1984: Historical Manipulation

498 Words2 Pages
George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrates that by controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. In controlling the past, the Party can justify all of its actions in the present. Passage 1 stands as a major plot development of the text depicting Winston’s visit to Mr. Charrington’s antiques shop, which appears to be a veritable museum of the past in relation to the rest of Winston’s history-deprived world. The theme of the importance of having knowledge about the past in order to understand the present is heavily emphasized here. Orwell demonstrates how the Party, by controlling history, forces its members into lives of uncertainty, ignorance, and total reliance upon the Party for all of the information necessary to function in the world. According to O’Brien, this is how the Party can ‘create human nature’, believing that all humans are ‘infinitely malleable’. This is true as far as the text is concerned. The Party has the ability to manipulate the minds of its subjects which is key to the breadth of its power. Winston’s desire to attain a unilateral, abstract understanding of the Party’s methods and evils in order to consider and reject them epitomizes his speculative, restless nature. He obsesses about history in particular, trying to understand how the Party’s control of information about the past enhances its power in the present. This fixation is so profound that he almost unconsciously finds himself in front of Mr Charrington’s store. Winston’s trip to the prole district illustrates the relationship between social class and awareness of one’s situation. Life in the prole district is animalistic, filthy, and impoverished. The proles have greater freedom than minor Party members such as Winston, but lack the awareness to use or appreciate that freedom. As described by O’Brien, “they are helpless, like the animals”. Proles are portrayed as
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