Onlookers screamed as fire engulfed the young man, who had thrown pamphlets in the air before he set himself aflame. A police officer tried to extinguish the flames before the man was taken away in an ambulance.
I recently had an interesting discussion where someone interpreted the pessimistic ending as a result of successful in-universe propaganda from the Party, and that all the shit they said was just gaslighting and lies to make themselves seem omnipresent and make resistance seem hopeless.
I don’t think this was the intended message but the author is dead, we can make up our own head canons and no one can stop us!
I recently had an interesting discussion where someone interpreted the pessimistic ending as a result of successful in-universe propaganda from the Party, and that all the shit they said was just gaslighting and lies to make themselves seem omnipresent and make resistance seem hopeless.
I don’t think this was the intended message but the author is dead, we can make up our own head canons and no one can stop us!
If you interpret the appendix as an ending then it’s a lot less pessimistic as it implies that all totalitarian regimes eventually fall.