While schoolteachers assign George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four presumably to give us an impression of what life would be like under a totalitarian form of government, one which exercises absolute control over all aspects of life, the effort backfires: the disturbing premise for which Nineteen Eighty-Four stands is that human beings are capable of brainwashing. The government body in the society of Nineteen Eighty-Four, known simply as The Party, controls the people of Oceania prominently through control of the history and language of the people. "Reality exists in the mind and nowhere else," says O'Brien, the lead antagonist in the novel. By controlling these two of the leading factors of reality and relentlessly forcing them upon society from all angles, the people fall into line like sheep. Those that do not are perpetrators of the most feared crime of all, which is punished most severely, thoughtcrime. Thoughtcrime constitutes of almost any act of individuality: thinking freely, showing affection, even so much as reacting in a way that is not normal with the rest of one's peers. By the end of the book, one has realized the futility in attempting to resist such a power. "Amongst the most terrifying books" ever written, organized lying has replaced objective truth to create a society just realistic enough that it strikes a unique fear into readers, calmed only by the realization that such a society is impossible... or is it?

Orwell's most inventive and most powerful instrument in Nineteen Eighty-Four is the use of language. Not only do his explicitly graphic detail and violent words place the reader into Winston Smith's shoes, but also the ingenious creation of a language, known as Newspeak, helps to show exactly how the party has accomplished its complete control. Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc (English Socialism), the political doctrine of the Party. The purpose of Newspeak is to express loyalty to the Party while making any other methods of thought impossible, to ensure that all exchange is representative of the Party's intention. By removing meaning and nuance from the vocabulary, the Party hopes to eradicate anti-social thinking before it even has the chance to enter a person's mind. The goal is to include in the dictionary only the meanings that a Party member would wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. Citizens¹ that choose to defy the Party and think on their own, called thought criminals, including Winston Smith, are always captured by the Thought Police and remedied of their "ills" by means of reeducation, or worse. Depending on the strength of the mind, a violator could be looking at the worst imaginable torture as part of his correction routine.

Another of the Party's brilliant techniques used to control the people of Oceania is its control of history. "Who controls the present controls the past: who controls the past controls the future," ran a Party slogan. Having firmly established control of the present, the Party has the past history revised for their own benefit, always to exaggerate the greatness of the Party and Big Brother. Once the others accept the lie, it passes into truth, becoming a part of history. A brainwashed society believes the only past it is given, and through this constant revision of facts and figures, the Party establishes a permanent control over the future. "'Reality control,' they called it; in Newspeak, 'doublethink.'"

The most frightening of all methods the Party uses to suppress individual freedom is the use of technology to monitor the lives of all citizens of Oceania. The most intrusive of machines is the telescreen, a two-way interactive television that cannot be turned off, giving the Party a faceless surveillance into everyone's lives. The telescreen not only watches, but also provides wartime propaganda to encourage nationalism. A program called the "Two Minutes Hate" also runs, in which the face of a fictitious enemy of the Party is shown while the people scream and hiss. Telescreens were everywhere - in every room, on every street, in every shop - everywhere that could be watched.

Through a lack of privacy, free speech, and accurate history, the people of Oceania are trapped in a negative utopia, the opposite of a perfect society. By careful detail throughout the novel, George Orwell illustrates the precise tactics that contribute to an omnipotent controlling body. Is Nineteen Eighty-Four a warning? Is Nineteen Eighty-Four a prophecy? Is Nineteen Eighty-Four just a good story? After much thought, one may believe it to be much deeper: the psychology of totalitarianism, the act of taking over the human mind. Even O'Brien stresses that force cannot secure the party's power, but only when a force such as the Party alters the psychology of society can absolute control occur. Ultimately, the Party cannot allow variations of its power to exist. To relinquish control of any part of an individual is to relinquish all control over an individual. The brutality of such a "party" leads to one of two things: absolute devotion through its control or absolute rebellion in refusing to be controlled. The object is to establish a society of apathetic people who serve without question, without thought. To achieve such a society, the Party must assume full control of words spoken, emotions felt, jobs worked, paths taken, itches scratched, or any other imaginable circumstance. The Party must be in every way involved, and in every way in control. By giving the Party this power, George Orwell has perfectly exemplified everything he wishes to never see in government: complete and utter control over subjects rendered useless by the powers they indirectly left for the taking.

¹ By "citizens" I mean Party members. Those that are outside the Party, the proles, are thought to be mindless, and therefore pose no threat to Ingsoc, and are not considered "citizens."

