The novel "1984," by George Orwell, is a well-crafted story of a dystopian society. By definition, dystopia means an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded society. To live in a dystopian society means to be completely mind controlled by the government into believing that what they say is true is actually true. Orwell portrays an amazing example of such a governmental control in the novel "1984", by creating the government system famously known as Big Brother.
Big Brother itself is actually just a figurehead created to represent the group known as the Party. It is meant to put fear into society so that they do as their told and refrain from committing transgressions against the Party, which is exemplified in the slogan "Big Brother is watching you." There are two parts to the party, the Inner Party and the Outer Party. The Inner Party is the highest class in the civilization known as Oceania, and only makes up 2% of its population. Its members are the leaders who have created this dystopian society and are tasked to ensure its complete success by obtaining total power through mind control. They believe that control over the human mind is control over reality. This is exhibited by O'Brien, who is a member of the Inner Party, when he says "reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party," (249). When torturing Winston Smith, the antagonist of the story, he forces him to believe 2 plus 2 equals 5. At first Winston argues with him, but soon realizes that he has no other option but to believe that O'Brien is telling the truth.
