Does History Affect The Present In 1984 By George Orwell

In George Orwell's 1984 the government holds complete control over citizens thoughts. Our protagonist, Winston, has an inside view into Big Brothers workings through his job, inspiring him to lead a self-rebellion that is ultimately discovered and punished by Big Brother. In this novel Orwell poses the question "How does manipulating history effect the present?" Through both the history the government creates and erases Orwell shows that he who controls the present controls the past.
The creation of history within the novel shows the reader one way the government is able to manipulate the past. For example, Winston says "Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore, Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia," despite knowing that Oceania had

in fact been in war with East Asia and Eurasia our ally. This quote shows how once the party had decided Eurasia was now their enemy, the past alliance vanished from the present and ceased to have ever existed in the past. Promptly after the announcement of Oceania's "new" enemy Winston went on to rewrite a speech of Big Brothers to fix the incorrect prediction of a Eurasian attack to support the new reality. Doing so insures Big Brother from ever having been wrong, thus giving him ineliminable credibility in the present. Orwell also writes "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...Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting." (34) From this quote we are able to grasp how simple it was for the Party to create false truths. If a person's perception of the truth is invalidated through every source but their own memory then they will accept the lie. This allows the lie to become the new truth, and thus allows it to have always been the truth.
In like manner, Big Brothers use of erasing history also serves to show the effects changing the past has on the present.

Orwell writes, "As soon as all the corrections had been assembled and collated that number would be reprinted. The original copy destroyed, and the correct copy places on the files in its stead." (42) This illustrates how the party is able to so easily get rid of any history that does not align with their agenda. Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth is to erase anything that contradicts what the Party wants people to believe, for example a photo of 3 men that would prove them innocent to accusations being placed on them by the Party. By placing these proofs in the memory holes every last shred of them is destroyed. If everything proving them wrong is eradicated, and false truths to prove them correct are created, they acquire an invincible control over the present. The author further explains this theme in writing, "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, ever statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past was falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself." (155) The author clearly reveals Winston's acceptance of the Party's lies of the pasts as truth of the present in this quote. All aspects of the past are at the Party's disposal to perpetuate their

infallibility.

Through showing how the Party could both create and eliminate the past the author establishes a strong theme that the manipulation of the past can completely alter perception of the present. Even Winston, who had firsthand knowledge about the Party's means of rewriting news, altering speeches, and destroying records, accepts this altered past as truth. He posits that with no evidence to support the memories you have, one begins to doubt their own mind and accepts the claims of the Party as the way things have always been. Their lies are soon accepted as facts. This not only changes the people's perception of reality, but it keeps the Party from appearing to ever have any flaws. People make judgments about the present based on their understanding of the past. If the Party is able to control that understanding, they gain full control over their thoughts about the present. To control the present is to control the past, and to control the past is to control the future.