Blog Post #3

What does George Orwell's novel 1984 reveal about the relationship between humans' understanding of history?

George Orwell's 1984 reveals that humans are more easier to control by erasing the true history. In this novel, Winston copies every word from a children history book into his diary and thinks, "How could you tell how much of it was lies?" (Orwell 72). Winston does not know what is the truth and what is false. This is the result of Big Brother erasing history. Erasing history is no simple matter. No one has their right in arguing back or proving anything if there is no such thing as evidence. That is the true power of history. Orwell is making a statement that history is much more than just remembering what happened. For example, Orwell wrote, "It appeared that there had been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week" (58). Big Brother has been appreciated by many citizens for raising the chocolate ration. This shows how powerful Big Brother is just by erasing even the latest history. No one has a say whether Big Brother raised the chocolate ration or if he lowered it. There is no evidence. No one can fight back against Big Brother's word. Every lies becomes truth and people have to accept it whether they want to or not. Many people misunderstands the true purpose of history. We take history for granted. Most of us do not realize that keeping our history keeps our freedom. If all wars never existed in history, can we say for certain that we won our freedom at all? History is not only events written down for knowledge, it is another form of proof of what has been done. No one can control anyone's life like what Big Brother is doing. There is proof of how powerful people can be as a group.