Friday, February 18, 2011

How important is the past?

An interesting moment in chapters 4-8 of "1984" is when he talks about how the past is being erased from society and how it's a crucial part of the way INGSOC can control the people. "It was curious that the fact of having held it in his fingers seemed to him to make a differences even now, when the photograph itself, as well as the event it recorded, was only memory. Was the party's hold upon the past less strong, he wondered because a piece of evidence which existed no longer had once existed?"(Orwell Page 79) At this point in the book Winston is suddenly beginning to realize some of the many undisclosed ways in which the party "INGSOC" has learned to control society. It's also possible that his ideas could lead him to uncover ways to expose how the totalitarian state created by Big Brother is corrupt and has led the people into extreme levels of oppression.

4 comments:

  1. I think that this is also an interesting point in the book because this is when Winston really begins to question "Big Brother" and he starts to question his society and if the way that they are living is really the right way, or the way that "Big Brother" wants them to live.

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  2. To answer the question of the title. This society has no past that is true. yes it has a past but one that can be changed to whatever the party feels necesary to decieve everybody else. so the "past" is barly important at all from a "what happened" perspective. The fact that the past can be changed is the important part

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  3. I find it to be a valid question. I actually wonder if the past has any relevence to what the future holds. Will history repeat itself in the story? Will the past unlock a secret that is important to overthrowing Big Brother?

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  4. What do you guys think the primary purpose is of the Party's desire to control and change the past? What do they hope to achieve?

    It is also interesting to consider how Julia views this changing of the past compared to Winston - see pages 153-156 (chapter 5 in Book 2). Comments on this?

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