1984 Analysis

...

A smaller example is the surveillance of all party members through their Televisions that also serve as a surveillance camera. Not everyone in the country are under this surveillance though. The proles are exempt from surveillance in their own houses because they are already considered to be converted to love Big Brother completely. Instead there are telescreens in public areas where the proles live. The surveillance on such a big scale is there to stop any attempts of a rebellion forming.

Another small, but rather clear example is part of the propaganda used by the Party, namely its obligatory “two-minute hate” show every morning that drives people into frenzy and anger against the rebellion’s main leader Emmanuel Goldstein. This is to further strengthen the hate towards rebels, continually so that thoughts of joining them would never appear. While the Party seems to think its effective, the protagonist shows that even though he gets angry like the rest, his anger is instead directed at Big Brother:

“And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp. Thus, at one moment Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police” (p. ??).

In conclusion, there are several things that display the fear that the Party has against the population. While they may seem superior throughout the plot, they indirectly express their fear against a rebellion large enough to knock them off their throne. Its solution to it, dumbing everyone down into zombies, becomes its biggest weakness. The restricted language would stop any type of research or development to occur, halting modern evolution and the Party’s chances of winning the wars they are in. The propaganda sessions that promote anger would eventually have to be directed at other things, and anger would develop into becoming natural in the peoples’ everyday lives, which would make it easier for a rebellion to spark up. These things show that even if there may not be much luck for Winston, there could be others in Oceania that could overthrow the weak totalitarian government.

Sources:

2008 edition of George Orwell’s “1984”.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/