thanosmario
10-30-2018, 02:22 PM
The Party uses many different methods to maintain and consolidate their power throughout the novel, and most of them, the people aren't even educated enough to realize. One way they stay in power is by taking away the people's ability to educate themselves in their own history. Orwell outlines this concept with a bright yellow highlighter in the eighth chapter of Book One.
The main focus of this chapter is Winston's adventure through a prole village and the encounters that he has while there. He talks to and questions an older man, wondering whether or not he remembers the time before the Revolution. Winston quickly finds out through the man's speech that while he does somewhat remember it, he only recalls vague memories of certain, minor stories, and not the overall quality of life (whether it was better before or after the Revolution). Winston also finds out shortly before his encounter with the older man that most of the older, educated Party members (ones that were alive during the Revolution and remember the times before it) were killed in the purges of the Fifties and Sixties.
This was one of the Party's goals all along. The people that were educated enough to remember the times before the Revolution and speak out about it have been killed, and the proles aren't intelligent enough to remember anyway. This leads to Outer Party members like Winston wanting change, wanting a better lifestyle, but not being able to do anything about it. If the people don't know what life was like before, then they don't know any better to change it now. History repeats itself, and the people are the only ones that can stop it. The proles are too uneducated at this point to be able to know anything better, and the somewhat educated Outer Party has no one left that remembers what life was like before. Not to mention, the Party has changed history and manipulated the people with propaganda such that the majority of the people are led to believe that life was worse before the Party took over.
In 1984, Orwell weaves in the concept of history education and why it is vital to ensuring that the government does not take too much control. The Party has taken away the ability to study/learn history from the people of Oceania, and as a result, they are brainwashed beyond imaginable because there is no one left to educate the people on what life was like before.
The main focus of this chapter is Winston's adventure through a prole village and the encounters that he has while there. He talks to and questions an older man, wondering whether or not he remembers the time before the Revolution. Winston quickly finds out through the man's speech that while he does somewhat remember it, he only recalls vague memories of certain, minor stories, and not the overall quality of life (whether it was better before or after the Revolution). Winston also finds out shortly before his encounter with the older man that most of the older, educated Party members (ones that were alive during the Revolution and remember the times before it) were killed in the purges of the Fifties and Sixties.
This was one of the Party's goals all along. The people that were educated enough to remember the times before the Revolution and speak out about it have been killed, and the proles aren't intelligent enough to remember anyway. This leads to Outer Party members like Winston wanting change, wanting a better lifestyle, but not being able to do anything about it. If the people don't know what life was like before, then they don't know any better to change it now. History repeats itself, and the people are the only ones that can stop it. The proles are too uneducated at this point to be able to know anything better, and the somewhat educated Outer Party has no one left that remembers what life was like before. Not to mention, the Party has changed history and manipulated the people with propaganda such that the majority of the people are led to believe that life was worse before the Party took over.
In 1984, Orwell weaves in the concept of history education and why it is vital to ensuring that the government does not take too much control. The Party has taken away the ability to study/learn history from the people of Oceania, and as a result, they are brainwashed beyond imaginable because there is no one left to educate the people on what life was like before.