Structure of Society
Oceania is run by a group called 'The Party', and uses Ingsoc (English Socialism) as the form of government.
One of the primary goals of the Party is to remain in command. It does this through the never ending accumulation of 'power'. As stated by O'Brien, "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power" (152).
This power is gained through mind control. By controlling the mind, the Party is able to 'control matter'. This essentially means they are able to control everything. This is accomplished through torrents of propaganda, conditioning from childhood, and altering of the past.
There are four Ministries in Oceania, the Ministry of Plenty, Peace, Truth and Love. They each deal with a specific aspect of Oceanic society, but are misnomers. For example, the Ministry of Peace is in charge of the war effort, and the Ministry of Love is in charge of torture and reform. Three of the Ministries serve to deceive and pacify the general public, and one serves to deal with those who are not deceived or pacified. Lying and brute force is method by which The Party controls the minds of the people and the country itself.
The population of Oceania is divided into three groups, the Inner Party(Upper), the Outer Party(Middle), and the Proletariat(Low). According to Goldstein's book, each class has specific goals. The High aim to remain in power, the Middle hope to replace the High, and the Low is forced to live for survival. The Party knows this, so the logical conclusion would be that allowing social classes to exist symbolically represents that overthrowing the Upper class has been rendered impossible.
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