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George Orwell 's Dystopian Classic, 1984

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A central concept in George Orwell’s dystopian classic, 1984, was the memory hole; a censoring garbage chute in which all documents deemed unacceptable, inconvenient, or even embarrassing by Big Brother went down to be destroyed. The people in power were able to control the past, present, and future using the memory hole to create a history as they wished it to be. Although this novel was fictional, the reality of 1984 is not too far from our own. Orwell’s central quote of the novel was “Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past" (Zinn 479). The notable quote holds wisdom and a message of exercising caution when it comes to history. Dominant ideologies and widely-accepted views of history have had calamitous consequences when gone unchallenged by society. Marchak examines who creates and governs the dominant ideology in society, as they are the ones ‘who control the present’. As the dominant ideology grows in a community, it makes it harder to challenge it. Free thought is continually celebrated and fought for in first world countries such as ours, but counter-ideologies are suppressed when inconvenient for those in control of the present. Zinn illustrates this oppression in his piece about the native and the colonialist perspective of Columbus’ story. The colonialist of today continue to provide Christopher Columbus with delusions of self-grandeur, and conveniently exclude the Native’s side of the story. However this is not the

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