"Their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on hour after hour, tripping him up, laying traps for him, twisting everything that he said, convicting him of every step of lies and self-contradiction, until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue" (241)
One of the major themes of this book is not only the idea of getting people to obey the Big Brother but to actually think and believe everything that the party does. Before Winston was captured he outwardly expressed his consent to the party's every whim however he never in the slightest believed it. The whole idea of thought crime is Big Brother trying to get rid of all the people that are like Winston and are not all in with the party. This quote reveals this theme effectively and demonstrates the party's willingness to go far beyond mental ways of persuading people to follow them. I guess the torture is a pretty effective way of getting people to crack!
No comments:
Post a Comment