Controlling the Past

One of the methods of Control in the party is changing events in the past and telling people that Big Brother did all of this stuff that he really didn't do. For example, Big Brother is said to have invented the airplane at a time later then when it was really invented. Big Brother does this through the Ministry of Truth, which is really a Ministry of Lies. If they can control who did what in the past and make people believe a lie, then they can make people believe just about anything that they want them to believe therefore giving them control of the people. Another way they can control history is through Newspeak, because the less words the people in the party have to use, the less opinions they can come up with. And of course Big Brother limits this by not even letting them write down or think of heretical things. If they do, then they simply disappear from the records, and the interesting thing is that they can make people up at random. This means that you could be taught that someone who never existed did this great thing in Newspeak, and it’s all a lie. This is effective, because the people make themselves think that this is all true, because they know if they think any different that they will be taken away. This method of changing history is so effective because they are making people believe what they are told whether it is a true or not.

Language and How it Relates to Freedom

There are many languages in the world today, both foreign and modern, but all of these diverse languages have one thing in common, they represent our freedom. We are showing our freedom that is stated to us in the First Amendment, by merely getting our opinions out there in one way or another. Some people choose to express their freedom through music by making mix tapes, and some choose to be like Winston and write in a way that other people think will soon be extinct. Winston writes in his diary because he is not only tired of the society he lives in, but he cannot say these things out loud or even think them, yet he knows that writing them down is just as bad. In this sense he is a patriot, putting his ideas out there and using the written language to defy the society. This is not allowed in this society because if someone breaks away from the party then other will start to as well, which is why thinking up heretic things about the party is considered to be a thoughtcrime. Winston commits a thoughtcrime through the written language. Winston is drawn to this type of language because he does not like Newspeak, and he prefers Oldspeak, and this is because he faces Newspeak everyday at his job. However, his comrade Syme has the job of destroying words and he thinks that eventually we will only have a few words left to describe so many things. He doesn’t like the language Oldspeak, because he thinks it is too vague and has to many shades of meaning, while with Newspeak is much more simple with words abbreviated and pulled together. The language in this society is restricted to Newspeak because if people were to use other languages this might promote new ideas, and of course that is a crime and you will disappear. The party has to eliminate words every day, and this will eventually lead to the change in the literature, slogans, and in this society orthodoxy will mean not needing to think. The party does not want people to think, they don’t want them to write, and this stifles the individuality that Winston so desperately craves, which is why he writes to be an individual. Language allows everyone to create their own individuality.

The 1984 Society

The society in Brave New World is not based on happiness, but rather on war and violence. People in this society seem to be very suspicious of each other and are not very social. Winston hates the dark-haired girl simply because she likes being a virgin and wears the symbolic red sash around her waist to symbolize this. This world is supposed to appear very dark and in this society you are supposed to adore the Big Brother and hate Goldstein. You can also see the apparent hatred in the daily two-minute hate. This scene in book 1 shows how the people in the party share the same kinds of hatreds and are expected to act like this. Another aspect about this society is that they are constantly being watched, and monitored by the thought police. Winston is the perfect example of what not to do, he writes a diary which is not a good thing, and he only does out of the view of the telescreen. Their entire existence depends on them not thinking or writing a bad thought about the party. This is another very good example of a dystopian society. This society is supposed to be perfect because no new ideas can get in, but this whole idea gets overturned because they promote hatred and the only thing they can do to control people within this society is to make them hate one another and not trust anyone.