Anything You Can Truth, I Can Truth Better
"Taking one's chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck."
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
Looking at this quote, you may be a little bit confused at what I’m trying to get at, but I’m reality it’s quite topical. Lemony Snicket, my absolute favorite author, though unconventional as he is, is an absolute genius. In this one quote, he had the ability to summon a plethora of feelings and make them work together in one harmonious nature. Through this quote we can start to evaluate our own inner workings and hopefully start to uncover the idea and realities of truths within our daily lives through different works by different authors that I absolutely adore.
George Orwell, author of 1984, thought about what one future possibility of how England might be like under a communist government. Winston, the main character, works for the Party in the Ministry of Truth, located in London where he alters historical records to fit the Party's needs. Winston is constantly watched over by the party with hidden cameras. Everywhere he goes somebody could be watching him and making sure he is not breaking the rules. Winston isn't even able to think of the word rebellion without fear of the thought police whisking him away, never to be seen again. With his strong dislike of the party, Winston needed to express himself, causing him to stumble upon a journal to record his thoughts down in. One day Winston runs into a co-worker who stands with the Junior Anti-sex league. This league was pro-party and Winston hated her because he could not have her. The girl Winston hates then slipped him a note saying, "I love you." They continue on to have a love affair and are eventually asked to meet with O'Brien, a high-ranking party member who was thought to work for the Brotherhood, an anti-party group. O'Brien is then revealed to be a party member and has the thought police take him to the Ministry of Love. Winston is then tortured, where he then pleads to torture the girl instead of him. This is exactly what the party wanted. After being fully brain washed, they let him go back to his regular life. When confronted by the girl, there are no emotions. Winston has been brainwashed to accept the party and the party only.
Perhaps Orwell's purpose for writing 1984 was to express his feelings of how the governments would come to control everything and anything they wished to do. It is also possible that he wanted to tell of how mind control and torture techniques could be used to make an individual or an entire nation do what the government wanted. This story shows the truthful dangers of a world in which the government has too much control. The novel shows how the government controls its people, eliminating their individuality and the essence of everything that makes a human a human. "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" (Page 37) Though this society is efficient, it means little since the people cannot enjoy freedom and therefore have no rights. This quote emphasizes how if you don't recall anything about the past you will be easily controlled by the government and you will no longer have any concrete evidence.
In this novel, Orwell used the image of a man who stood in a shadow that covered his face. This was to make him anonymous and unrecognizable. This figure was called "Big Brother", and was placed on posters everywhere with the saying "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." This was used to let the people know that no matter where they go, they could not escape