Ministry of Truth
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For the 2007 documentary, see Ministry of Truth (film)
The Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue, in Newspeak) was one of the four ministries that governed Oceania in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. As with the other Ministries in the novel, the Ministry of Truth actually did the opposite of what its name implies, being responsible for the falsification of historical events; and yet was aptly named in a deeper sense, in that it created/manufactured "truth" in the newspeak sense of the word.
[edit] Description
The Ministry of Truth was where the main character, Winston Smith, worked. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete 300m into the air, containing over 3000 rooms above ground. On the outside wall were the three slogans of the Party: "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," "Ignorance is Strength." There is also a large part underground, probably containing huge incinerators where documents are destroyed after they are put down memory holes. For his description Orwell may have been inspired by the Senate House at the University of London, although it is also possible that this building could have been the basis for the Ministry of Love[citation needed].
[edit] Role in information
The Ministry of Truth was involved with news, entertainment and the fine arts. Its purpose was to rewrite history and change the facts to fit party doctrine, for propaganda effect. For example, if Big Brother made a prediction that turned out to be wrong, the employees of the Ministry of Truth would go back and rewrite history so that any prediction Big Brother made would be accurate.
[edit] Departments
The following are the departments of the ministry mentioned in the text:
- Records Department (Recdep in Newspeak)
- Fiction Department (Ficdep in Newspeak)
- Tele-programmes Department (Teledep in Newspeak)
- Research Department
- Music Department (may not belong to the Ministry of Truth)
| Characters | Winston Smith | Julia | O'Brien | Big Brother | Emmanuel Goldstein |
|---|---|
| Places | Oceania | Eastasia | Eurasia | Airstrip One | Room 101 |
| Classes | Inner Party | Outer Party | Proles |
| Ministries | Ministry of Love | Ministry of Peace | Ministry of Plenty | Ministry of Truth |
| Concepts | Ingsoc | Newspeak (wordlist) | Doublethink | Goodthink | Crimestop Two plus two make five | Thoughtcrime | Prolefeed | Prolesec |
| Miscellaneous | Thought Police | Telescreen | Memory hole | Goldstein's book Two Minutes Hate | Hate week |
| Adaptations | 1956 film | 1984 film | 1953 US TV | 1954 BBC programme | Opera |
| Influence | Nineteen Eighty-Four in popular media Parody: Me and the Big Guy |
