The Ministry Of Power In 1984 By George Orwell's 1984

“‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan,‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”(page 63). The novel 1984 by George Orwell is about a totalitarian government that rules the people of a country called Oceania. One of these people is Winston, a government worker at the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth alters history, art, news, and literature to be more suitable for the government’s beliefs. In this society people are constantly watched by Big Brother, the head of the government. Also, the government controls the people through the Thought Police, a group that regulates the population’s thoughts. Additionally, there are telescreens in every house which keep track of dialogue and are constantly
Although the past is not capable of being genuinely altered, history can be manipulated in order to control the present and distort the truth. The government rewrites history by employing people to rectify their mistakes and fabricate false events, therefore leaving the people with no concrete idea of what the truth is. This example comes from chapter seven in which Winston explains his position at the Ministry of Truth more in depth. “Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date.” The government makes people fix its mistakes in order to preserve the bubble that the society is living in. Everyone believes that Big Brother is all knowing and never makes any. However, this is quite the opposite in actuality. Not only has Big Brother been wrong on many occasions, he also covered up his errors with lies. Furthermore, the people follow him blindly because in changing the past, there is no way for them
This piece of evidence is from chapter four when Winston talks about the memory holes, which are places to drop in documents to be destroyed. In his government position he is forced to alter and documents from the past. “The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction”(page ) In demolishing documents from the past, it becomes easier to make the same mistakes as in previous eras. Also, it is nearly impossible to compare current societies to past societies, leaving no way to determine the quality of life as compared to the past. This gives the government more power over the people. Without a notion of past life except what has been falsified, there is no need to question the government. Therefore, if the past and how it is presented can be controlled, then the present times are more easily manipulated. Additionally to destroying documents, the Party has the ability to eradicate human beings from history. “Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were