Book 1 Chapters 7-8: Life Before the Revolution

"How could you tell much of it was lies? It might be true that the average human being was better off now than he had been before the Revolution. The only evidence to the contrary was the mute protest in your own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions you lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different. It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness" (63).

As Winston read the children's history textbook to find out more about the past, he is aware of the fact that it is not a reliable source because the Party has tailored it to be in their favor. The book claims that the Party built remarkable cities, but according to the picture that Winston has painted for us, it is anything but lavish. Orwell's use of personification when talking about how Winston feels that his circumstances prior to the Revolution were better stands out to me because it is a great sensory detail of when a person's instincts override any external factors. This shows that the Party will try to force its citizens to believe anything that the Party says because as the book proceeds, Winston gives the example of how the Party may try to ingrain into people's mind that two plus two equals five but if people had their freedom they would be able to say that two plus two equals four. In a way this situation of history books not telling the whole truth relates to our own history books distorting the truth. Often times, important history is not presented in our textbooks, such as how the United States contributed to the training of ruthless dictators such as Rafael Trujillo or how the United States exploited Mexicans after the Mexican-American War. The Party shields the truth about the past and in the same way, our textbooks do not talk about history that incriminates the United States. Since Winston knows that history books will not be of much use to him, he proceeds to talk to the proles to possibly obtain more insight about the past that is being hidden.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 1, 2017 at 6:34 PM

    I like how you compared the Party and the United States and gave multiple examples. I think the best example was the comparison of the Party shielding the truth and our textbooks not telling the truth.

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  2. UnknownNovember 1, 2017 at 8:14 PM

    I enjoyed the fact that mentioned personification it shows that you understand the author uses deliberate literary devices. The fact that you elaborated on really expresses what the passage is stating. I also appreciate how you connect the situation to modern times. The reader can relate to such things. I can completely agree to the fact that "important history is not presented in our textbooks".

    ReplyDelete
  3. MKhan MiddleCollegeNovember 4, 2017 at 11:26 PM

    Your analysis of the passage is interesting. I like how you made the connection to the United States hiding certain things so it wouldn't incriminate itself, similar to what the party is doing. The party "shields" the truth from Oceania and the United States "shields" the truth from its citizens.

    ReplyDelete

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