An Essay Exploring Propaganda and Totalitarianism in Orwell's 1984

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of George Orwell's novel, '1984,' focusing on the pervasive themes of propaganda and totalitarianism. It begins by defining propaganda and summarizing the novel's plot, which depicts a dystopian society controlled by the Party and its leader, Big Brother, in Oceania. The essay examines how the Party uses tools like Newspeak, a language designed to limit free thought, and the Ministry of Truth, which manipulates historical records, to control its citizens. It draws parallels between the novel's themes and real-world examples, including the use of propaganda during the Cold War and contemporary instances of misinformation. The essay also discusses how the novel has been used as propaganda by different political factions and concludes that propaganda, as depicted in '1984,' is ultimately more harmful than beneficial, as it manipulates people's thoughts and beliefs.

Running head: ESSAY ON GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 NOVEL
ESSAY ON GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 NOVEL
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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ESSAY ON GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 NOVEL
Introduction
Eric Arthur Blair, known popularly as George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist
and critic known mostly for his works like Animal Farm and 1984. He was known for his
rebellious attitude against imperialism and totalitarianism, which he had spoken vocally in his
works, especially in 1984. The novel especially brings to light, the concept of propaganda seen
through the eyes of a propagandist.
The essay will elaborately discuss the novel with a view to understand propaganda and its
relevance in the contemporary world. In doing so, the essay will first define propaganda in
general and then provide a summary of the novel. Next, the essay will provide explanations of
the subject, which is propaganda in particular and totalitarianism in general. These explanations
shall then be linked to the novel as evidences. The essay will also attempt to provide viable
solutions to the problems discussed. The chief aim of the essay is to establish that propaganda is
bad because it manipulates people’s thoughts by engaging them in beliefs that are against their
personal ethical principles.
Discussion
Propaganda, in simple terms, can be defined as the practice of making others accept the
views of one’s own even if it is against their ideology or morality. It is information mostly laden
with biased and misleading content that is utilized by the powerful class to promote their own
point of view.
In the contemporary era, although the meaning of propaganda has remained more or less
the same, the medium has seen a remarkable change. Propaganda now has innumerable tools that
help it spread to the entire globe within seconds. The advancement in technology has made it

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possible for the propagandists today to disseminate their views easily and more effectively.
David Yanagizawa-Drott gives a valid example of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide where
propaganda through the national radio played a huge role in instigating both the militia groups
and the civilians to kill the Tutsi minority people. The scholar carried out a study where he found
that more than 10 percent of the killings amounting to over 50 thousand killings were attributed
to the broadcast of the radio station (Yanagizawa-Drott).
Propaganda could also be defined as part of the ethics of persuasion. Persuasion is the
technique of convincing others to accept something that they might not need or with which they
have nothing to do. It is mostly used by businesses to persuade the buyers to buy their products
even if they do not have any use for it. However, persuasion has to be done in line with the
ethical principles. Examples of ethical persuasion could be those where businesses make the
customers aware of the products they are advertising and ask their consent through online
platforms. Unethical persuasion occurs when customer’s information or data is used without
their consent for gaining advantage over other businesses. Thus, propaganda falls marginally
under the unethical persuasion where the people are not aware of the actual motive.
The novel was published in the year 1949 and tells the story of Winston Smith, a lower
ranked member of the ruling party in Oceania living in London. Set in 1984, the novel talks
about the nation of Oceania and its war against Eurasia and Eastasia (Orwell). Oceania is an all-
Party governing nation that has brainwashed its citizens into abiding by the leader unthinkably,
known as Big Brother. Newspeak is a propagandist language that has been created by the Party
that limits the free thought of the people and encourages its own doctrines. Winston rebels
against the Party and is joined by the like-minded Julia with whom he has an affair and comes
across ‘Brotherhood’ – a dissenting group against the Party. One day a man named O’Brien

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meets Winston disguised as a member of ‘Brotherhood’, actually working as the Party’s spy.
O’Brien helps the Party captivate both Winston and Julia and send them to the Ministry of Love.
In an attempt to escape punishment, asks the punishers to “Do it to Julia!” (Orwell 166).
While working at the Ministry of Truth, Winston’s job was to alter the historical records
in order to align those with the Party’s needs. He begins to hate his job as he finds that most of
the things propagated by the Party are just opposite to what he has seen or heard. Unable to bear
it anymore, Winston decides to leave the Ministry of Truth and pen down his thoughts as diary
entries. After being sent to the Ministry of Love for open rebellion, Winston is brainwashed and
tortured for months. When he is released from the Ministry of Love after the prolonged torture
and brainwashing, Winston becomes a changed man and begins to love the Big Brother or the
Party. He meets Julia but does not possess any feelings for her.
While explaining propaganda, author Samantha Senn delves upon the two works of
Orwell, which included, apart from 1984, Animal Farm. The work focuses on the interpretation
of Orwell’s two novels and its use by the later governments and intelligence agencies against
particular ideologies. Both the novels by Orwell had an anti-Communist overtone and thus it was
overly utilized by the American intelligence agencies in the psychological warfare against the
Soviets during the Cold War era as propaganda (Senn 156-157).
The author demonstrated the way the novel was used by the United States and the United
Kingdom as propaganda against the Soviets. In fact, even the Soviets had used the novel as
propaganda to promote anti-American ideologies. The author claimed, “1984 was found to be a
valuable piece of propaganda not only by American and British intelligence services as anti-
Soviet, but also in the Soviet Union as anti-American” (156). For example, the Soviets published

