1984 Essay

Scott Pero
Honors English 10
March, 19, 2009
How does the party try and make itself like a God?

To Doublethink Is Human, To Never Err Is The Party

Since the dawn of time, man has told stories of the past. Stories of heroes and damsels, of wit and strength, and of creation and destruction have bewitched the human mind for millennia, ever since man knew how to communicate. Most of these stories stem from various religions and mythologies, and all of them share one common factor: Gods. In each story of heroes, there is a God trying to halt them. In every tale of wit, there is a God the protagonist is trying to trick. In every myth of creation, there is always a God doing the creating. What, then, are Gods? The various religions and mythologies of the world use them to explain their natural world, but what truly is a God? All hold common traits: They are omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Gods are all-powerful, are always around, and know all. They control the world in which we live, much like the Party controls the dystopian society that is 1984. Like Gods, the Party controls everything. They can do anything, they know everything, and they are everywhere at all times. The Party, like a God, is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

The Party’s power in 1984 is mighty and great. The Party can do whatever they please, due to the commonplace ideology of doublethink. Simply put, it is forgetting one thing after another: "Consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word doublethink involved doublethink" (Orwell 32). Thanks to doublethink, The Party’s actions pass unopposed. The Party utilizes doublethink to control Oceania. Oceanians are to be at all times loyal to The Party, meaning following in silent obedience what it mandates. Any opposition is taken care of by doublethink. Doublethink is essentially the crux of The Party and their dystopian society. It eliminates opposition by eliminating any thoughts that may lead to it, called thoughtcrime. Gods have followers just as The Party does through doublethink, and The Party, using their god-like power, can erase those followers as well.

The Party can even erase people from the course of history thanks to their power. If someone goes against doublethink and opposes The Party, The Party deems them a thoughtcriminal and captures them: "People simply disappeared…your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated" (19). Doublethink completely covers any memories of the people that once existed, and therefore these people are completely forgotten. Not only does the Party erase the memories of those people, but their records. Hence, if anyone conceived a notion that one person actually existed, it could not be proven. Only consciousness held the facts of someone’s existence, and that thought was enough cause to be convicted as a thoughtcriminal. Just like the Gods who decide every aspect of the world they created, every aspect of 1984’s world is decided by the Party, a world where The Party is everywhere.

The Party is everywhere in 1984. Everywhere one looked, there would be some emblem of the party. Be it a telescreen or one of the many posters of Big Brother, The Party’s influence is everywhere. Hung up all over Airstrip One are the posters of Big Brother with his iconic saying, ‘Big Brother is Watching You’, and the slogans of the Party, ‘War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.’ As Winston says when describing his world, "…there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black-mustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner" (2) the posters are all over Airstrip One, possibly even Oceania. The posters ensure that The Party’s presence is known at every hour of every day. Its influence is everywhere, enforced even more so by the telescreen.

The telescreen is a mandatory household item in 1984. Not only does it broadcast television, but it simultaneously records whatever is in its field of vision. It quite literally is a television that watches you, and it could never be turned off, other than to the secluded group of trusted Inner Party members. Because they can view anyone in their everyday life, and monitor them for any problems, the Oceanian must always keep his guard up: "You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized" (3). There is no telling when The Party is watching you via telescreen or not. Due to this notion, trapped in the Oceanian’s head, is the assumption the Party is watching, and therefore, they are everywhere, just as Gods are. Omnipresence allows for The Party’s Omniscience as well.

Most of all, the Party is omniscient. It knows and sees all, mostly through the use of telescreens. The Party also trains its younger generations to obey the Party above all else, including the family. Organizations such as The Spies encourage children to disown their parents as thoughtcriminals at the slightest slip up: "they were systematically turned into little savages, and yet this produced them in no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the party…they adored the Party" (24). Even if an Oceanian could escape the telescreens and the posters, they would still have to worry about their family, who, thanks to The Party, would betray them at any moment. The Party has its own agents within every family of Oceania. Like the Gods, The Party does not only see all, but it knows all as well.

Because of the previously mentioned doublethink, the Party can never be wrong. Whatever the Party says is truth, if someone remembers otherwise, doublethink ensures their orthodoxy. For instance, if The Party is at war with Eastasia, then it had always been at war with Eastasia. Suddenly, if The Party says it is at war with Eurasia, then it was and will always be at war with Eurasia. The Party controls the past, with the ability to bend it to whatever they wish it to be, and it can never be wrong. This is enforced by the job of the main character, Winston. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, which deals with the media and the fabrication of it. If The Party said one thing at one time, but it said another in the present, Winston’s duty is to fix that by making the former match the latter. If anyone were to look for textual evidence of The Party’s fallacy, they would then only find examples of their infallibility. As Winston reflects, "The past…had not merely been altered, it had been destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside your own memory" (36). The Party has found a way to make itself like the omniscient gods. The Party does away with the past and replaces it with its own, which, according to doublethink, is the right one.

Omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience are all crucial to a God’s power, just as the three are to The Party. Without them, The Party would not be able to hold its place in Oceania. Each one interlocks with and compliments the other in some way. Omnipotence is utilized to impose the feeling of omnipresence. Omnipresence is used to gain omniscience. Omniscience contributes to omnipotence. The three form a continuous and impenetrable cycle that ensures The Party’s grip on the society they rule. The same can be said for any deity as well. Man does not worship those like him. The average deity needs these abilities to secure their influence on their followers. The Party likewise ascribes these qualities to itself to assume the guise of a God. If Gods did not have them, they are not worth believing in, and cannot be called Gods. Without power, presence, and proficiency, Gods are reduced to no more than the very beings they rule.