Psychological relativism is a term that has been applied to the novel 1984. This concept is defined as "the assumption that there is no such thing as human nature; that there is no such thing as qualities essential to man; that man is born as nothing but a blank sheet of paper on which any given society writes its text." Winston Smith, a character in George Orwell's, 1984, is an example of psychological relativism. Winston, a disbeliever in the Party, a totalitarian type of government, is an example of how one's mind can be controlled by psychological and physical manipulation. The Party uses Winston and the citizens of Oceania as blank sheets of paper to be molded into their subjects. For example, they would use telescreens to fill their minds to propaganda that support the views of a controlled society. The citizens are also stripped of all emotions and ideas by use of Two Minute Hates, Double Speak, and Newspeak. Psychological and physical control of its citizens prove that man is born as nothing but a blank sheet of paper to be filled with the ideas created by the new society that strips man of any sense of being an individual.

Winston Smith works for the Party in th

The official language of Oceania is Newspeak, "The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible."(pg. 246) Their goal is to fill that blank sheet of paper with words that make the wrong actions of the Party acceptable. In order to convince people to support the Party, Symes, a writer of Newspeak, asks Winston, "Don't you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end it shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it."(pg. 46) The future citizens of Oceania minds may never be filled with good thoughts or thoughts of their own.

The Party also keeps the sheet of paper blank by removing all emotions. Friendships are limited and love no longer remains. Winston remembers his mother's arms around him and realizes, "The terrible things that the Party had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account, while at the same time robbing you of all power over the material world."(pg. 136) Winston has a relationship with a young girl, Julia. Their relationship was merely for sexual pleasure, which was unallowed by the Party. They put their lives in jeopardy by meeting over the shop where Winston rented a room in the Prole district, a place of poverty where the people were to helpless to fight the Party. Winston thought, "the smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him or into the air without love and feeling life is empty. She had become a physical need,"(pg. 115 ) Winston's relationship was a willful act against the Party and remaines very secretive. Winston thought he had a friend in O'Brien. He believed he had connections with the Brotherhood, a so called society who rebelled against the Party and Big Brother. Winston should have been smarter and realized friendships are not a part of the Parties' plan. In the end, friendship and love are totally stripped from Winston's memory. Even after being tortured by O'Brien, when he sees him he thinks, "the old feeling, that at the bottom it did not matter whe

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Approximate Word count = 1507
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)