In 1984, George Orwell portrays the society of Oceania as a land without freedom. The citizens of this land are run by a totalitarian party with complete control over their lifestyles. With telescreens constantly pestering them, propaganda always telling them what to believe and a fear of thinking about the wrong thing, the people of Oceania don't have a chance to act apart from the party as an individual. This is, however, exactly how the leaders of Oceania want the people to be: unified with the party, apart from each other and most importantly, unaware of all of this. As the party gains the subconscious minds of the people, free for molding and use as slaves, they gain and maintain power over every other command in the world. However, one might wonder why the party wants this power in the first place. The leaders of Oceania want power so that they can be "immortal" and never be forgotten amongst others in the future.
Fear is one of the most basic human emotions; the concept of fear is tied into 1984 in many ways. Most obviously, the citizens of Oceania are ruled and manipulated through fear. They have been taught to believe that if they think separately or negatively of the government, then they will be killed. The party is actually able to annihilate someone for committing a "thoughtcrime"; the scariest part of this concept is that a "thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you." This is the main reason why the party is so successful in having total have power over its people; they could control them in every way possible, even through their thoughts. .
However, something that many do not realize is that the party controls its people because of its own fear: dying out. According to Plato, many people want to achieve "immortality" in their lives. In order to do this, one can do three things: have children to carry on a family name through generations, create art which is supposedly immortal in itself, or become famous through politics or entertainment.
