From Mrs. Heasley's class, 2002

Throughout history convictions and beliefs have guided human actions. Such beliefs originate from a wide variety of sources that vary between individuals and communities and include innate tendencies, personal experiences, religious ideals, government decrees and social norms instilled through the media, schools and social interactions. Often one source of conviction prevails over the others, via social pressures, government impositions, a “religious” sense of right, or the individual’s sense of fairness. A person generally comes to accept his beliefs in one of three ways: blind acceptance without justification, acceptance with presumed justification but without analysis thereof, or acceptance with analyzed justification. George Orwell’s novel, 1984, follows the influence of these various pressures on the individual, illustrating how a government seeks to dominate the beliefs of individuals by forcing acceptance without rationale, and thereby producing a book that is highly relevant in the modern world as individuals choose either to struggle against or to accept ideas based on the various influences.