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Abuse Of Power In 1984

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Abuse of power and control evidently plays a huge role in the dystopian society described by George Orwell in his startling novel , 1984. The political party in control despises any concepts they can’t control so they try to undermine the feelings of pleasure and love to gain more control over the people they govern. “Big Brother” does not want individuals to be forming relationships and bonds it could not possibly break or control because they fear that it could hinder someone's unconditional loyalty towards the party and it’s ideals. The pleasure and eroticism in sex doesn’t exist in this society; the party believes that all sexual acts should be of benefit for the party and the only reason of intercourse would be to create new party members. …show more content…

By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, by the rubbish that was denied into them at school and in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them.” (P.47) Another reason why the party dissipated pleasure over the years of their ruling is to feel reassured that their people were loyal and that they stayed that way. In order to demonstrate loyalty towards the party, people followed the laws and orders of “Big Brother”. The biggest test of loyalty was to forget about all the pleasurable things in life and see no interest in them. This would filter out the people who were unloyal to the party and would allow the thought police and the Ministry of truth to vaporize those who were caught being unloyal. This allowed the party to form a society who strongly supported everything they said and stood …show more content…

The government does this to keep complete control over the cravings of the people. They control rations in order to keep the people from becoming too attached to objects that cause them pleasure. Humans tend to d rebell and participate in foolish acts in order to obtain object the might think they need a clear-cut example exists on page 164, “He knew that he was starving the other two, but he could not help it; he even felt that he had a right to do it. The clamorous hunger in his belly seemed to justify him." This incident portrays the idea that humans will do anything in order to obtain something they crave. These types of feelings made the government feel threatened. Nevertheless, winston knowing that he was hurting his family, he seemed to not care and continued with his rebellious act.
The act of suppressing pleasure isn’t a unique concept to 1984, however it greatly contributes to the story line. Various feelings are subdued or repressed by the government in order to keep the people they control in order. They are petrified by the fact that these feelings could possibly fuel rebellion and the people will no longer see them as a viable and trustworthy government. These concepts play a huge role in the book The Giver in which the society is governed by its own totalitarian government. “Big Brother” simply believed that love was too strong of a bond to possibly

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