Looking to the Future1984"WAR IS PEACEFFREEDOM IS SLAVERYIGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"(Orwell 3). It is the year 1984 in London, Oceania. Winston Smith is one of many people in Orwell’s prediction of the world in the future but is today’s past. The world appears as a dark and fearful place where the only rhyme or reason is created by Big Brother, ruler of the state and the head member of the Party. All of the above phrases in the slogan show the power which is given to the Party (government). The best description lies in the Newspeak word doublethink."Doublethink means the power of holding to contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated"(Orwell 190).
