Government influence bigger than I realized

        At the beginning of Chapter 9, it was suddenly announced that Oceania had switched who their enemy was during the ongoing war. Eurasia was now an ally and Eastasia is the new enemy. It was kind of unsettling how fast the crowd changed from being full-on anti-Eurasia to being embarrassed and quickly taking down their posters and signs. It’s as if the government flipped a switch that told them to stop hating Eurasia and start hating Eastasia. This is a clear example of how easily manipulated the crowd can get and be swept up in the rage. 

The emphasis of the Party controlling the history was made prevalent again at this time. Not only did they change their enemy, but the government also replaced the whole entire history (books, newspapers, photographs) to say that they always have been hating Eastasia and completely removed the part of history where they hated Eurasia because it is irrelevant to them now. Before this event, I was always kind of confused about how they changed history and how they got people to forget so easily (Did they do it all at once one day or was it gradual?). By how efficiently it can control the crowd, I know how much power the government really has and why people, like Winston, have such a hard time remembering the past.