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PROPAGANDA AND THE ROLE IT PLAYED
IN THE WORLD WARS AND 1984
By Claire Holznagel
PROPAGANDA
and the role it plays
Today, propaganda is everywhere; it sells our products, is constantly
spouted by politicians, and practically coats every form of media we
have available.
Do we all listen to it completely though? Of course not.
But in a place like Oceania?
Of course. There is no other than
Big Brother.
And during WWII?
It wasn’t much different.
The Hitler Youth
Adolf Hitler himself was a strong and firm believer in embedding Nazi
ideas into people early on in their lives was a good idea and would
surely benefit the party.
Sure enough, it did. The group was a ‘success’, as he had successfully
raised a generation of extremists who believed Hitler was the be-all,
end-all of goodness. They were all trained to be ‘good citizens’, and
good soldiers as well, through youth specific promotion and
propaganda.
Essentially, this group was a giant self-promoting advertisement for a
pro-Hitler society—designed so that it would be easy to direct all the
propaganda aimed at youth.
After all, it’s very important for advertisers / propagandists to know
their audience.
The Hitler Youth cont.
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The youth group was originally founded in 1919, and for a few
years went through numerous name changes before settling on HitlerJugend (The Hitler Youth). The group did not include females until
1931, when a section called Jungmädelgruppe was added.
By 1939, even before the war had started, over %90 of the
country’s youth was involved in the group, as no other youth groups
were allowed to exist in the country.
The ideas pushed onto females were much more based on ideology,
for they were the providers of the ‘future Hitler Youth’.
Children were encouraged report their parents to the GASTAPO,
should they be making any plans to overthrow the government.
“What was worst of all was that by means of such
organizations as the Spies, they were systematically
turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet in this
produced no tendency whatever to rebel against the
discipline of the Party” (Orwell 26).
Posters
Perhaps the most famous and widespread form of WWII propaganda
is posters. Posters would use a wide variety of techniques to get people
to feel different emotions, but overall, would get them to do whatever
people could to support the cause.
In Der Fuhrer’s Face
In Der Fuhrer’s Face was one of the most significant and iconic
examples of propaganda to ever come from WWII.
It was a cartoon created by Walt Disney Pictures Animation, in order to
make the Nazi Party seem silly, cheap, and forceful, as well as provide
a great sense of patriotism towards America.
o It largely relied on a
propaganda technique called
‘name calling’, in which the
images of the leaders of the Axis
Powers are severely stereotyped
and portrayed as horribly
patriotic to a group of nations
‘obsessed with warfare’.
o Testimonials are used,
what with lovable,
familiar, and patriotic
Donald Duck being
abused for the Axis
Powers’ gain. Viewers are
made to feel sorry for the
poor character.
In Der Fuhrer’s Face cont.
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At the very end, Donald Duck is very happy and grateful that he
himself is an American and not a part of the opposing side of the
war. Obviously, this is to empower the American spirit and leave the
theatres with a positive feeling toward what little resources they had
had at the time.
“FIGHT THE GOOD
FIGHT, AMERICA!”
In Der Fuhrer’s Face and Oceanian Society:
a Comparison
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The love and patriotism toward a figure that one believes makes
them incredibly happy
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Big Brother
The country one lives in (in this case, the USA)
The feeling of gratefulness for the resources said figure provides, in
comparison to someone who doesn’t have them
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The chocolate ration (that actually isn’t up, but everyone is grateful for
regardless)
The fact that America doesn’t treat themselves and their soldiers with the
same food as Donald Duck eats as a Nazi in the film (“the same rations as
the Nazis”)
In Der Fuhrer’s Face and Oceanian Society:
a Comparison cont.
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Riling up hate and emotion in the masses toward individuals who go
against the beliefs of the government
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The Two Minutes Hate – hate directed toward Emmanuel Goldstein, for
‘being a traitor’
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Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito – The three who represented the Axis Powers,
who opposed the American government
Focuses so much on why one should hate those who oppose said
figure, that it is forgotten that this is all created to kill innocents and
other people.
And for my thesis, I could say…
“The main purpose of propaganda in 1984 was to confuse the
ethics and instincts of the masses so that they are easily focused
on their patriotism toward Big Brother.”
But, at the same time, I could also say:
“The main purpose of propaganda in WWII was to confuse the
ethics and instincts of the masses so that they are easily focused
on their patriotism toward their country.”
Rather interchangeable, isn’t it?
And in conclusion…
Propaganda has been used throughout 1984 and WWII to generate a
great amount of riling up for war, strong and loyal views, and most
importantly, the supports needed to generate a great World War.
Orwell really did know his forms of propaganda well, and
hyperbolized them into a totalitarian society.