Thursday, May 24, 2007

How can the people of 1984 be so unaware of the reality in their own society? (5)

I think that the people that make up the society in the book, 1984, do not know what the Party's government is actually doing to them because they have become so "brainwashed" and manipulated into doing exactly what they have been told to do. What they are told to do is the only thing that the people ever worry about. They do not even think about what they are being told to do, but rather they just do it. They do what they are told to do without even worrying about what the future effects from what they are doing are. They do not actually know what the government is doing because they never even think about it because they are too busy with so many things like the Anti-Sex League, Two Minute Hate, etc. They also do not know because the government is very good at hiding what is actually happening. The government does this by separating all of those people into the Outer Party and all of the other more important people from the Party are part of the Inner Party. The people are also unaware of what the government is actually doing because they are told that what the Party is doing is the best way to live and everyone else's ways in which they live are not. Lastly, they are also unaware of what the government is actually doing because they are lied to constantly. Everything from the past is constantly changed. For example, Winston works at the Ministry of Truth. His job is to fix anything given to him that was wrong or predicted wrong in the past and to make it true or correct as though it was never there or wrong. For example, Winston says, "They were like the ant, which can see small objects, but not large ones." This is an example of the people, especially the older ones who lived before the Revolution and remember or know useless things and do things without thinking. Instead, they just do what the government tells them. The people of the Party can only notice the little things about the government like what they usually do everyday like their meetings, groups, etc. What they do not notice is the main idea which has to do with the main idea as to why they have to do these things and live the way that they are living instead of in other ways of living and doing things that they are not made to do.

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