1984 #2 - The Children of 1984

In the society of George Orwell's novel 1984, children have been turned into feared beings. No longer innocent, children have been tamed by the Party to be violent yet obedient at young ages. This fraction of the dystopian society is expressed in the children of Winston's neighbors, the Parsons, whose two young children assault Winston with fake weapons. Children are made to join groups such as "the Spies" where children "[turn] into ungovernable little savages, and yet [...] this [produces] in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party" (24). They are lulled into "[adoring] the Party and everything connected to it" (24). They are desensitized to violence and praised for relaying information to the Party about possibly traitorous persons, even if these people are their own parents.

Children view the whole idea of the Party as a game, which is what allows the Party to plant their ideas inside the malleable minds of the children, allowing the next generation to be even more obedient towards the Party as the one before. This relates to the third slogan of the Party: "Ignorance is strength" (4). Since this new generation of children is the first to grow up fully under Party rule, they do not know of any other life. This means that they are able to be brainwashed from birth and are fully under the Party's control even at only the age of seven. Children learn and grow by copying what they see around them, and with all the propaganda around them, it is only natural that they would start to feel that that is what they should follow. In fact, "it [is] almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children", because those who are over thirty still faintly remember what it was like to grow up without the Party's rule and some still see that the Party is wrong (24). Parents are unable to stop their children from becoming enamored with the Party, however, for they are unable to tell their kids what they think and feel. While the children are young, parents cannot express their ideas due to the telescreens. Once the children are older, trying to tell them that the Party may not be fully correct would result in the children telling on their parents. There is no way to break the cycle.