Mrs. Cortese
World Lit Section-7
4/28/15
Oppression is the unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. In the book 1984 by George Orwell and in the world today there are a lot of examples of how the government or the top party keeps the population in line. For Big Brother, the leading party of Oceania where 1984 takes place, oppression is a huge tool that they use to keep the power and control over the people. In countries in the world today where a person has all the power, like Burma, this is also a way that they control the people. Even though Oppression is just one way to control the people there are many different ways you can oppress the people. One of the key ways that Big Brother …show more content…
When this book was created to him it was very fictional but now today there are things they are just like telescreens. A telescreen is a TV except is has a hidden camera in the back of is so the government could watch you. When they put the telescreens in Winstons house they told him they they have telescreens in every house. The telescreens are also there to scare people because they cannot watch everybody at once, also they know if they act out in any way that they will be taken away and tortured and killed. The people that are watching and listening to the screens are called the thought police. They will invade the homes of anybody if they see or hear anything. Winston has a secret journal that he can 't let the thought police see so he has to hide it and the only spot is behind the telescreen and he has to never talk about it. Another thing that the thought police have to patrol is thought crime. This means that they have to go and punish anybody who does anything even just thinking of going against Big Brother and the party. If you are found guilty of thought crime you will "vaporize" from the world as Winston put it. One of the examples of this is when Winstons neighbor was taken away and vanished because he said, "down with Big Brother" in his …show more content…
One of the biggest ways the party makes it hard for the people to revolt is because they made a new language. This is called Newspeak. The thing about Newspeak is that it manipulates you so you can only say good things about the party. Also it inhibits you free the ability to speak freely and say your opinion about anything. This leads to the elimination of free will, imagination, opinion, emotion and free thought from most people. The only people that still have those qualities are the people that remember Oldspeak, otherwise known as the language we speak today. Another way that they do this is with just good old fashioned propaganda. Some of the propaganda used is people forced to wearing different objects on their clothing according to a group they belong in. An example of this is that Julia has to wear a red sash which shows that she is part of the Junior Anti-Sex League. Then there is the slogans and posters the party just likes to put up all over there country. The main slogan that the party uses is "war is peace". This and the other slogans that use aren 't totally just about about war they are more about the idea that the government wants them to oppress them to think a certain way and this is how they do this. The poster that the party uses is just the face of Big Brother with the sentence, Big Brother is