which authorities constitute the truth, and the search for the correct identification of what is true becomes more concerning to him as the novel progresses (Chapman 72). The most effective distribution of propaganda is with a device called a telescreen. This piece of breakthrough technology resembles a large television-like screen which is mounted to a wall, and appears everywhere in Airstrip One. This includes every individual’s home, the workplace, and public settings such as a café. On these telescreens, there is a continuous stream of information and propaganda: “Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of figures which had something to do with the production of pig-iron. The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror, which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.” (Orwell 9). The words of the Party are engraved into the each individual’s mind, and brainwashing them. Day after day, citizens heard the Party’s beliefs everywhere they go. It cannot be turned off, nor can it be turned down, leaving no room for individual thought, and leaving the average citizen brainwashed. In addition to this endless stream of psychological propaganda, there are more physical types of it in every corner of Airstrip One. There is often a described older yet handsome man pointing on a poster, manipulated to make it seem that he is pointing at the viewer. This man is
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