Reaction to the Party’s Slogan

One of the most significant slogans in this novel is “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” (page 260). As this slogan appears in the novel for two times, the usefulness of this slogan is displayed thoroughly by the Party.

The Party is good at using false history to manipulate people’s mind psychologically. It is a common sense for all human beings that if the past is good, people will continue recreating the good times, but people will absolutely try to avoid retrospection the bad memories. Therefore, due to this reason, the Party creates a past that is fraught with slavery and horror. Then people finds out the condition they have now is much better compares to the past so that they trust and willing to listen to the Party. For instance, during the torture O’Brien tells Winston that “You suffer from a defective memory. You are unable to remember real events,” (page 258). As a member of the Inner Party, O’Brien is persuading Winston to believe that he cannot remember the past and trains him to accept that. Through the brainwashing process, the Party makes people believe that they are the one who controls the present.

The authority is always in the hand of the Party because they create the slogan to manipulate and let people believe so.