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Aorm Gartenbush

Mrs. Stanford

Pre-AP English I

13 November 2017

You Can Control All; If You Know The Past

Propaganda is a very corrupt thing and can brainwash many people. Imagine living in a

society where the laws have always been the same, but out of nowhere, they change. The

government says that the laws haven’t changed at all and it was a figment of imagination. Then,

citizens start questioning themselves; did the laws change or not? This exact scenario can be seen

in the two novels,​ Animal Farm​ and ​1984,​ and even in different countries today. Once stated by

George Orwell, “ The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own

understanding of their history,” is a true statement; because giving false information can cause

citizens to be taken advantage of, like in the books ​Animal Farm​ and ​1984,​ it’s also seen in the

dictatorship government of North Korea.

Citizens being taken advantage of can be shown in the two novels, ​Animal Farm​ and

1984​, which were written by George Orwell. This is because in ​Animal Farm​, the pigs were

brainwashing the other animals and telling them false information. People may even see that

giving false information like propaganda can still be seen in today’s world, in places like North

Korea. This quote from ​Animal Farm c​ an help show that the pigs were changing the animal's

memory. It states, “It says, ‘No animal shall sleep in a bed ​with sheets​,’ she announced finally.

Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets;

but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so” (Orwell 67). This quote shows that the pigs
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have changed the fourth commandment of “No animal shall sleep in a bed” (Orwell 24). The

pigs have changed the commandment to beds with sheets. This causes the animals to believe that

the commandment never changed because it was on the wall. This connects to the quote by

George Orwell because it shows that pigs are gaining so much power because they are changing

the animals understanding of the commandments and what was actually happening. In

conclusion, propaganda can be seen in many different places and novels throughout the world.

In the novella, ​Animal Farm​ by George Orwell, the pigs are giving the other animals

false information and are trying to brainwash them. This can be seen throughout the novella with

the pigs changing the commandments and using propaganda to change the animals’ minds. This

quote from the novella illustrates the animals being brainwashed, “They were the same four pigs

as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any further prompting

they confessed that they have been secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion , that

they had entered into an agreement with him to hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick”

(Orwell 83). The quote shows that some of the pigs confessed to tearing down the windmill even

though they didn’t actually do anything. According to the novella, it was the storm, not the pigs,

“Finally there came a night when the gale was so violent that the farm buildings rocked on their

foundation and several tiles were blown off the roof of the barn” (Orwell 69). This shows how

the pigs are being brainwashed for things they have never done. This connects to the quote by

George Orwell because the animals in ​Animal Farm ​are being brainwashed and starting to

believe things that never happened in the novella.

The novel ​1984​ by George Orwell shows that the government has a lot of power and uses

that to brainwash the citizens. All throughout the novel, citizens are told to hate and to always
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trust the government. This quote from ​1984 ​points out that the citizens do not know anything of

the past, “But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any

given moment, would have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word,

ever made mention of any other alignment than the existing one” (Orwell 34). The quote shows

that the citizens do not have any information about the past. It also shows if the citizens wanted

to know something from the past, they can’t remember it and they don’t know what actually

happened. Another quote from the text explains why the citizens do not remember things from

the past, “The Party imposed-if all records told the same tale- then the lie passed into history and

became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the

present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered.

Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting” (Orwell 34,35). This shows that

the government has control of the past and can change so the citizens won’t remember. ​1984

connects with the quote by George Orwell because the government is destroying its citizens by

not giving them reliable information of the past.

Citizens being taken advantage of because of false information can be seen even in

today's world, like in the country, North Korea. North Korea has a dictatorship government,

which means that the whole country is ruled by one person.The one ruler of North Korea is Kim

Jong Un. Kim Jong Un has complete power over the citizens. In this article, it emphasizes the

extreme brainwashing of the citizens, “​ As another witness said of life in the nation: ‘You are

brainwashed, [you] don't know life outside. You are brainwashed from the time you know how

to talk, about four years of age, from nursery school, brainwashing through education, this

happens everywhere in life, society, even at home’ (Walker 2014). The quote explains that the
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citizens of North Korea have always been brainwashed to think a certain way. The quote also

suggest that the government is limiting information of the outside world and most likely giving

the North Koreans false information of the outside world. North Korea connects with the claim

because the ​government of North Korea is brainwashing and not providing information for its

citizens; the government has all the power.

Some people may believe that not knowing the past is okay, and that the way to destroy

someone is to take advantage of them being uneducated. This quote from the novella ​Animal

Farm​ ​can help back up this statement, “None of the other animals on the farm could get further

than the letter A” (Orwell 33). The quote explains that none of the animals, besides the pigs, are

uneducated, which means taking advantage of the other animals would be easy and best for the

pigs, but that is wrong. Dening and obliterating someone's understanding of history is the most

effective way of destroying them. This is the most effective way because citizens are clueless

and don’t know what is actually is a truth or a lie. The citizens are being brainwashed. A quote

from the novella, ​Animal Farm,​ can show how this is the most effective way, “‘Comrade

Napoleon says it, it must be right.’ And from then on he adopted the maxim, ‘Napoleon is always

right,’ in addition to his private motto of ‘I will work harder’” (Orwell 57). This quote shows that

Boxer is being brainwashed by Napoleon. He is being brainwashed because Napoleon gives

Boxer false information about the purpose of things and about snowball. In conclusion, denying

and obliterating someone’s understand of history is the most effective way of destroying them.

Citizens should be allowed to know their past because they could learn from it and

compare it with the present. The quote that was stated by George Orwell, “ The most effective

way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history,” is an
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agreeable statement because if governments are brainwashing and giving false information to

citizens, they will gain all power. This quote can help many citizen know if they are being taken

advantage of or being left in the dark. People can learn that the past is very important, and the

right to know the past should be allowed.

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Works Cited

Orwell, George. ​1984.​ New American Library, Division of Penguin Group Inc., 1949.

Orwell, George. ​Animal Farm.​ New American Library, Division of Penguin Group Inc., 1946.

Walker, Peter. “North Korea: 'You Are Brainwashed from the Time You Know How to

Talk'.”​The Guardian,​ Guardian News and Media, 17 Feb. 2014,

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/17/north-korea-human-rights-abuses-stories-un-br

ainwashed.