bluntly
tellsthat reality is whatever the Party says it is. In this totalitarian state, the ruling Party
has created a parallel universe in which "War is Peace," "Freedom is
Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength." If the Party says that two plus two equals
five, then it does, and woe betide anyone who dares to contradict the Party line.
For O'Brien reality doesn't exist out there in the world, but rather inside the mind.
That being the case, the Party knows that if it can control people's minds it can create its own
reality, one that serves its own interests. Winston stubbornly disagrees, at least until after
he's been brutally tortured. He rightly thinks that there's a real objective world that exists
outside of human consciousness. And this world, two plus two will always equal four whatever
anyone thinks. Indeed everyone in the whole world could deny the truth of this sum and it still
wouldn't make any difference. Two plus two equals four. Period.
That's not
what O'Brien wants to hear, of course. He demands Winston's complete, unswerving loyalty to the
Party and its dictates. As Winston soon discovers, in Oceania reality is inextricably linked to
power, and the Party uses its monopoly of power to impose its own alternative reality on
society, like a boot stamping on a human face forever.
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