Nineteen Eighty Four Argumentative Essay Example

before Big Brother rose to power, according to the Party they had always been in control. Through constant repetition of this falsehood, it “became” the truth.

Winston was employed by the Ministry of Truth to modify past documents to align with the current Party beliefs. Rorty's emphasis on vocabulary is closely tied to the concept of Newspeak, which the Party believes can prevent the expression of certain concepts by removing associated words from dictionaries and language. The creation of Newspeak, Winston recognizes, is not just an attack on language but an attempt to destroy consciousness and thought.

Once Newspeak completely takes over, it will be impossible to commit 'thought crimes' because rebellious thoughts cannot be expressed through language. Orwell's choice to use the statement "two plus two is four" as a truth that the Party refuses is because it is a basic question that can be easily assessed by individuals. Winston realizes early on that the Party's project is inexorable and they would eventually declare that "two plus two is five." If he questioned it, he would be deemed a lunatic. Winston fears that the Party may be right about this, as the mind can control everything including both the past and the external world. The significance of physical pain is emphasized in 1984.

Winston believes that physical pain is the worst thing in the world (1984, 251), and it is through experiencing immense physical pain that he starts to re-educate himself. Following his torture in the feared Room 101, Winston embarks on educating himself as per the Party's wishes. He diligently writes their slogans on the slate provided to him and convinces himself to believe

them. Winston manages to convince himself that two plus two equals five, and he works hard at cultivating the stupidity required to achieve this.

According to George Orwell's 1984, attaining sanity is a difficult feat. The protagonist of the story often questioned his own state of mind and contemplated whether he was a lunatic. He entertained the notion that being a lunatic simply meant being a minority of one, but the true terror lay in the possibility of being wrong. (1984, pg. 263 and ch. 7)

Conant suggests that Rorty advocates for the replacement of objectivity with solidarity, meaning that one's beliefs should align with the views of their peers, rather than blindly accepting ideas without discussion or justification. However, when examining Orwell's depiction of the Spanish civil war, objectivity relates to unbiased reporting in the media. This interpretation does not contradict Rorty's ideology. In Oceania, the Party controlled the media, influencing public opinion through the manipulation of information. Orwell was disturbed by this lack of truthfulness, as people use these reports as a basis for their beliefs.

The Party slogan “who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” (1984,32) stems from the idea that if all records tell the same lie, it becomes truth. While reading Conant’s article on Rorty’s interpretation of Orwell, I found it surprising that they share more common ground than Conant suggests. Though Conant argues that Rorty’s doctrines are flawed, his portrayal of Rorty seems to be overly extreme. Conant suggests that Rorty would propose that the people of Oceania truly believe the Party created planes while the Party is content with people simply answering “the Party”

to the question on who invented planes. However, what Conant fails to recognize is that the fact ‘practically everyone’ else says it implies that it is the Party’s promoted truth and hence what people will believe.

Although Conant suggests that truth is arrived at through conversation between Winston and his peers, Rorty and O'Brien appear to have differing perspectives after reading 1984 and CIS. However, Rorty would not necessarily disagree with this viewpoint as he advocates for discussing one's opinions with peers to gain a better understanding of the truth. For instance, Conant's statement about the 'true' story prevailing through conversation aligns with Rorty's ideas.

It seems that O'Brien's goal in making Winston say that he is holding up five fingers when in fact he is holding up four goes beyond mere conformity with the Party's beliefs. O'Brien wants Winston to genuinely believe that there are five fingers. This may require erasing memories that contradict this belief and then forgetting that they were ever there. O'Brien is not simply asking Winston to accept a new definition of four and five, but to undergo a real transformation in his beliefs. This aligns with Conant's perspective.