1984
“Who controls the past controls the future”
– George Orwell
On a first read-through of 1984, one might be annoyed or confused at the ending. “What’s the point if Winston loses, after an entire book of resistance” you might ask. Well, I believe that Winston’s loss is integral in the point that Orwell is trying to make – which is best embodied through the quote: “Who controls the past controls the future…”
A central tenet of the story of 1984 is the “mutability of the past.” The party views the past and the present as existing only in the mind – leading to the conclusion that reality can be whatever the party wants, as long as they can control memory. Thus, comes the latter part of the quote.With the absolute control of the present, the party dictates what has happened. If nothing is real outside the mind, then it is easier to rationalize anything as existing (helping to justify doublethink for instance). Next, comes the first part of the quote. With the malleability of events, the party gains their control – if all events are malleable, then they can say or do anything, thus leading to their absolute power and forever control.
Language is also an important facet of all of this. With the control over the present, language can be altered – any ideas can be changed, added, or removed. With no room for creative ideas, the spark of revolution or rebellion fails to start a fire. The past is also controlled intrinsically from this – as the removal of words is the removal of their linguistic history and evolution.
Now, here is where Winston comes in. The point of 1984 isn’t to be a normal, satisfying narrative. It may be to some, but that isn’t Orwell’s main point. What he’s trying to do is to give us a warning; the book is an espousal of his opinions on authoritarianism, and its end products. Winston’s position at the end of the book is a result of this espousal of ideology. He is necessary for the point to come across better. I believe that Winston is at his core a sort of representation of how we think we’d react in an authoritarian dictatorship. We think that we’d be immune, perhaps be rebellious and such, but in the end, propaganda and tactics of torture and convincing are always effective. Even without this consideration, Winston’s downfall is still necessary overall. In order for the point of the story – that the tactics of authoritarianism are effective – that Orwell specifically’s idea of authoritarianism is effective and evil, Winston needs to fail. If he didn’t, then we might think, “Oh this evil government are wussies, with ineffective tactics,” when in reality, they are far from that. He wants to get his point across, because what he writes about isn’t totally fictional. Authoritarian governments exist, take Russia, or some countries in the Middle East, or according to some even America is going down a terrible path. For crying out loud, we have screens with built-in speakers which we carry wherever we go, and that’s even worse than anything in 1984 that Orwell could think of! We have all the devices in place that Orwell warned of in 1984, so now is a time more than ever to be wary, and to take the book seriously, and not just as a work of fiction.