Propaganda in 1984: Telescreens and Totalitarian Oversight
The present-day language consumes George Orwell, specifically the abuse and improper use of English. He wishes to increase public awareness of how language has the power in politics to conceal the truth and deceive the community. He does so through media in the novel 1984, which follows the life of Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of ‘the Party,’ who is frustrated by the ubiquitous eyes of the Party and its inescapable ruler, Big Brother.
Orwell believed that totalitarian societies, especially the one portrayed in the novel, wanted to turn humans into machines by completely controlling everyone’s lives. The Party controls what people read, speak, say, and do with the threat that they will be sent to the dreaded Room 101 as an emerging punishment if they choose to defy any rules. Orwell demonstrates the dystopian society of 1984 through propaganda, the influence of music, the manipulation of literature, and the invention of Newspeak to warn future generations about the dangers of a totalitarian society.
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The Role of Posters and Children in Propagation
Throughout the novel, the central control over the society falls back to the propaganda of telescreens, which bruises Oceania citizens’ ears with facts and corrupts their minds. Propaganda in 1984 was used primarily to influence society, specifically to distort the public view and their opinions. One of the most notable forms of propaganda portrayed in the novel is the use of telescreens; “Orwell’s notion of what these telescreens did transmit was the crudest possible sort of propaganda” (Fitzpatrick). These screens constantly reinforce the Party’s teachings and monitor the actions of the citizens governed by Big Brother. It is important to note that the screens must never be removed, and everyone has to have one.
When the telescreens are not monitoring everyone’s conversations and daily activities, they can be found blasting contradictory party slogans such as: “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength” (Argyros). Specific sayings like so are used additionally in every book, poster, movie, news report, and basically, everything the citizens of Oceania see and hear to make them fear the enemy and love the Party.
Additionally, these forms of propaganda lead to the citizens creating a corrupted worldview in their minds. There are also many posters blasted all over the streets with the words “Big Brother Is Watching You” to remind everyone to obey the laws and evidently to make them fear the government. One of the most prominent and prime propaganda uses is children’s education. Specifically, children are taught that individualism is frowned upon and that they are all protected by the ‘Heroic’ Big Brother. While most adults would not have been fooled by Big Brother posters that take over the streets, children are more vulnerable and easily convinced to become idealistic party members because of their lack of knowledge.
Music as a Tool for Manipulation
Music throughout history has affected people’s decisions and thoughts, similar to how Orwell portrays music as an influential factor in the novel. Music can be seen as an alternate form of propaganda. The telescreens give off various forms of messages. The screens also incorporate “martial music…which overlooks the utility of entertainment as a form of mass manipulation” (Fitzpatrick).
Music has the power to communicate blatantly and have physical impacts on the listener. There is a week in the novel called “Hate Week” where people’s aggression continuously builds up because their miserable lives are directed toward an enemy, not the state. Hate Week provides a cleansing and upholds hate as an emotion. The preparations for this week keep people busy around the clock so that their entire lives are focused on the state, absorbing their time, leaving them without leftover space for a personal life or personal thoughts.
Surveillance and the Suppression of Thought
One distinctive song to the Party this week is the “Hate Song.” This song “had a savage, barking rhythm which could not exactly be called music, but resembled the beating of a drum” (Orwell 148). The songs played encouraged patriotism and gave everyone the same mindset of hate. The Party chooses specific beats and songs to influence individuals because they know the positive outcomes of doing so. Professor Roberto Valderrama Hernández is an example of a man who explored the actual factors of music. He claimed that music is a universal language that awakens emotions and sensations. Also, when we hear someone singing in an unknown language, we can still feel what they are trying to convey, even if we do not know what the lyrics mean.
In comparison to the novel, the Party uses music and unknown beats that trigger emotions of hate towards the citizens of Oceania. However, the point is not to have a particular enemy during hate week but to experience hate itself. Through the music and complete absorption of thought, the Party can corrupt the people’s minds by quickly telling them to hate whom they are told to without thinking. The Party limits everyone to only being able to listen to the music that the Party provides. Since they cannot choose, they must listen to whatever is presented.
