1984 essay

Julia Lombardo

3/19/09

English 10 Honors

Period B

1984 Essay


The Party’s Control

In the book 1984, written by George Orwell, Oceania is controlled by the Party.

The Party is a very strict government that controls every aspect of the citizen’s lives. The

Party does not let the people have any freedom in their everyday lives. The people can

not talk about their feelings or what they do not like about the society. Every move the

make and every step they take is being overlooked by the Party to make sure no one is

breaking the rules. The most important aspects of the Party are to be infallible,

omniscient and omnipotent, or similar to God.

What makes the Party so strong is their infallibility. To be infallible is, “unfailing

in effectiveness or operation; certain” (dictionary.com). A perfect example of this is the

concept of two plus two equals five. Before the Party made this statement, Winston knew

in his head that two plus two equaled four, but what the Party tells people is the truth. “In

the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to

believe it” (80). Since the Party made this claim, everyone must believe it, and if they did

not, they would have to use doublethink to forget that they knew two plus two equaled

four. The point of doublethink was to prevent people from remembering they knew

something, but then they would have to forget that they forgot about it. “ To know and

not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed

lies... to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory

again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above

all to apply the same process to the process itself…” (35). The Party takes complete

control over the people’s minds and can see what they are thinking. If everyone in

Oceania believes everything the Party tells them, they are incapable of being overthrown

and still have the people in the palm of their hands.

Another aspect of the Party that makes them so powerful is the fact that they are

omniscient. To be omniscient is “having total knowledge; knowing everything”

(dictionary.com). Big Brother is the leader created by the Party. His posters are hung

everywhere in Oceania with the popular slogan “Big Brother is Watching You”

underneath them. Big Brother has never been seen in person by anyone, but the people

have the idea that he is a very powerful man and should be treated as a God. The Party

sees everything and knows what is going on in Oceania at all times. The Telescreens that

are located in every room of every building, even people’s houses, make it possible for

them to see what everyone is doing at all times. The Telescreens also allow the Thought

Police to keep an eye on the people to make sure they do not rebel or do anything against

their rules, such as having an expression on your face that makes the Thought Police

assume you are up to no good. “No one who had once fallen into the hands of the

Thought Police ever escaped in the end. They were corpses waiting to be sent back to the

grave” (76). Being both infallible and omniscient makes the Party almost impossible to

conquer.

The last aspect that makes the Party unstoppable is the fact that they are

omnipotent. To be omnipotent means “almighty or infinite in power, as God”

(dictionary.com). Power is the main focus of the Party at all times. If they have all of the

power, they are unstoppable and can basically do anything they please. Complete power

over the people is one of the main reasons why the Party is so successful. They mainly

use their power to control the past. Anything that happened in the past that the Party

did not want to people to know or remember was simply erased; like it never happened

to begin with. “ Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present

controls the past” (34). Since the Party controls all of history they can alter anything,

even if someone ever existed or not. The people are powerless compared to the Party

because they do not have the information they need to defeat the Party. Although, there is

one group that has enough people to overthrow the Party; the proles. Even though the

proles consist of many people, if they were to try and overthrow the Party, they would be

ineffective because they are not aware of their strength. “ But the proles, if only they

could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to

conspire” (69). The power of the Party has made them strong and unable to be

overthrown by anyone.

In conclusion, the Party has control over all of the power because of its ability to

control everyone and everything in society. The most important aspects of the Party are

to be infallible, omniscient and omnipotent, or similar to God. The way they set up their

government makes them superior to everyone else and will do anything to maintain their

absolute power.