1984 Quotes

I've read the book 1984 by George Orwell. I've chosen the following quotes:

"He understood how; he did not understand why" (About the main character Winston, page 217)

I chose this one because it's the question the main character keeps asking himself and it's pretty much what he tries to find out throughout the book and the main point of the book. It says a bit about the character as a person. The question comes back a couple of times and it's always the same frase.

"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (The "big brother"- slogan, page 16)

This one is the slogan of the party and there are posters and things all over town that saya the same thing. It really reflects how the society looked and what kind of values they had or wanted the people to have. This also comes back repeatedly and it's always written in capital letters.

"Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past." (A party member named O'brien, page 248)

One very high-ranked  party member says this to the main character Winston. I think this is a good example of the kind of weird logic the people have in the book and it also says a bit about the way George Orwell has written. The whole book is written in a pretty complicated way and this is the kind of quotes the re-occurs frequently. The words in the book, the language he uses, is not difficult, per say, but the thoughts are pretty complex and it really takes some thinking to sort out what he means.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever" (O'brien, page 267)

Once again, an example of the way it's written. The author uses many parables in this book and this is just one. This is uttered by the same party member and he talk about how the party intends to make the future for the people and the fact that it's not even an option to have an other future shows how much power the party has in the book.

"All the confessions that are uttered here are true. We make them true." (O'brien, page 254)

This yet again a display of the party's power. The can make things true by altering the reality or by making everyone so certain that it in the end becomes true. For instance , they keep saying that 2+2=5 and in the end that is the truth.

I hope you've been able to make sense of this...

/Sofi