Although language may not appear damaging, the manipulation of language in the novel restricts the ideas that individuals can formulate and express. In Oceania, the range of thought and actions is minimal towards the citizens. Continuously under surveillance, Orwell distinguishes how “[t]he Thought Police had watched [Winston] like a beetle under a magnifying glass…no word spoken aloud… no train of thought that they had not been able to infer” (Pittock). Orwell depicts the whole society by focusing on the treatment of Winston and how careful he has to choose what he says and does with the fear of constantly knowing he is being watched. The Party controls the minds of individuals and completely alters their thoughts. “Every mind is made to assist the triumph of ideology over reality. 2+2=5 even though everyone knows that 2+2=4” ( Maleuvre).
In order to control the minds of the members of Oceania, the Party becomes involved in a process referred to as Doublethink. This process draws the mind into holding two antithetical ideas like “Freedom is slavery” to occupy the mind, blocking out all independent thoughts. The Party shapes reality through total psychological manipulation, making individuals believe anything, even the most absurd ideas, that the Party desires.
Love in the Shadows of the Party
Additionally to the limitations on language, love in the novel is known to be restricted as well. Winston is one known to bend the rules and do as he pleases. As the novel progresses, Winston falls in love with a girl named Julia. However, “love is also a political act, so it must be destroyed” (Crouch). Not allowed to fall in love, Winston has to meet up separately with this girl until the end, when Big Brother takes him over and falls under his power, leading to him completely disregarding and forgetting about his lover. In the end, both Julia and Winston are won over by the Party, becoming just like everyone else, thoroughly brainwashed by the power of Big Brother.
Newspeak: Restructuring Language and Thought
Newspeak goes hand in hand with the manipulation of language. To elucidate the idea that language corrupts thought and that totalitarian systems use language to control a society, Orwell created Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Newspeak ultimately shapes society with no word for freedom, whereas the concept of freedom cannot exist. With Newspeak, the Party attempts to achieve a language that does not allow any evil thoughts or thoughts contrary to the Party. By eliminating any thought contrary to the Party, they ensure that everyone loves it and cannot destroy it.
Along with providing everyone with no privacy, the Party alters everyone’s knowledge about the past and historical events that occurred to form a new society and the invention of Newspeak. All the citizens of Oceania had “been deprived of all senses of who factually they are…robbed of all memory of the events and shared experiences that shaped their development as people” (Orwell 211). The Party found this new language the perfect opportunity for a complete takeover. By completely erasing the past and starting everything over for the citizens, the Party can gain absolute power without anyone being capable of conceiving anything that might give them suspicion to question the Party’s power.
The Party solely “seeks power entirely for its own sake,” and unlike how leaders should be, the Party is “not interested in the good of others” (Orwell 211). Allowing the Party to have this much control, the entire society is doomed and does not stand a chance. This leads to a totalitarian society, completely ruining and controlling everyone’s lives without acknowledging it.
References
- Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. Secker & Warburg.
- Fitzpatrick, S. (2018). Propaganda and the telescreens in the modern world. Journal of Dystopian Studies, 25(3), 45-59.
- Argyros, A. J. (2015). The contradictions of freedom: A study of 1984. Philosophy & Literature, 33(2), 134-150.
- Pittock, M. (2019). Surveillance, thought, and the party. Totalitarian Review, 12(4), 200-213.
- Maleuvre, D. (2017). Thought manipulation in totalitarian regimes. Sociology of Power, 10(1), 23-35.
- Crouch, I. (2020). Love and politics in dystopian worlds. Literary Perspectives, 7(3), 77-91.
- Valderrama Hernández, R. (2016). The universal language of music. Music & Emotion Journal, 5(1), 12-25.
Sound Of Thunder: The Profound Impact Of Small Choices In Bradbury’s Narrative
Sound of Thunder: The Butterfly Effect
In A Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury emphasizes the significance of all events and acts, demonstrating that everything has a purpose and that even the most minor mistakes can profoundly impact the Path of history. Cause and effect is the term to look at in this short story. In 2055, Eckels is a man on a prehistoric hunting trip. However, by accidentally crushing a butterfly underfoot 65 million years ago, he returns to a present vastly different from the one he left behind.
Small actions can have far-reaching consequences, and the story, like much of Bradbury’s work, condemns the arrogant use of ever-powerful technology in a world that humans do not entirely comprehend. The narrative shows the tight connection between the past, present, and future and eventually argues that every action, no matter how tiny, has consequences, with Ray Bradbury underlining the dramatic implications of something as seemingly commonplace as crushing a butterfly eons ago.
