"Nonsense. The earth is as old as we are, no older. How could it be older? Nothing exists except human consciousness (218)."
-Orwell shows the reader a theme here in the novel of human consciousness. He explains that there is nothing in the world except what people think. The world is only there because the mind sees it there. Technically nothing exists while people are sleeping because human consciousness is the only thing that is real.
Implications for the novel?
ReplyDeleteLook at the wording of that first sentence -- other options there?
"Nonsense. The earth is as old as we are, no older. How could it be older? Nothing exists except human consciousness (218)."
ReplyDelete-With this quote, Orwell further develops a theme of human consciousness. He explains that there is nothing in the world except what people think. The world is only there because the mind sees it there. Technically nothing exists while people are sleeping because human consciousness is the only thing that is real. The government's mechanism of controlling Winston is to make him believe that everything they are saying is the only truth. If they win this argument then they've got him, and if he continues to insist on using his own perceptions, then they have lost. This is a critical point of the novel that Orwell uses to summarizes the crisis of control.