#13- 1984

"'They can't get inside you,' she had said. But they could get inside you. 'What happens to you here is forever,' O'Brien had said. That was a true word. There were things, your own acts from which you could not recover. Something was killed in your breast; burnt out, cauterized out" (239).

Orwell makes the Party different from past rulers because of its ability to "get inside you."  This makes it appear as if a person has changed at their own will. This is what Winston is talking about when he says, "He had won the victory over himself" (245). Even though the Party induced the change it appeared that the battle was all in himself. By doing this the human spirit is killed, which Winston describes as saying that "something was killed in your breast," since the human heart is the core of our physical existence. By destroying humanity the Party takes away human emotions making humans more easily controllable. Through explaining this brainwashing, Orwell creates a world that may appear fictional but brings up the question among readers about whether a society such as Oceania exists in our world. This is a large idea that Orwell wants the reader to hold on to after reading the novel.



Photo Credit:
"Human Heart 3D Model." Falling Pixel. 2010. 26 Aug. 2010 <http://www.fallingpixel.com/human-heart-3d-model/11334>.