Blame

Imagine having to be saved from yourself. Your thoughts and opinions are wrong and must be fixed. This is how the Party manipulates the prisoners in the Ministry of Love. They must be re-educated and saved from their current selves. People are the cause of their own suffering. Winston has finally been caught by the thought police and is going through the long, grueling process of re-education. "I shall save you, I shall make you perfect,"(page 256) O'Brien explains to him. The party believes that there is something wrong with the 'criminals' they bring in to make them commit this 'treason'. Their personality and character is wrong and must be corrected.

The idea that people are the cause of their own suffering is not new and actually true. Your own actions directly affect your own life. Therefore you can attribute some of your suffering to yourself. The Party has manipulated this idea. They believe everything that is wrong with you is your fault. It’s all attributed to the one person. This is how they justify the torture they enact upon you when you commit 'treason' against the Party. It was you, and only you that made you do what you did. It has nothing to do with the corrupt rule of the Party. It has nothing to do with the people you meet and their influence on your thoughts. It's your own fault. This is where they find their criminals. The people who believe that there are other forces, along with themselves, that make them act and think the way they do. Winston believes the corrupt rule of the Party contributes to his crime. If they had been ruling justly and fairly, he wouldn't have felt the need to rebel. This is why the Party must re-educate him. He is still under the 'false' impression that the Party shares blame for what he did. By doing something about his feeling towards the party, Winston brought about his own suffering, but also the Party shares some blame. This is what differentiates Winston from the rest of the Party members. He doesn't share the same ideology about blame. He still wants to blame the Party.

Suffering is inevitable. Every person suffers a bit in their life. The Party is of the ideology that suffering is attributed solely to the individual. In actuality, this is not true. People as well as their environment can cause suffering. The Party needs to re-educate people so that they commit to the Party ideology. Torture and verbal abuse is used. They need the person to really believe that they are the reason this is happening to them. There is something wrong with them and they need to be corrected.