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1984

Post 1

Guesty3

Hi, i was just wondering if you could help me on a thought that i have been pondering since you seem to know a bit about this book!

You know 0'Brian and the whole underground brotherhood, was that there to catch people like Julia and Winstion, or did O'Brian actauly have an undergroung brotherhood and he was using doublethink when he was toturing Winston?

Just a random thought!!


1984

Post 2

pinkisthecolour

Two months later I reply!

Well you might still be pondering this point.

O'Brien is a member of the 'inner party', the rulers of Oceania. Whether of not there actually is any kind of underground brotherhood
is hard to say - just as it is impossible to say whether Emmanuel Goldstein or even Big Brother actually exist!

I would say that O'Brien was using the idea of an underground brotherhood to trap Winston but also to 'experiment' on him.
He says he finds Winston's mind interesting - he, and the inner party,
obviously like to try out people with 'free' minds in order to understand better how they work and how to break them.

Thing is with 1984 that it doesn't really stand up to a great deal of analysis of the actual ideas. Its more of a fable, I think, a depiction of the human condition. Getting too hung up on its 'prophetic' or techical aspects is a bit like looking at a picture of hell and thinking 'I wonder where that place actually is...?'


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