Years ago I read 1984 and really didn't like it. I found it really boring. I'm not sure why but lately I decided to give its audiobook a try and really enjoyed it. I don't know if I'm older and wiser now or if I just didn't really follow the story when I was reading it… Whatever it is, I'm glad I gave it a second chance.
I even liked the fact that the end wasn't the classic happy ending.
One thing I didn't really understand was>! The Book. When O'Brien "recruits" Wilson he tells him about The Book that Goldstein wrote and later that book is delivered to Wilson and in it he reads how the Party uses war to control the people and all its other tricks and lies. Later, when O'Brien's true colours are revealed he mentions being one of the people who wrote The Book. Is that another lie and The Book is real and was written by Goldtein or is it really the doing of the Party? If that's the case then what's the point? Why would the Party write a book about how bad it is only to give it to people who hate the party just before capturing them?!<
by Tombazzzz
2 Comments
“Goldstein” gives the Party an internal enemy to publicly justify its more draconian actions against while also being a way of identifying actual dissidents who buy into the fake story. The fact that “The Book” essentially tells the truth doesn’t matter; once caught dissenters are either successfully re-educated or killed, it’s a final twist of the knife that the ‘resistance’ is yet another propaganda campaign.
It doesn’t really matter, does it? In the context of the story, it’s just another showing of how powerful and controlling Big Brother is. The book may be written by Goldstein, or it may not. The only reason Wilson gets to read it is because the party decides to show him. Even in his act of rebellion, everything Wilson does is already known by the party. Even rebelling against the party is useless since they already know.
To say that Goldstein hasn’t written it may be another way for O’brien to spread salt in the wounds, or it might be actually true. As with much of 1984, and what the party is trying to do, the only thing that matters is what they say, they control the truth, and in the end, what people think. Writing a rebellious book like that is just another way we, the readers, see just how powerful the party is. That’s also the case with them letting Wilson live. They know that Wilson knows that he is, and always will be, under party control.