While schoolteachers assign George Orwell's 1984 presumably to give an impression of what life would be like under a totalitarian form of government, the effort backfires: the disturbing premise for which 1984 stands is that human beings are capable of brainwashing. If history is revised enough to serve a purpose, and is shouted at its subjects relentlessly from all corners, they will fall into line, Orwell says, like sheep. People believe what their government tells them, and therefor are no better than automatons. "Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else," says O'Brien, the novel's chief antagonist, "... in the mind of the Party (Orwell's interpretation of English socialism), which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth." Reading 1984 can make one feel depressed and suicidal, as if there is no hope for the human race and it may as well end now. Through the careful examination of George Orwell's style, language, point of view, and theme, one can come to the conclusion that not only are human minds capable of brainwashing, but given the correct circumstances, any resistance to such an act is futile.

Orwell's most powerful tool in 1984 is his use of language to express the full range of human emotions. He uses explicit graphic detail and violent words, mentally inflicting the pains that Winston Smith suffers onto the mind of the reader. Orwell's careful description of Smith's reformation into an ideal Party member is an excellent example. "Sometimes he was beaten till he could hardly stand, then flung like a sack of potatoes onto the stone floor of a cell, left to recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and beaten again." While Orwell can be indirect presenting some concepts, his presentation keeps the reader alert by shifting to exciting or unexpected directions, falsely raising hope before smashing it abruptly. Throughout parts one and two, Orwell intentionally exhibits Winston as the hope for civilization, the only spark in an otherwise dead society. Winston turns out to be a textbook case of a person reformed by the Party, left completely mentally dead. He cannot think or act for himself; he is merely a trophy to the Party.

One of Orwell's greatest techniques is his invention of Newspeak, the language of the party, the actual deconstruction of the English language into the Party's own. Each successive edition of the Newspeak Dictionary has fewer words than its predecessor. By removing meaning and nuance from the vocabulary, the government hopes to eradicate seditious and anti-social thinking before it even has the chance to enter a person's mind. Without the vocabulary for revolution, there can be no revolution. For those who persist in thinking for themselves, Thought Criminals as they are called, the Thought Police are there to intervene, incarcerating the free-thinkers in the Ministry of Love, where they will be re-educated, or worse.

1984 starts with a first person narration that Orwell uses effectively to show the universal fear of the Thought Police and Winston's fear of everything connected to the Party. The point of view gently slides from first person to third person throughout the novel, giving us a taste of Winston's thoughts as well as how Orwell sees him from the outside. Through flashbacks to Winston's adolescence, the reader can peer further into his persona, witnessing the acts that leave Winston who he is, including the death of his mother and sister. In Winston's diary, one finds the most useful information: that which seals his fate in the hands of Party. The act of merely owning the diary is enough, but it is here that Winston chooses to daringly write the words no true Party member could be capable of: "Down with Big Brother!"

Orwell writes in 1984 to show how political systems can suppress individual freedom. 1984 is a warning for the future of what society could become should totalitarianism achieve dominance. The totalitarian negative utopia in 1984 is inescapable for those who suffer under it and is constantly changing for the worst. Even as Julia and Winston seem to come closer to an imagined perfection in their own fantasy world, they are constantly within the Party's grasp, until the perfect moment comes to pluck them out and conform them. The world of 1984 is a model of Orwell's idea of a totalitarian state in its ultimate form.

In 1984 Orwell examines how the human spirit copes under the worst conditions possible. The narrow plot focuses solely on the life of Winston Smith; Orwell makes a political point from this: Winston Smith is the only person left worth writing about; all the rest are brainwashed already. Winston is, as O'Brien laughingly calls him, "the guardian of human spirit," the last person alive capable of free thought against the Party. Orwell shows how political organizations are capable of doing anything in order to reach their goals. In this case the Party's goal is to eradicate individual thought, and they are ready to do anything in order to achieve their goal. Winston's heresy is his insistence on the individual's right to make up his own mind rather than following the Party's perception of truth, and he receives constant tortured until he learns to "love Big Brother."

Is 1984 a warning of totalitarianism? Is 1984 a prophecy? Is 1984 simply a good story? After reading one may believe it to be much deeper; it is the psychology of totalitarianism. It is the act of taking over the human mind. O'Brien stresses force alone cannot secure the Party's power. Only when a force such as the Party alters the psychology of society can true totalitarianism occur. Ultimately, the Party cannot allow variations of their power to exist. To relinquish control of any part of an individual is to relinquish all control over the individual. The brutality of the Party leads to absolute devotion or absolute rebellion. The object of Oceania is a society of apathetic people who will serve without question or thought. In order to accomplish this, the Party assumes full control of the words spoken, the emotions felt, the itches scratched, the paths taken, the jobs worked, and any other imaginable circumstances. The Party is in every way involved, and in every way in control. By giving the Party this power, George Orwell has perfectly exemplified everything he wishes not to see in government: complete and utter control over subjects rendered useless by the powers they indirectly left for the taking.