George Orwell wrote 1984 after World War II to give a warning to the raising of USSR and Nazi Germany. He described a fictional government that is extremely dictatorial in 1984. The Inner Party of Oceania control people’s mind through manipulating media contexts, torturing thought criminals, and instigating people’s hate toward other nations.
The party positioned Big Brother so that he became the people’s only hope and truth. Having a prophet as a national leader must be a pleasure to people, so Oceania manipulated media contexts to make Big Brother’s predictions accurate and developed their reliability in front of their citizens. Although Winston knew Big Brother’s predictions were all manipulated, other people will definitely believe in their leader since they don’t have a clear mind to think independently. The Inner Party destroyed replaced old news by manipulated newspapers with actual historical events that shows Big Brother’s accurate predictions. “As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs – to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and rein scribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place”(Orwell). Ironically, the ministry of truth produced these fake messages to people rather than providing real facts, which limits their right to truth and create a supreme image of Big Brother. Basically, Oceania used two ways in this method to control people’s mind. Limiting knowledges stop people from independent thinking, which forces them to belong to the mainstream ideology. Unscrupulous manipulations of Big Brother’s prediction makes people to follow Big Brother without any suspicions. However, there were people like Winston that know the fact. Big Brother has other ways to control and brainwash them, such as cruel torments in the ministry of love.
People who think individually will be caught by thought police and sent to the ministry to be brainwashed. The government used fears to control thought criminals to force them obey and love Big Brother. This punishment has a high probability of success since they aim at thought crimes’ weakness. For example, George Orwell used Winston’s worst fear, rats, to compel him to love Big Brother. “The cage was nearer; it was closing in. Winston heard a succession of shrill cries which appeared to be occurring in the air above his head. But he fought furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with a split second left – to think was the only hope. Suddenly the foul musty odor of the brutes struck his nostrils. There was a violent convulsion of nausea inside him, and he almost lost consciousness. Everything had gone black. For an instant he was insane, a screaming animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an idea. There was one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats” (Orwell). Pouring sulfuric acid is a physical damage to people’s body, but using mental torments damage spirit and makes people to livestocks. After the special training, thought crimes will become soulless puppet, ultimately manipulated by the Inner Party and ignorantly follow Big Brother. On the other hand, simply brainwashing thought crimes will not tie the whole country into a firm rope. Brainwashing civilians, including ministry workers, educated children and party members.
Hate week was designed to increase people’s hatred toward other nations, such as East Asia and Eurasia. There are two main strategies government leaders use to strengthened public’s patriotism, either praising themselves or defaming their competitors. In 1984, Oceania used hate week, a way of defaming its enemies, to control people’s mind. “On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.” The excess radicalness propagandas raised peoples hates and patriotism. Some people even lost their mind and insanely express their feelings due to the scene of noise and confusion. Yet, this is what the government want since mindless people listen and obey anything, even it is absurd. People completely lost their mind and were controlled by their government’s official guidelines.