Nineteen eighty-four

GEORGE ORWELL
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR

THE MANIPULATION OF THE INFORMATION

I couldn't find in this novel another aspect more important than this of the manipulation. But it is not only referred to the information but also to the other components of the novel, i.e. the protagonists, the memory, the work, in one word the whole life of the characters.
The novel is full of examples of all this,so my work will consist on a revision and on a detailed statement of some of them.
The main element which manipulates everything is "Big Brother". He is supposed to be the head of the government in Oceania, but as it is revealed through out the novel we can see that he is not real, is just one more element to control everything:
He took a twenty-five cent piece out of his pocket. [.] and on theother face of the coin the head of Big Brother. Even from the coins the eyes pursued you. On coins, on stamps, on the covers of the books, on banners, on posters and on the wrapping of a cigarette packet- everywhere. [.] Asleep or awake, working or eating indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed-no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.

Winston ismainly concerned with this manipulation but I think that he does not realise that he is one of the main elements of manipulation. I mean that by his work he manipulates History, he changes the events as he is told to:
The messages he had received referred to articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, top rectify.Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date.

A number of the Times which might, [.], have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it.

but the important thing is that he enjoys himself doing it:
With a faint feeling of satisfaction Winston laid the fourth message aside.[.] Winston'sgreatest pleasure in life was in his work. [.] Winston was good at this kind of thing

The most important consequence of all this manipulation is mainly that history is completely modified:
At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia.[.]. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at warwith Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to posses because his memory was not satisfactorily under control.

It was not true, for example, as was claimed in the Party history books, that the Party had invented the aeroplanes. He remembered aeroplanes since his earliest childhood. But you could prove nothing. There was never anyevidence.

By the end of the novel, after all the problems and sufferings that Winston has gone through he also accept this changes in History:
[.] (Oceania was at war with Eurasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia)
This system of manipulating everything, forces in a manner the government to create a new language, where the meanings and even the thoughts can be controlled more precisely:"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?. In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. [.] Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.[.]"
More precisely in the language we cantalk of new words for the new rules and aims of the Party as "blackwhite" and "doublethink":
The key word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to en opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that...