2+2=5

A significant quote from chapters 4-8 is "In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it," which is a thought of winston's. He thinks this while he is reading a children's book that is putting down the capitalists and the fashions of the past. This quote is important to him because he is realizing how much the party controlled the minds of the people. Winston says that no matter how untrue something might seem to him, anything the party said almost everyone would believe it instantly. This situation compares with the tele-screen cast the says that the ration of chocolate has been raised to 20, but he remembers that the day before it had been lowered to 20. He finds this annoying because he is the only one who is not excited about the "raise" in rations. I think this idea that the party has that much control over peoples minds is scary. Their control is total enough so that they can alter the principals that people had been believing in for such a long time, which I think is wrong and so does Winston.