Torture in 1984

 Why torture the thought criminals?

While reading these chapters, I was very disturbed and confused by the methods of torture used on Winston and the other criminals. The cycle of beating, questioning, and just enough recovery to make the criminals conscious again, is insanely manipulative, but creates zombies of people who will do whatever is asked of them. In Dr. Wilson’s psychology class we are talking about learning this week, and how the brain reacts to rewards and punishments. Knowing some of the science behind why and how this torture is so effective, added an entirely different layer. The inner party of 1984 must have put a lot of work into creating such a functional system where they can effectively build people from scratch after removing all the human parts of them. From what I’ve read, it seems like the end goal for Winston might be a labor camp. If that is the case, his torture, while awful and inhumane, at least has some purpose. But if he will eventually be killed, what is the point of torturing him into confessing things he didn’t do? He will be erased from society and everyone’s memories, so they can’t make an example out of him. Wouldn’t it be easier for the inner party members to just kill him? 

Taking all ethics out of the situation, what does the party gain from putting so much work into erasing people's humanness, why do you think the party takes the time to torture and keep people alive for seemingly no practical reason?


Comments

  1. L. MoffittMarch 2, 2021 at 7:30 AM

    I've read that torture, besides being hugely unethical, is also largely pointless. People under torture inevitably "confess" to things they didn't even do and give "information" that isn't even true. And perhaps the Party doesn't care: as O'Brien says, the point of Big Brother is pure power. They torture simply because they can. Scary.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna ParkMarch 2, 2021 at 7:51 AM

    I think they torture because it instills fear in everyone else and kind of shows that they are the power. They have the power to kill you, to torture you, to get you to do anything they want you to.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Power in 1984

Image
  What defines power?  In the last few chapters of 1984 we learn more about The Party and its motivations, the biggest being power. The Party defines power as control, the ability to do anything they want, and the respect of every single person in “the world” (Oceania). To them, power isn’t power unless it is over everything. As O’Brien puts it, this is the type of power that people like Hitler were trying to achieve, but they failed to achieve it because they retained some amount of humanness that “held them back”. I think our current world values power, but also values balance, so O’Brien would argue we don’t truly want power at all, because “power” can only be defined as total control. The reason Winston, Julia, and other thought criminals put this society at risk is because they fight for some small amount of power for themselves. Julia seeks power over her own life, the kind of power that we tend to define as “freedom”. The freedom to say what we want, believe what we want, spend
Read more

Earthseed’s Success

I think Earthseed “works” in its context by bringing to Lauren and her small community of Earthseed followers what a lot of people look for in a religion. I think a lot of people in the world of Parable of the Sower are looking for something constant, something they can rely on, to bring some sense of security and normality to their lives. I think Earthseed provides that without putting hope in things that could go away. Lauren acknowledges that the only constant and true thing in their world is change, and she puts her faith in that constant, giving her a sense of purpose that others in the book seem to also want. I think Earthseed will catch on, even if Lauren doesn’t survive, because people are craving something to put their hope in, some purpose for their life, and Earthseed provides that. I also think that even if Lauren hadn’t created Earthseed, someone else would have created a very similar religion, because it was created out of a set of necessities that a lot of people have, w
Read more

Is Lauren a "Religious Person"?

  After reading the first few chapters of Parable of the Sower, it seems like Lauren’s character is supposed to be rebelling against traditional Christianity/religion, which she is to a certain extent, but I also feel like she is being a better Christian than many people today who call themselves Christian. In my opinion, part of any religion is a personal connection with the set of beliefs, and finding how your values line up with those outlined by the religion you ultimately choose. For many people, it’s easier to blindly accept the beliefs of the religion they grow up in, and view it as an “insurance policy” to continue belonging to that religion, even if they don’t entirely agree with it. Because no person has ever had infinite knowledge about who God is, we are all just kind of doing our best and living the way we think is right, so everyone’s “god” looks slightly different, even if you don’t believe there is one. This is the main reason so many different religions exist, and part
Read more