Quotes and Commentary
1) "WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (Orwell 4).
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This slogan is the backbone to the Party's success and ability to indoctrinate its people. By using the concept of "doublethink," these words twisted people's minds into believing two contradicting ideas. People were left no choice but to passionately advocate and stand behind whatever the Party chose to say, whether reasonable or illogical.
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2) "Big Brother Is Watching You" (Orwell 2).
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Another of the Party's major slogans, these words are posted all around Oceania along the menacing face of Big Brother, the man behind the Party. The sinister words and daunting yet watchful eyes of Big Brother portray the complete surveillance the Party has over its people. Even the slightest actions or movements that reveal individuality of thought is detected by surveillance cameras called "telescreens", which ensures that every person must doing what they are supposed to be doing at all times.
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3)"Who controls the past... controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (Orwell 34).
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The Party has always altered facts and the truth to make it comply with everything they do. Under this practice of alteration of the truth, the Party bends past events and history in order to make it favorable to their motives. No room is left for fault in the Party; it becomes virtually impossible to prove the Party wrong because it can simply change what is right. Total control is met not only with a manipulation of the people, but a manipulation of the past and truth.
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4) "Newspeak... shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it" (Orwell 52).
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An unprecedented form of control is presented through the development of Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. As Party members begin to radically simplify the language by deleting vast numbers of words, a new type of manipulation is revealed. Words entailing rebellious or unorthodox thought will be eliminated, leaving no options to express crime against the Party.
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5) "2 + 2 = 5" (Orwell 290).
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At this point of the book, Winston has given up on rebelling against the Party; he has lost. Through the countless torture sessions and periods of isolation from the world, the Party has not only beat Winston, but also forced him into acceptance and conformity of the Party. One of the main motives of the Party is now revealed: they do not simply devastate their enemies; they change them. And as Winston is finally allowed to go out of isolation from the world, he is not the same person he used to be. Under even the most dangerous and rebellious of circumstances, the Party has and will never lose to their enemies.
