Memory Holes In George Orwell's 1984

As the world watched World War II emerge as one of the biggest wars in the history of the universe, George Orwell wrote 1984 to criticize the totalitarian approach of the socialist leaders in countries like Germany and the U.S.S.R. The book was written in 1948 when the act of communism became a dangerously threatening type of government to the citizens all over the world. In 1984, Winston, the main character of the novel, reflects on London’s dystopian society by creating his own diary, which is an act that brings him immense threat to the quality of his life. Even today, many citizens face the same types of situations that Winston experiences throughout the book. There are obvious parallels between the novel and America in 2016 in concepts

As Winston describes what his job is at the Ministry of Truth, he mentions that he has to “rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones” (Orwell 39). Although much of the things that the Party does does not match up together, Winston is trained to make sure all of the events that happen connect with later events and continue to strengthen Big Brother’s power over the citizens. It can be inferred that using a memory hole is a way for the Party to control the citizens and desensitize their brains from acting against the government. Memory holes achieve this task by completely obliterating information that is not needed or contradicts new information in London’s society. The fact that Orwell chooses the phrase “making them” shows how history is being forced to be recreated. The lack of response from Winston conveys that he is not confident and is fearful of the government, which in turn leads to the oppression of his own thoughts about the country’s history. This concept is similar to American society in 2016 since the U.S. government frequently requests from Google to take down certain searches from the search engine. Google has been requested to take down 6,321 different things by the U.S. government, which shows how these requests can be considered a memory hole in real life (Sutter). Taking down information from Google results

Winston reflects back on how the party alters the history of the country: “the lie passed into history and became truth” (Orwell 34). Although Winston knows that Oceania and Eurasia were in alliance before, he also believes that they did not have an actual alliance because of what the Party imposes onto the citizens’ memories of the past. Orwell’s use of the word “passed” possibly shows that the lies they create can easily to history and be masked as the truth. It can be inferred that Winston now knows exactly how the party paralyzes anyone from actual thinking, which is by changing the history. This can be linked to American society since doublethink in America is demonstrated in big supreme court decisions. For example, after the Supreme Court passed the gay marriage law, they received criticism that “if gay marriage is a civil right, then anyone who opposes it is guilty of a civil rights violation” (Jeffress). The legalization of gay marriage would cause much of the population to forget the past laws regarding marriage, requiring them to retain new beliefs that the government imposed on them. This can be troubling to citizens since they are almost forced to think in the opposite way of what they believe in. This takes away a part of the idea of freedom of thought since they are encouraged to