Discuss the presentation of the Inner Party in Orwell's "1984".

by 34444 (student)

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Written Task 2 Categories and Questions

Power and Privilege

How and why is a social group presented in a particular way?

1984

George Orwell’s 1984 novel depicts a nation under a despotic totalitarian government. The working class, known as the proletariat, is portrayed quite critically through Winston’s descriptions of the slums they live in. The outer party is second to the Inner Party. Throughout 1984, the Inner Party represents overt superiority and power among the people of Oceania through the lavish lifestyle and intimidation by keeping strict surveillance on the people under them. The Inner Party representation demands a robotic degree of obedience and servility due to fear of punishments and deceptive systems such as Thoughtcrime and Newspeak, both mechanisms to control the thoughts of the people, of the Party as well as the known yet silently dangerous topic of brainwashing.

The inner party’s omnipresent supervision rumors of torture for ‘unorthodox’ behaviors secures their elite status. Orwell’s 1984 consistently portrays the working class of the population on edge. The widespread “posters that were plastered everywhere” of inner party’s presence creates tension and deep-seated paranoia of the Thought Police (2). In order for the inner party to govern the people accordingly, they establish built-in telescreens, Thoughtpolice, and spies that guarantee all improper behavior can be terminated before it begins. The part uses telescreens, Thought Police, and the Spies, the youth organization in search for traitors. Government technologies are implanted into every residency, eliminating privacy. This also applies to Winston’s outer party social ranking where he must keep “his back turned to the telescreen” (3). The deep-rooted fear in Winston implies that the doubt circulating his head can be used against him. This dramatic and haunting removal of a person’s existence, “abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word” contribute to the agitated atmosphere (19). The patrol for the inner party even goes so far as to induce fear of their own thoughts. Under strict circumstance, where one’s life and existence can be easily erased, relentless fear of wrongdoing and fear of being watched fills the minds of the entire population and creates the dystopian society, replacing love with hate and happiness with fear, that the inner party pursues to achieve.

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The Inner Party maintains its control by programs, the Hate Week and Two Minute Hate. They dedicate time for servitude, ensure control by manipulating and brainwashing the people. Their ability to create anything and make it law such as supposed rations of goods shows the readers of its prominent power.

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Throughout 1984, Orwell analyzes the true purpose of Newspeak in the voice of Winston. Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, but it is also the Inner Party’s scheme to limit the range of thought in order to eradicate possibilities of betrayal and revolt. Their logic is grounded on the idea that, if “every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten”, no revolutionary rebellion will exist and thus thoughtcrime will be literally impossible (53). The destruction of words translates to the readers of the manipulative actions taken in an totalitarian government to establish control and maintenance. It also teaches readers of that people need language to construct concrete thoughts. Thus the inconceivable thought of erasing words from the English vocabulary in reality restricts people from sharing and developing complex ideas, which will lead to to sympathize for the characters of 1984. Limiting language is a form of manipulation; it is also applicable to the bureaucracies that control the working orders of the government: Ministry of Love, Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Plenty, and Ministry of Peace, all of which are euphemisms, or rather, antonyms of their actual meaning to employ “doublethink”. The “lie which the Party imposed”, often misconstrued as truth, gives the appearance of a perfect society to the people. Some civilians have been too exposed to the sorts of fabrications that they stoop to naivety and oblivion to notice oddities. “If all records told the same tale” then the lie, statistically verified, will become truth (35), because of constant eradication of history that forces people to doubt “even the most obvious fact” (37) which shows the readers the extent of the Inner Party’s manipulative dominance. The insistence to keep an authoritarian supervision is because the Inner Party considers others as “natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals” so that they can limit the proles’ intelligence to rebel (73). In Oceania, the high-standing status of the inner Party triumphs over individual rights.

With the title of an inner party comes the privileges. Their ostentatious and opportunistic living gives them the incentive to commit any ‘thoughtcrime’ and not be punished. The Inner Party’s quality of life compared to the members of the Outer Party and the working class is greatly superior. Telescreens, for one, could be switched off for as long as 30 minutes because they “have that privilege” (173) where Winston overlooks the hint to O’Brien deceitful intentions. Their quarters are also presented with personal servants, exclusively limited food resources, access to rare goods, and the tidiness of their homes. Winston takes note of “the richness and spaciousness of everything, the unfamiliar smells of good food and good tobacco...the white-jacketed servants hurrying to and fro” when he visits O’Brien’s quarters, yet he is still ignorant of the meaning of these luxurious differences that he was intimidated by (171). The immaculate decoration of the apartment illustrated by Orwell points out the power distance of social groups, where the taste of wine, is foreign to Winston. The Inner Party’s grandiose lifestyle is a paradise to otherwise compared, and it is because of the obvious power gap which manifests power and wealth to all people who hold a lower social rank. Orwell’s depiction of the Inner Party resembles that of modern societies. He uses this representation to convey to the readers some present day communities where social classes are dramatically separated and unequally economically divided, and how this inequality resorts to an imbalance of right and attributes to the higher classes’ assumed authority over others. Furthermore, the portrayal of the Inner Party’s exorbitant lifestyle intimidates the people below them with what they are rewarded and therefore implies the rights they hold against the proles.

George Orwell’s depiction of the Inner Party in 1984 is demonstrated through strict surveillance on the people, which causes them to always feel strained and anxious over the rumored fatal consequences. The elimination of privacy and absence of trust of others emphasizes the people need for caution and obedience to the laws and mandatory duties in favor to the Party. With deception, the Inner Party convinces the people of Ocean of false truths, only because there are no facts to disprove it. The constant changes in history demolishes an veracities to confirm anything, even memories. The inner Party also truncates vocabulary by use of Newspeak in order to ultimately narrow the range of thought and thus the risk of rebellion. Nonexistent truths brainwash people and leaves them in a stupor. The Inner Party lives a luxurious life in which they are showered with rich-flavored foods and opulent resources. Their quarters supplied with expensive goods, convenient transportation, and personal attendees signifies their first class social rank. The picture of wealth is parallel to their power in the country, similar to many nations present. Orwell represents the inner party as a high power with extravagant privileges, excluding them from the law, that instigates fear from the people, whom undoubtedly follow demands and believe their lie.