Examples Of Rewriting In 1984 By George Orwell

Rewriting History: Orwell, Domestic, and Abroad

Rewriting history is the process of altering the perception of past events by misrepresenting or manipulating the narrative of the past. The concept of rewriting history has been greatly explored throughout the book 1984, by George Orwell. However, this dangerous practice of rewriting history, doesn’t stop at the pages of Orwell, but has seemed into domestic and international censorship of print. The United States, an upstanding example of “democracy”, demonstrates this censorship through the Florida rewrite of Rosa Parks and Civil Rights in textbooks. Furthermore, China has displayed this concept through the rewrite of history regarding Hong Kong’s historical status as a British colony. These

It is based on the idea that whoever controls the past, controls the present, and whoever controls the present, controls the future(Orwell, pp. 44). In George Orwell's novel 1984, the ruling party systematically rewrites history to control the minds of its citizens. Examples of this type of rewriting include the modification of dates and events, the removal of individuals from historical records, and the creation of fake news.

The Orwellian rewrite of history is important because it highlights the dangers of misrepresenting the past to manipulate people's perceptions of the present. When history is distorted, people lose their ability to accurately understand history and make informed decisions. This can lead to the erosion of democracy, the suppression of dissent, and the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Outside of 1984, this type of rewriting is evident in the manipulation of historical narratives to support political agendas in the United

In 2023, the Florida Board of Education approved a new set of standards that remove significant events and figures from the state's history. The revision of Rosa Parks' role in the Civil Rights Movement has been one of the most contentious aspects of the new standards. As highlighted in an article by Justin Gamble, a CNN Cross Platform Producer with an MBA, the first draft of a text stated “[Rosa Parks] was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin” however this was later edited to say “ [Rosa Parks] was told to move to a different seat. She did not. (Gamble)” This edited text fails to mention how her race was an integral part of the motivations and actions of the American Civil Rights Movement. The question becomes how do schools teach Civil Rights, a movement based on unequal treatment based on race, if textbooks can’t acknowledge race? The argument has been made that the K-6 audience of this text are too young to fully understand the concept of race, and may feel shame of their own race for the actions of their ancestors. However, the danger of considering the difference between censorship and writing for a certain audience has pitfalls in where one ends and the other begins. Overall, this specific rewriting of history promotes a false narrative that undermines the sacrifices made by Parks and other Civil Rights activists