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Persuasive Essay On George Orwell's 1984

1063 Words5 Pages

Imagine if the past was always changing to fit the views and morals of current society. What if we wrote every bad event out of textbooks to appear more progressive. That seems crazy because as a society, we can’t deny the past because it’s what formed our culture, our morals, and values. But, in 1984 by George Orwell, that’s a reality. Winston, a man who works for the government, or the Party as it’s called in the book, has the job of editing historic documents to fit the Party’s agenda. Winston becomes disenchanted by the Party’s ways of maintaining control over the people of Oceania by feeding the citizens propaganda so that they will mindlessly follow whatever the Party says is true. Therefore, Winston begins to doubt the party because of their destruction of the past and its events, ruining people's ability to think and be independent. …show more content…

They implemented what is called “Newspeak”, reducing the number of words available for use. Winston realizes “the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought mak[ing] thoughtcrime literally impossible” (Orwell 52). Winston believes that thought should be free, and if the government is criminalizing and limiting thought, there will be no room for change in society. People can’t demand change if they don’t have the language to do so, saying something is Ungood really doesn’t have the same impact as saying something is bad. Winston sees the implementation of newspeak as a way to control the population and get them to sit down and shut up because there is no way for them to speak out when the official language they speak is created and curated to prevent that. Winston is also of the opinion that the destruction of the past is not a healthy or safe way for Oceania to operate because he knows that the moment we stop learning about the past is the moment history begins to repeat

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