Title: 1984 Analysis - eNotes.com
Headings: 1984 Analysis
1984 Analysis
Analysis
Download 1984 Study Guide
Unlock This Study Guide Now

Content: All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. O’Brien then illustrates how the Party, on the other hand, is transparent in their motive “to seek power entirely for its own sake,” firmly believing that “power is not a means, it is an end.” As recent events in history demonstrate—especially the unspeakable evils committed during the Holocaust—this obsession with absolute power at the expense of the powerless leads to both totalitarianism and demagoguery, and these hierarchal social structures thus rely on discrimination and persecution to enforce their ideologies. The Party instills fear of foreigners as a means to maintaining control over the masses, a tactic that Goldstein explains in the following excerpt: If [a citizen] were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. This distrust of foreigners also gives the Party fuel to implement extremist policies that capitalize upon the human capacity for hatred, such as portraying foreigners as inhuman forces of pure evil. Likewise, Big Brother—representing the dangers of blind worship and religious extremism—symbolizes the omnipotence and omnipresence of the Party’s values. Further, Goldstein describes Big Brother as a tool used by the Party to serve as a “focusing point for love, fear, and reverence” in order to prevent individuals from engaging in conscious thought and pursuing innovative ideas.