1984, By Doris Lessings

Each person in society is individual, but they operate as a group. In a lecture from 1985, Doris Lessings stated the human nature wanted to be part of a group. Being in a group made it inevitable that people would compromise their beliefs for the accepted beliefs. Everyone possessed opinions but the difference was how far, how long and how hard they would go to keep their opinions. In her lecture, she accurately described an embarrassing moment of “how often [people] said black was white because other people were saying it” (Lessings). She found it frustrating how Westerners believed they were entitled to their own opinions while they were oblivious of how they accommodated to others’ ideas, making them unaware to ever fix them in the future.
Similarly, in 1984 by George Orwell, everyone was brainwashed to believe certain concepts spread by the Inner Party. For example, everyone in Oceania was taught to love Big Brother and hate Emmanuel Goldstein, the betrayer and leader of the Brotherhood. Although Winston had no strong feelings of love for Big Brother, he acted just like everyone else to remain as normal. Similarly, during Hate Week, everyone praised Big Brother and loathed Goldstein while Winston created feelings of hate for Big Brother! He was secretly going against the status quo. Everyone had to be cautious of the Thought Police who were disguised. In another instance, Winston was taught that two plus two equals five instead of four. He disagreed with O’Brien, one of the leaders of the Inner Party. After a series of intense pain and torture, Winston gave in and agreed that two plus two was in fact five. The Inner Party believed ignorance was bliss; that the less someone knew, the happier and simpler their lives were. Children in schools were taught to keep an eye on their parents and to turn their own parents in if anything seemed wrong. In return, they were named heroes. Again, to be accepted by society was important. Lessings stressed how people came to believe the general will just because it was the general will. In 1984, it represents the exact idea through the