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Michael Cater
ERWC Period 4
May 2, 2013
Final
The Lie
In George Orwell's novel "1984," a totalitarian form of government called Big Brother has taken over and rules a place in Europe called Oceania. Within this society, Big Brother is constantly controlling every aspect of its citizens lives. It is so extreme that it goes as far as rewriting history. In its own ways, Big Brother is able to control what reality is and isn't, but this system has it's flaws.
Big Brother is a powerful totalitarian government. They go as far as having a device called a telescreen, a television that they can monitor your every move and hear anything you say at any given time, in everyone's houses. They also have hidden microphones secretly hidden everywhere and will fly helicopters between buildings to look inside the houses of its people. If you are caught disobeying Big Brother in anyway, you will be vaporized (killed) and they will make it as if you never existed. Through all these tools they use, their main goal is to inflict fear into the people so that they will listen and believe whatever lies Big Brother decides to feed them. Even though fear is a powerful way to control people, there is only so much some people can take, and for the few strong willed people that are able to hold on to the truth, or for the ones that are told to spread these lies, they know what the truth is and what

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reality is.
Within the system of Big Brother, there are four ministries. The one that is in charge of rewriting history is called The Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth's job is to cut and paste lies over older documents, and make new copies with these corrections. After they would burn all the old documents with the truth written on them. One of the ways Big Brother can control what reality is through this branch. The saying "One who controls the past, controls the future" is the perfect way to describe this. Big Brother is able to control how its people think and he can forcefully control and influence how they act. This method is even more powerful for the children that are freshly born into this world. They don't know what a world without Big Brother was like before. But for the few people the hold on and fight to remember the truth, or the workers within the ministry itself that is in charge of rewriting history, Big Brother's control isn't as strong as it is for others.
In the novel, the main character is a man named Winston Smith. He vaguely remembers what life was like before the age of Big Brother, and he also is fortunate to be one of the workers within the Ministry of Truth. He is one of the few people that is able to see the lies that Big
Brother feeds everyone. This society, where history doesn't seem to exist and scientific advancements are not possible, will cease to last forever because it will not be able to move on and become stronger. For many people, it is just a matter of time before they can not take Big
Brothers control anymore. Aside from being strong willed or a worker in the Ministry of Truth, there is a small amount of people that resist Big Brother.
Big Brother uses fear and hate as his way of controlling its people. For mostly everyone, they are

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to scared to stand up against this government, but there is only so much some people can take.
There is a secret society called The Brotherhood, and they intend to start a rebellion as they build in numbers. Within the brotherhood, they fight to remember what really is true and what isn't, they go against everything that Big Brother stands for. In our society, these type of people would be called conspirators. In a way, a lot of what happens in 1984 is actually happening in our society today. The social media tends to reword what someone says to change the connotation it has, or they tend to exaggerate what a situation is. A good example of this is how we are having a situation about gun control. The