The Green caldron - University Library

Doublethink
Mike Sovereign
Rhetoric 102, Book Report
The Green Caldron
AMAN WAS BORN AND HIS EDUCATION BEGUN. HE WAS
taught to reason logically from observable evidence. He was told that all
men are created equal, that force was basically evil, and that two wrongs
never make a right. He matured and told his people that segregation was
wrong, and they called him a "nigger-lover" and ran him out of town. He
ignored their God, and they shunned him. He refused to fight in the war, and
they called him a traitor and a coward. He maintained that if all men are equal,
they should contribute according to their abilities, and profit according to
their needs ; and they branded him a seditionist, a revolutionary, and revoked
his citizenship. In destitution, he tried to find a job to support his wife and
children, and the unions and employers rejected him as undesirable. In desper-
ation, he tried to leave the country, and was denied a passport. In despair, he
killed himself.
But what has this to do with the novel 1984 ? It is very hard to believe that
people could doublethink, the action of believing what one does not believe,
as effectively as the people in 1984 did. They could forget that yesterday the
enemy was Eastasia, not Eurasia, and that the chocolate ration was being re-
duced when the government said it was being increased. They could close their
eyes to the truth and, if necessary, believe that two and two equal five. This
seems impossible, but examine the case of the young man above. Everyone is
taught the principles that this man tried to apply. They are the basis of the
religion of the country. But the vast majority ignore these truths because
they find that society will not accept many actions based upon these principles,
even though it professes to believe them. Therefore doublethink is necessary,
just as it was a necessity for the party numbers in 1984. In both cases the so-
ciety demands that truth be denied, and that the denial be forgotten, if the indi-
vidual wants to remain in the society. The individual must believe one set of
values and act upon another.
Winston Smith and the man in the first part of this essay both refused to
doublethink. Smith was finally converted by Room 101, the treatment that no
one could endure. He was converted to prevent him from becoming a martyr.
There is no Room 101 as yet, but people are so well schooled in doublethink
that most of them would never think of the man in this essay as a martyr,
quite the opposite. However, as O'Brien said in 1984, without a Room 101
there will continue to be people who refuse to doublethink. But if the adherents
of political, social, and economic orthodoxy can limit the spread of truth and