1984 by George Orwell

Some critics have called 1984 a how-to manual for totalitarianismand it is certainly true that the book represents quite well a totalitarian government assisted by technological advancements in control of human society. Yet it is not Orwells first how-to manual: Animal Farm offered a similar reflection of how a totalitarian government comes to be. But what Orwell does differently in 1984 is this: he creates terms like newspeak and doublethink to show how invasive and devastating the totalitarian tools of Big Brother can be. As Batra points out, language can be used in a controlled manner to achieve a loss of privacy, dictatorship, and cognitive control. Orwell illustrates how the power of the word can be used to influence peoples thoughts, feelings, and actions. In this sense most of all, 1984 can be described as a how-to manual for totalitarianism for it cuts straight to the heart of how a government can control human behaviorand that is through control of language.

One of the most repulsive attributes of Big Brother in Orwells novel is the fact that it promotes doublethink. The government uses doublethink as a way to indoctrinate characters and to get them to adhere to two conflicting ideas as the truth. Doublethink often goes against the characters' sense of reality and memory. It manipulates them into disavowing their own ability to think critically. In the novel, doublethink is used to restrict perception, expression, and to spread propaganda. It is through the twisting of language into the corkscrew of doublethink that Big Brother prevails over people: it divorces words from reality and because all people need language but many can do without reality the government accomplishes its totalitarian aim of controlling the minds and hearts of people and turning them into a totally unthinking lot. Orwell understands as much when he writes that until they become conscious they will never rebel (257). Language is the gatekeeper of consciousness; if the gatekeeper becomes lax or falls asleepas it does in doublethinkconsciousness is lost. Orwell thus concludes that the poor people of the novel, trapped in doublethink, trapped in the totalitarian grasp of Big Brother, can only break free if they become conscious. And yet Orwell also notes that because they are already trapped in doublethink they cannot rebel because they lack the consciousness to rebel. In other words, he shows clearly that the way to control people is through control of the languagebecause the language controls ideas, and ideas control people.

The people have no words or ways to express themselves or to discover a way out of their situation. Thus, Winston turns to eroticism with Julia, thinking it will be the way to break the Party and free him from its grasp. He believes sexual liberation is the only pathway out. Of course he is wrong, and his failure to stand up to Big Brother in the end proves as much. But even Julia uses eroticism with Winston as a personal rebellion against a system who wishes to erase her sexuality. It is nothing more than the shaking of a fist in the face of a much more powerful entitya defiant sneer that is soon enough wiped off her face by Big Brother, just as Winstons delusions of grandeur about the orgasm saving the human race are quickly annihilated under OBriens heel, with Winston emerging...

Winstons original hope that passion could lead to individual freedom is dashed. He believed naively in not merely the love for one person, but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces (Orwell 126). But it is almost as though Big Brother wanted him to have exactly that thought because the government knew it was a vain thought that would only lead Winston back into the arms of Big Brother in the end: for when animal passion failed to prove enough, he would despair, having planted his hope in nothing higher. And that is exactly what happens: the government wins because the government allows its slaves to put their hope in...…it is silly to believe it only happened from 2016 to 2020. Indeed, Orwells book has been compelling for readers from day one because it reflected a world that was at the time of its writing already in existence. In other words, the totalitarianism of the novel was already a reality.

So in this sense, it is not really fair to say that 1984 is a how-to manual for totalitarianism. Orwell was really simply holding the mirror up to the world around him. He did not make any of this upit was all already happening; he just gave it a new name: Big Brother for any of the various governments around the world, whether in Soviet Russia, liberal UK, France, USA, China, etc.; doublethink for all the insane propaganda found in the media even then; two-minute hate campaigns for all the bile pouring out of leaders mouths to incite hatred among the people; classism, racism, sexism, ageism, and so onit was all happening then as now. If one thinks about how the novel was genuinely rooted in the reality of the time in which it was written, one can understand that it is simply a reflectionnot a how-to manual.

Nonetheless, it is compelling to think of it as a how-to manual because one then gets the feeling that the book so well describes the authoritarian state that no other work could describe it better. Of course, there are other works out theresuch as Solzenitsyns Gulag Archipelago. But did Orwell intend for this to be a how-to manual? Certainly not. This book was intended to be a tragedy, and it is thatfor the hero in the end falls to Big Brother bcause he has nothing substantial with which to oppose the totalitarian vision of the Party. He thinks the human orgasm will liberate him. But sexual liberation is really just a means of political control, and the Party proves it in the end. Winston chases after the wrong thing and winds up back in the clutches of Big Brother. For a totalitarian beginner, its just a reminder that you forbid things…