Who could have guessed that a book written in 1949 would continue to be relevant to today’s world? George Orwell’s book, 1984, is such a book. Just this week North Korea, which is a repressive society much like the one in 1984, is in the news. The North Korean government uses psychological manipulation to control its population much like the way the inner party in 1984 uses it to control its population. George Orwell in his book looks at how people in power use various means of psychological control. The symbols of Big Brother, telescreens, and the workers’ overalls are used throughout the novel to convey the idea of psychological manipulation with greater clarity and complexity.
One of the most important and influential ideas about psychological manipulation from the novel 1984 is the idea of Big Brother. One of the most famous quotes from the book is, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” (p.5) This provides the idea that someone is always watching your every move and that you can never escape. The party uses this idea to control the general population by scaring them into thinking that they are always watched by the government and that anything they do wrong will be seen and used against them. It shapes the idea of the book in showing a society that is all pervasive and controlling. This quote is on the first page of the book and forms the basis for the whole story that follows. As the story moves on, Winston writes about how he fears and has grown to hate Big Brother. In fact he writes in his diary, “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (p. 19) five times. This shows that Winston is not yet completely controlled by Big Brother because he does this “thoughtcrime.” (p. 19) Finally, at the end of the novel, Winston has been so psychologically manipulated that he comes to love Big Brother. At the end of the novel, Winston has been psychologically manipulated into thinking that his hated of Big Brother was all a misunderstanding and that he finally knows that, “He loved...