"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past (204)."
-Orwell uses this quote to show how in control the party truly is. The party not only controls the people that live in Oceana, but it also controls events that occur in the past and future, because events from the past can always be erased. No matter what Winston says, O'Brien is right and Winston is wrong. If O'Brien says that the photograph of Jones, Aaronson and Ruthorford never existed, then it never did exist, because according to the records, it didn't, and that is all that matters. There is also no reality of the past, because if everyone says something happened, then it did, and the one person that claims that it actually did not happen is the insane one.
Look at that second sentence; is it doing any work?
ReplyDeleteTake a look at that last sentence. It's a doozy. Any way to break it up? Or perhaps rephrase?
"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past (204)."
ReplyDelete-Orwell uses this quote to show how in control the party truly is. The party not only controls the people that live in Oceana, but it also controls events that occur in the past and future, because events from the past can always be erased. No matter what Winston says, O'Brien is right and Winston is wrong. If O'Brien says that the photograph of Jones, Aaronson and Ruthorford never existed, then it never did exist, because according to the records, it didn't, and that is all that matters. There is also no reality of the past, because if everyone says something happened, then it did. The one person that claims that it actually did not happen is seen as the insane one because they have no proof that it's not true.