1984 quote

"Ignorance is strength"

This quote speaks widely about the book. It is part of the party's slogan. What it intends is that the society must be ignorant to be strong. They must not question Big Brother or any source of power/control. Their ignorance lets the party do questionable things and gain strength right in front of their eyes but because they were raised to be ignorant, they overlook it. To society's knowledge, the party is strong and amazing and source of life. They think they owe everything to the party but little do they know the party isn't strong and mighty, they are brain washers.

To add to your analysis, I would say that in fact this sentence is for the better of the Inner Party and not for the people.  As explained in the novel, by being constently in a state of war, the citizens of Oceania are always seperated from the rest of the world and do not know what is happening in other places then Oceania other then what Big Brother tells them about it. Due to this ignorance regarding other societies, the citizens of Oceania do not have any other society to compare themselves too and thus, do believe they are living in the best conditions possible.

Also, this statement refers to their language which is ''Newspeak''. The roles of the people of the Outer Party working on Newspeak is basically to make the language extremely simple and reduce it to the smallest amount of words possible. Not only are they reducing the amount of words who could posisbly mean the same thing, they are also exterminating all words that someone could use to potentially revolt against the party. Personally I find this extremely clever because if you think about it... How could someone potentially revolt against the party if they do not have any words to express how they are feeling ?

Great analysis Larissa! I really appreciate how you chose such a simple quote yet were able to link it to many key points of the novel. To add to your analysis, I would say that ignorance is beneficial to the party as it allows them to create a strong sense of nationalism. For example, the conflict between eastasia and eurasia is brought up numerous times in the novel. The party alternates with who they are at war. Winston is aware of the change but due to doublethink (believing two ideas at once) he accepts it. In this case, the enemy is not important but rather the state of being at war is. The citizens' ignorance is beneficial to the party as they cannot question the change in enemies. They just accept that eurasia or eastasia is the enemy. As you mentioned in your analysis, the citizens cannot compare themselves to other lands as they are kept from the truth. All in all, perpetual war and nationalism equate to strength which parallels to the party slogan Ignorance is strength

- Bea (:

I agree with both of you. This part of the slogan, I think, is one of the most shocking. When you first read it you feel like everything contradicts itself. But if you really think about it “ignorance is strength” is very true. The less you know, the better it is since there are less chances that others will go against you. We can conclude that the less the population know the better it is for them since the Party has nothing against them and leave them alone.