‘Of course I’m guilty!’ cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. ‘You don’t think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?’
I found what Parsons said while in the cell with Winston very interesting. What is innocence in the eyes of the Party?
Throughout the book, we get to know a lot about how the Party functions, and from what I can tell I'm questioning whether anyone is ever perceived innocent. In thoughtcrime, I believe that no one would ever be proven innocent of thoughtcrime. The Party is afraid of any threats, so the ability to be innocent of thoughtcrime implies that those who commit thoughtcrime could be innocent. The ability to be innocent makes it so that people may not consider the dire consequences of committing thoughtcrime. The ability to get off easily for thoughtcrime or perceived thoughtcrime gets rid of the horror of being taken away by the thought police at any time with no notice.
In crimes other than thoughtcrime it still seems likely that the Party would make sure individuals that committed any crime wasn't mixing with their general population. In order for their society to be perfect, they need crime out of it so perceived criminals could be moved away from the people they knew to keep up the idea that crime is always punished.
‘I don’t know. I don’t know. You will kill me if you do that again. Four, five, six—in all honesty I don’t know.’
What saves Winston is his ignorance. Winston is only saved from pain when O'Brien makes him believe and accept his own ignorance, even though he just held the knowledge. By forcing party members into ignorance through doublethink, and comdeming thoughtcrime through the refusal to accept doublethink, in 1984 ignorance is protection.
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It's a deep comment on the text to state that Winston was saved by his own ignorance. He's not truly saved, but in the now, the temporary state, he manages to survive, due to the fact that his mind is malleable enough to believe what the Party tells him. He may be a resister, and it may take awhile to break him, but he would have suffered far more, should he not have been able to be reprogrammed.
ReplyDeleteI truly love how you analyzed this quote! I believe you are very right, we do not truly know what the Party believes is innocent because they get rid of any they just think is a threat. I agree with your thoughts on the fats that no one could be proven innocent of thoughtcrime- how could they it is thoughtcrime, something that is just merely they were thinking and not doing. Also I love how you mentioned that for people in the Party ignorance is protection, but it led me to think about the slogan Ignorance is Strength- is this what they could mean by this slogan? All in all I really loved you post!!! :)
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