1984: Accepting the Party's beliefs

George Orwell, 1984

"He could not fight against the Party any longer.Besides, the Party was in the right. It must be so: how could the immortal, collective brain be mistaken? By what external standard could you check its judgments? Sanity was statistical." (Orwell 290)

This quote was chosen because it shows the values and morals of Oceania. It shows how Winston is slowly losing the battle against the Party because of being a single individual with unique beliefs but no power, while the Party has power and now have the ability of forcing their beliefs onto him.

Winston says this quote after O'Brien tortures him at "The Ministry of Love" This quote was chosen because it is crucial to Winston's change of character. Orwell states this line because it shows how spending time inside "The Ministry of Love" is degrading Winston's mind, and causing him to slowly start believing exactly what he is being told. It also shows that despite the fact that he despises the Party, he is trying to train himself into believing what they stand for, and therefore practicing "crimestop."

At this point in the novel, Winston is doing so only because of knowing that by continuing to believe in his own ideologies, he will only endure even more torture. Therefore, it is in fact the fear of being helpless and unable to endure more pain that causes his beliefs to take a drastic turn, towards the norm. The part of the quote that represents that Winston is attempting to believe what he is being told is the "sanity is statistical" part. What it signifies is that what is considered a normal thing to believe by a (sane) individual is what the general public beliefs.

Such a belief has been present since the beginning of time, and it applies to the society that Orwell lived in just as much as it applies to ours. Some of the beliefs that individuals nowadays are often ridiculed for are if they follow a religion that is unheard of, or known very little about. For example, Scientology is often something that people ridicule, but there is just as much proof that Jesus exists as there is of the supreme being that exists in Scientology. But what keeps one religion from being ridiculed and not the other, is the fact that the concepts of Christianity have been embedded into peoples' minds for centuries, which has resulted in them accepting that religion. While with Scientology, it's a fairly new concept.