The Captive Mind Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

The Captive Mind Plot Summary

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The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz discusses life in the Eastern European countries during the years of Stalinism. The book was written during this era and earned the author a Nobel Prize for Literature. The author lived and wrote in Poland during the years of the Nazi occupation and then under the socialist regime. He became a supporter of socialism since he did not want to go into exile. Milosz watched as his own philosophical views were replaced by those of the Soviet regime until he could no longer tolerate the situation and broke with the regime. He could no longer tolerate the doctrine which was forced on him. In a sense, he obtained his freedom when he rejected the doctrine.

Milosz's purpose in writing the book is to explain how the mind functions in a socialist society. For example, the individual basically...
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