Nineteen Eighty-Four Essay

The passage I have selected from Nineteen Eighty-Four is from pages eighty-three to eighty-four, and is written as the main character’s thoughts and commentary on the Party. It discusses the absolute control of the party, and how powerful their influence is on the citizens of Airstrip One. This passage contains the famous lines “In the end the Party would announce that two plus two is five, and you would have to believe it ”, and “The Party told you to deny the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command ” These lines reflect the grim reality of the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, that what the Party says is fact and to disbelieve their truth is to sentence yourself to death, and the control of the Party depends on people’s blind belief.
How can we, as citizens, be sure that what our governments tell us is fact? How are we to know that the events of the past happened exactly as they did? This extract evolved from a fantasy dystopia when it was published, to an introspective look on modern society. The first time I read these pages was the first time I truly began to question the truths I have been told. George Orwell’s writing truly stands the test of time, long enough to almost become a parallel of modern governmental control.

Rather than just being a commentary on the setting of the book, it is also the musings of a man being driven insane. All of this extract is told from the perspective of Winston Smith as he first begins to question the party and to think for himself. As the book began, Winston was the average Party drone, albeit quite tired of propaganda and zealots. The passing of this moment in Nineteen Eighty-Four seems to mark Winston’s evolution as a character, from an absent-minded consumer of Party propaganda to a free-thinking individual (as much as it has also marked him for