In the second half of Book 1, we learn quite a bit about the methods of control used by the government. The most effective are language (which you have already discussed) and changing the past. Discuss the concept of “controlling the past,” both as a concept and the specific methods the Party uses. Why is this method so devastatingly effective?
The party controls the past by falsifying documents. So basically if something on print is incorrect or doesn't go with what the party wants people to think, they have a division to track it down and collect it so that it can be rewritten and the original can be destroyed. That way no one will ever know or have prof that the party was wrong, because the goal of the party is to appear correct 100% of the time as well as all powerful. Winston plays a key role in the whole rewriting of documents. After everything is collected it is sent to a series of people, including Winston, who's job it is to rewrite the article and fix it to make big brother and the party appear correct. After making the correction it is reviewed and edited by their superiors and then redistributed. While Winston and his fellow workers put the original copies into the memory holes to be destroyed. The method is so effective because if anyone expects that the party is doing this or thinks that the party is wrong they have no way of proving it. Because of this process there is no documented evidence that the party or Big Brother was ever wrong. Also all this changing of the past could lead a sane person (with real memories) to think they were insane.
3 comments:
you are right in what you say and say more about the how they do it more then the affects of it
screw the affects its all about the process
jk nice post
Very nice blog Darlene. i think it's interesting how this type of control could have such a great effect over the human mind. While reading the book I was frustrated with the people in the society because you would think common sense would tell them that something was wrong with how often the truth changes. But of course if we were all immune to a society like this, we probably wouldn't even notice.
Post a Comment