The Brotherhood, Goldstien, and The Book

[TimIzGr8]

When someone betrays the Party, they are eliminated from history. So why would one person be an exception to that rule? I believe that Goldstien, The Book, and The Brotherhood are all instruments of the Party. Their primary purpose is to unite the people through hate and anger, and oppress them through fear. Secondary to this and demonstrated in "1984," I believe they are used as false hope to uncover traitors or to lure them out. Thoughts?

[sandy14]

When someone betrays the Party, they are eliminated from history. So why would one person be an exception to that rule? I believe that Goldstien, The Book, and The Brotherhood are all instruments of the Party. Their primary purpose is to unite the people through hate and anger, and oppress them through fear. Secondary to this and demonstrated in "1984," I believe they are used as false hope to uncover traitors or to lure them out. Thoughts?

Goldstein is the bogey man. The society in Big Brother is at constant war - Goldstein is a means of keeping the war going. Goldstein is the traitor in the midst to keep society on its toes. He is the "counter-revolutionary" element which is used to supress the domestic population. Goldstein is th emodel though criminal - so the people know who to "look for". It is quite possible that Goldstein does not exist at all as a human being.


Alternatively, Goldstein may not live in Ingersoc - he may live with one of the other warring factions.

[The Atheist]

When someone betrays the Party, they are eliminated from history. So why would one person be an exception to that rule? I believe that Goldstien, The Book, and The Brotherhood are all instruments of the Party. Their primary purpose is to unite the people through hate and anger, and oppress them through fear. Secondary to this and demonstrated in "1984," I believe they are used as false hope to uncover traitors or to lure them out. Thoughts?

100% correct.

[VeggieGirl666]

So, is "The Book" real? Or was that just created by party members as well? I don't quite understand why the government would create something like that. I mean, everything in the book is the exact opposite of what Big Brother wants the people to know. And why Winston? Why didn't they find someone else to terrorize?

[kev67]

The inner party would want to understand the view points of their enemies. Inner party members like O'Brien may well have written the book themselves, or it could be it was written by counter-revolutionaries before they were eliminated. Winston has been slowly coming to these opinions by himself. He is certainly receptive to them. The book could be used to gauge Winston's potential treachery. The more the thought police see him drinking it all in, the more they know they have a potential counter-revolutionary on their hands. I doubt the inner party means for these books to be widely disseminated, but Winston is now under close surveillance. He is hardly going to lend the book to anyone else or tell them of its contents. There is no one he could trust except Julia, and she is under surveillance too. It is also a plot device. Like the book, why would O'Brien go to such trouble to explain how things are to Winston. Winston is an intelligent person, like the reader, but he does not know everything. O'Brien and the secret book do Orwell's explaining for him.