1984 Analytical Essay
All people want power; whether it be through family, work, politics or war, people use different ways to gain power for themselves. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, a man named Winston Smith learns, in his dystopian world, how the government controls all things through their control of information. Information is more powerful than weaponry or resources because even at the most basic level, information and knowledge are needed to use weapons and resources. Information is the most powerful force. Winston tried to rebel against his tyrannical government, Ingsoc, only to find they controlled every bit of information, even information from the past. After being caught rebelling against his government, Winston was interrogated and
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In the final explanation of the world Winston lived in, the new system of language, Newspeak, is explained. "The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought—that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc—should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words"(Orwell 377). The words were limited in a way that nothing but what the Party wanted could be said or thought. With this control, the Party no longer had to worry about any revolution, whether violent or idealistic. There would be no more need to physically control people when the people did not even know how to do anything but follow rules. The people essentially became computers, taking what they were told to do, doing it and never knowing or doing anything but what they were supposed to know and do. Ray Bradbury had this understanding, that people can reason and think for themselves because they can take in information and judge what is true. "We should learn from history about the destruction of books. When I was fifteen years old, Hitler burned books in the streets of Berlin, so I learned then how dangerous
In the final explanation of the world Winston lived in, the new system of language, Newspeak, is explained. "The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought—that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc—should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words"(Orwell 377). The words were limited in a way that nothing but what the Party wanted could be said or thought. With this control, the Party no longer had to worry about any revolution, whether violent or idealistic. There would be no more need to physically control people when the people did not even know how to do anything but follow rules. The people essentially became computers, taking what they were told to do, doing it and never knowing or doing anything but what they were supposed to know and do. Ray Bradbury had this understanding, that people can reason and think for themselves because they can take in information and judge what is true. "We should learn from history about the destruction of books. When I was fifteen years old, Hitler burned books in the streets of Berlin, so I learned then how dangerous