The Party seeks to control the present and future by controlling how citizens remember and think about the past. It destroys all records and documents from the past through "memory holes" to ensure there is no accurate information about history that contradicts the Party's version. Due to this rewriting and erasure of history, Winston is uncertain about key historical events and dates, and there is no certainty about what actually occurred in the past. The Party also manipulates people's minds through propaganda and torture to ensure citizens accept the Party's version of history as the sole truth.

1. 1984 – Memory and the past
Carlos Expósito Camacho – 1º Bach A

3. Sumision to
the Party´s
information
Memory holes:
Destruction of
knowledge and
memories
The party want to control the past
‹‹ Who controls the past,
controls the present, and
therefore, the future ››
Destruction of the past
records and memories
Controlling the past

4. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits
existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the
building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every
corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes.
When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or
even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an
automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and
drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of
warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden
somewhere in the recesses of the building. (1.4.2)
The Party seeks to control the
present by mandating the
destruction of all records of the
past through "memory holes."
Controlling the past: References

5. Winston could not definitely remember a time when his
country had not been at war, but it was evident that
there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his
childhood, because one of his early memories was of an
air raid which appeared to take everyone by surprise.
Perhaps it was the time when the atomic bomb had
fallen on Colchester. He did not remember the raid itself
[…]. (1.3.12)
No matter how hard he
scrutinizes his memory, Winston
is uncertain whether a time
existed when Oceania was not at
war with someone.
Controlling the past: References

6. And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or
small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in
which, finally, even the date of the year had become
uncertain. (1.4.9)
Due to the Party’s control and
rectification of all media in
Oceania, there is no certainty in
historical records.
Controlling the past: References

7. You are very much older than I am
–Winston to Mr. Charrington
You must have been grown man before I
was born. You can remember what it
was like in the old days, before the
Revolution. People of my age don´t
really know anything about those times.
We can only read about them in books,
and what ir says in the books may not be
true. I should like your opinion on that.Asking to old
people
belonging to the
proles for
knowing the
past
Searching of Truth

8. Dreams
Recreating
past actions
‘I dreamt- ´ (…). There was a dream
itself, and there was a memory
connected with it that had swung into
his mind in the few seconds after
waking.
The first fragment of chocolate had melted
on Winston’s tongue. The taste was
delightful. But there was still that memory
moving round the edges of his
consciousness, something strongly felt but
not reducible to a definite shape, like an
object seen out of the corner of one’s eye.
He pushed it away from him, aware only
that it was the memory of some action he
would have liked to undo but could not
Triggers of memories

9. Ministry
of Truth
Ministry
of Love
Propaganda
Constant bombing of BB’s and
Ingsoc’s logans
Changing the past records according
to the Party’s principles
Torturing people to manipulate their
minds
Process of changing the past

10. Reality exists in the human mind, and
nowhere else. Not in the individual mind…
only in the mind of the Party, which is
collective and immortal. Whatever the
Party holds to be the truth, is truth
The rocks are full of the bones of extint animals… enormous
reptiles which lived here long before man was ever heard of.
Have you ever seen those bones, Winston? Of course not.
Nineteenth-century biologists invented them. Before man
there was nothing
What’s the true reality?