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articles throughout the 1960s that depicted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the Big
Brother and so on. Parallels were also drawn in the portrayal of the Ministry of Truth and the
Defense Department of the US during the 1980s.
Authors C. Fleay and M.L. Sanders provided a deeper insight into the works of Orwell,
especially the situations that had motivated him to write political satires and criticisms. In the
work entitled Looking into the Abyss: George Orwell at the BBC, the authors presented the life
of George Orwell. They provided insights into his “attitude towards the concept of propaganda,
particularly in light of his own experiences as writer, producer and broadcaster for the BBC
Eastern services” (Fleay and Sanders 503). The authors state that Orwell’s experience at the
BBC from 1941 to 1943 was the influence behind 1984. As a broadcaster at BBC, Orwell had to
propagate anti-communist ideologies to the Eastern population. Although, editors of Orwell’s
works and even the author of his first biography, Bernard crick refuse to accept that Orwell was a
propagandist, his works clearly indicate otherwise.
The popularity and use of his works demonstrate that Orwell had propagandist intentions
(Graham 79). As the author puts it, “Orwell’s criticism proves its own hypothesis: that ideology
contains and influences, but does not wholly determine, individual personality” (92). The author
tried to mean that Orwell’s essays, particularly 1984 depicted his “sneaking sympathy” towards
propaganda although he had always maintained that he prefers art to propaganda.
Designating the novel 1984 as a work of prophecy and a satirical take on totalitarianism,
authors John David Frodsham and Henry O Thompson praise Orwell’s imaginative power and
moral fervor. A Sinister Freedom: Orwell’s 1984 Reconsidered is in contrast to the previous two
works discussed in the above sections. According to the authors, “Orwell writes out of passion

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for freedom, justice and, above all truth”. They argue that Orwell had a great insight into the
brutal politics in which the totalitarian states were engaged (Frodsham and Thompson 4).
However, when scrutinized closely, one could fathom the deep meaning of the novel, which is
not just about communist bashing but the rejection of all sorts of totalitarianism. Further, the
work has produced one of the best explanations for propaganda, which is relevant even today.
The explanations given above provide evidence of the novel’s relevance in the
contemporary era. In particular, the novel has been instrumental in popularizing propaganda
during the Cold War era especially. The influence of this novel was such that official
government departments like the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) created in the 1940s, was
suggested to use extant literary works as propaganda.
The novel, through the character of Winston Smith, has presented the way totalitarian
governments propagated their ideologies. The character was first a rebel who was disillusioned
after he found out that the history and language propagated by the Party was distorted. He
rebelled against the Big Brother but was ultimately brainwashed to believe that the Party was
doing the right work. The explanations presented above put forward this aspect of the novel in
clear terms by associating it to the propagandist activities of the present era. In one section of the
novel, Winston mentions that Julia was “far less susceptible to Party propaganda” (Orwell 89).
He realized it when once Julia had shocked him stating that Oceania is not into war with Eurasia
and that the bombings are done by the government itself to “keep people frightened” (Orwell
89). The explanations above especially the one by Samantha Senn project this dangerous
propaganda.

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The modern day scenario shows ominous signs especially for the people of the United
States post Donald Trump’s selection as the President. President Trump’s imaginary contention
that his inauguration attracted the “largest audience ever” is one of the finest examples of the
propaganda that Orwell had mentioned in his novel (Washingtonpost.com). The reason is that
contrary to the evidence of one of the lowest attendance, Trump did not shy away from making
such a remark. In the era of internet and information technology boom, doing such propaganda is
not a good sign for a country like America. In order to rectify the situation, it is important that
Orwell’s actual message be understood from the novel. Orwell’s 1984 presented a situation in
the future where telescreens (television and the social media platforms like YouTube and
Facebook in today’s world) were used to broadcast programs that boasted the Party’s
achievements (Orwell 3). It aptly depicted the real world situation during the Cold War era
although today the situation has changed. In today’s world, people have access to all the
information and befooling them with false propaganda through the media is no longer possible.
However, it should be kept in mind that propaganda has taken a new form through trade and
commerce, global brands and a new name – globalization.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated that propaganda as explained in Orwell’s 1984 clearly depicts
that is more bad than good.

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References:
"Why Orwell’S ‘1984’ Matters So Much Now". Washingtonpost.Com, 2018,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/why-orwells-1984-matters-so-much-
now/2017/01/25/3cf81964-e313-11e6-a453-19ec4b3d09ba_story.html?utm_term=.feec09e2ad7f.
Accessed 24 Nov 2018.
Fleay, C., and M. L. Sanders. "Looking into the Abyss: George Orwell at the BBC." Journal of
contemporary history 24.3 (1989): 503-518.
Frodsham, John David, and Henry O. Thompson. "A Sinister Freedom: Orwell's 1984
Reconsidered [with COMMENT]." International Journal on World Peace(1985): 2-27.
Good, Graham. "Ideology and Personality in Orwell's Criticism." College Literature 11.1 (1984):
78-93.
Orwell, George. "1984." (1949).
Senn, Samantha. "All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others:
George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda." Journal of Strategic Security 8.5
(2015): 14.