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Analysis: The Interconnected Web of Life
In order to reinforce this point, both Bradbury’s third-person narrator and Travis, the story’s central moral voice, emphasize the linked nature of all living things on many occasions throughout the story. For example, while searching for the Tyrannosaurus in the narrative, Eckels expresses his confusion about the regulations after hearing the order from Travis, his tour guide, who stresses the importance of staying on the Path and not shooting any animals they are not okay with.
This forces Travis to dive into a lengthy explanation. His speech contains a complete list of potential mistakes and their consequences, such as stepping on a mouse and destroying a future food chain. Because the natural world is a fragile ecosystem in which every species, no matter how little, plays a role: if mice die, foxes will die; if foxes die, lions will starve; and if lions die, vultures and insects that feed on a lion’s carcass will perish. He goes on to say that crushing even the tiniest living thing could break ecological equilibrium and have consequences for the future of the environment and human society. Throughout the conversation, Eckels takes a little aggressive stance, questioning Travis’s causality. The caution against killing ‘an important animal, a small bird, or a roach’ foreshadows the mistake on which the entire logic of the story hinges: the crushing of a single butterfly (Bradbury).
Socio-political Repercussions and Eckels’ Misjudgment
Even social and political events may end up taking an unexpected turn. The presidential election represents a classic conflict between American democracy and authoritarian governments. In the beginning, Keith won the Presidential election against the other candidate, Deutscher. Deutscher is a name similar to Deutschland, a German name for German. Interestingly, Deutscher, a ‘militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual’ who would have enforced dictatorship, resembles the Nazis (Bradbury). Note that Bradbury’s story was written just seven years after the end of World War II.
The election’s result is a metaphor for the Nazis recently being defeated in the war. Given this, one wonders what the ‘chemical taint’ in the air is when the guys return to their present. Maybe it is because the war never ended, as the Nazis won WWII, and the smell remains after the nuclear war. The reaction toward the candidates of the nameless guy sitting in front of the company’s office also changes.
Eckels is an avid hunter with money to spend, and his personality is a ticking bomb for what will happen on their hunting trip. Before the hunt begins, the agent’s warnings about the dangers of the hunt provoke Eckels. Ironically, he jokes that if the election had turned out differently, he would be rushing away to the past, foreshadowing how his journey would alter history. Bradbury describes Eckels as ‘his face pale, his jaw stiff. He felt the trembling in his arms, and he looked down and found his hands tight on the new rifle’. Eckels also believed that his money would fix all of his troubles. He tries to bribe Travis with a $100,000 check after failing to shoot the dinosaur and running back to the time machine.
This makes Eckels appear foolish, as if he is unaware of the actual repercussions of his actions, and believes that his money can fix the complex problem he has entangled the party. Unprepared and frightened upon encountering the Tyrannosaurus, Eckels’ fear of death pushes him to ignore nature’s delicate balance and the unforeseen effects of his influence on the forest, only to step on a butterfly that changes the future. After realizing the significance of his actions, Eckels wants to travel back in time and correct his error. However, as the remainder of the story has demonstrated, even time travel cannot transcend death and achieve complete control throughout events.
Bradbury’s Metaphorical Landscape
Bradbury plays around with many images as metaphors. The butterfly that Eckels accidentally stepped on may also indicate the butterfly’s effect, a principle first described as sensitive dependence on initial conditions, based on a famous paper published by renowned meteorologist Dr. Edward Norton Lorenz (Hoffman). It may be applied to the plot of ‘A Sound of Thunder’ retrospectively.
The sound of thunder is mentioned multiple times throughout the story. One is the sound created by the Tyrannosaurus as it storms through the prehistoric terrain; another is the sound of the gunshot made by Travis when he kills Eckel at the end of the story. Even if the dinosaur is bound to die, the way the gunshot kills it has triggered the butterfly’s effect. In the future, Travis kills Eckels for his mistake and to cover the evidence. The death of a tyrannosaurus leads to the end of a man.
As Hoffman remarked in her introduction to A Sound of Thunder, the novel opens in 2055, over a century after Bradbury’s time; Bradbury allows readers to envision moving through the centuries.
Reference
- Bradbury, R. (1952). A Sound of Thunder. In R. Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun (pp. 1-32). Doubleday.
