Who Controls The Future In The Novel 1984 By George Orwell

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, a very frightening future is presented to the reader in which all thoughts, feelings, and emotions are regulated by the country 's government. Winston, the main character, talks about how this is done in his work at the Ministry of Plenty. He explains how his work is to change the words and meaning in newspapers, books, letters and any other text related materials in order to correspond with what the Party deems accurate. “the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered.” (Orwell 18). Then once he follows his orders and completely …show more content…
In Oceania it is all about the government maintaining power over its people. The less the people know about history, and the dumber they are, the more the government has the power to control them. The totalitarian power keeps all the party people under surveillance and each member of the party is scrutinized by the parolees whenever they do something against the government’s rules and regulations. Why would any citizen want to follow a government that has complete control over them and everything they do? Big Brother is a figure who is in charge and he has brainwashed the people of Oceania into thinking that what he is doing is right and it is the only way to run a government. O’Brien, Winston’s co-worker, explains to Winston that the Party’s pursuit of power is the sole goal of the party. Almost no person can escape the wrath of Big Brother or the government that he represents. When Winston gets brought into prison, he knows with no doubt that he is right and the government is wrong. The power that the interrogators have over him is too much and Winston starts to question whether he is really right or not. When O’Brien is interrogating Winston in Room 101, he says to him “Shall I tell you why I have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands …show more content…
Two minutes of hate is when every party member takes a set time of two minutes out of each day and just yells, screams, and argues out against whatever the parties enemy is at the time. Hate week was a whole week dedicated to hating the current enemy of the government. The party members also create banners and posters to promote their hate against the enemy. During hate week in the book, Oceania was at war with Eurasia. During the sixth day of hate week an announcement was made to the citizens of Oceania. “at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally..” (Orwell 186). Then, as if nothing had happened at all, they had all started chanting in rage against Eastasia. All of the party members were tearing up their posters and banners to shreds. The Ministry of Plenty worked hard for one week destroying or substituting any evidence that Oceania was ever at war with Eurasia. Winston could not believe what he was seeing. Two minutes ago, the same people were chanting in rage against Eurasia. How could these citizens be so stupid and unaware of what 's going on? The people are blinded by the power of the party and Big Brother. They believe what the party says is truth no matter how dumb it may sound to some people because