Welcome to your venue to post anything and everything dedicated to your independent reading for Q2. Refer to the handouts for guidance. I hope you enjoy this assignment.
Entry #1, 1984- focus on antique shop in chapter 8
While Mr. Charrington's antique shop has only been described over a few pages in the novel, I feel that it plays a large part in the novel. Winston is constantly battling himself as he contemplates the value of his own life and dreams of what it could have been if there had been no Revolution. He has a craving for the truth, not the fake stories that the Party is always creating. The scene where Winston accidentally stumbles back into the antique shop is my favorite so far in the novel because that small little run-down shack is Winston's little patch of heaven. The junk in that shop instills hope in Winston and he realizes that, while he often feels alone in his belief of a better life, he is not alone. Mr. Charrington reassures him that the world has not always been so dreary and bleak as it is now. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
When Winston was in the antique shop, I felt as if time had frozen in the novel. Mr. Charrington has been strangely unaffected by the revolution, except for the loss of his memory in old age. Sporadically throughout the story, the narrator seemingly becomes omniscient and we, the readers, are given a glimpse into Winston's thoughts. At these times, the mood is that of unbeatable oppression and I feel as if Winston is locked in invisible chains that he always has to drag around. Sort of like Jacob Marley from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. However, when Mr. Charrington speaks I do not get this feeling. He is unconcerned with Big Brother and has somehow built a life almost entirely free of his influence. When Winston mentions that there is no telescreen in his shop, Mr. Charrington speaks as if a telescreen was a extraneous material object for useless entertainment instead of an tool for the government to spy on you every second of the day, making a personal life almost entirely impossible. He says, "I never had one of those things. Too expensive. And I never seemed to feel the need of it, somehow." His response reminded me of the time I tried to explain to my grandpa what an ipad was. Similarly to Mr. Charrington, he thought it was a complete waste of money and couldn't see why you couldn't just use a computer instead.
This is the first time in the novel that we see Winston completely unreserved and, his memories may be blurry, but the antique shop rekindles something deep within him: "the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory." There seems to be a story that Winston has pushed to the back of his mind, and I'm excited to see how it is revealed later in the book.
Winston has finally found someone who may shed light on the past. In such dark times, Mr. Charrington's nursery rhyme has given him something to comfort himself with, like a child does. It is also important to notice that the song is about churches, a symbol of purity and innocence. Although, this song may also become the song of a revolt against the Party because, while it starts off describing beautiful church bells ringing, it ends with the chopping off of a man's head. The rhyme is a real song and you can read the entire version here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons I think that as Winston's hatred of the Party grows, Mr. Charrington will remember more parts of the song during Winston's visits until they both reach the end- a new revolution. This song may be foreshadowing for Big Brother's demise at the end of the novel, or it may just represent Winston's childish foolishness. The shop, Winston can escape the Party, it is a portal to another world and another time.
In chapter 5, the introduction of Syme portrays the idea that Newspeak may be used as a manipulative tool and that simply having an opinion is prohibited. On page 52, we see how Newspeak can be used to eliminate thoughtcrime, the act of thinking anything that Big Brother wouldn't approve of: "... we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it". Here, the idea of government control is reinforced with the implication that now, even thinking can be controlled. This is ironic because in the beginning if the book, Winston mentions how he believes only his thoughts are safe, and now they no longer are. The theory is that if there is no name or word to put to a thought, it cannot be and, therefore, does not exist. This emphasizes that the government is controlling and manipulative and they are extremely tricky in their way of doing it because they make the people believe it is beneficial to them. Also, Winston presents the interesting notion that Syme will be vaporized simply for having an opinion, even though his opinion is one that completely agrees with the government and promotes Big Brother. This shows how, to the government, any kind of intelligence is dangerous and all ignorance is crucial because it allows them to get away with anything they want and still maintain extreme power and devotion. But how could a population of people become so easily manipulated? I think that this novel relates to today's world, even though the book is at a greater extreme. Everyday, we are being manipulated to think or believe certain things and we don't realize it. Simply watching a political advertisement can influence your beliefs and actions. I think Orwell is trying to scare readers into being more aware of how they are being influenced in their everyday lives, and he is very effective. It really makes you question every decision you make to believe something.
Emily, page 52 actually stood out to me as well. I wonder too, how these people could believe everything that the Party says and a quote that I thought was interesting is "...demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday... the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week." It's crazy that the citizens thank Big Brother for raising the ration when they heard just yesterday that it was actually reduced.
I was actually surprised by this passage as well. I find it surprising that no one even bothers to question it, but it also makes me wonder whether the government is doing something to their minds or if they're just THAT ignorant. It just doesn't seem likely to me that they would forget something that quickly.
In a way, the reaction of the people are similar to the animals from Animal Farm. They are ignorant when Squealer tells the lies about how well they are doing, just like the population from 1984 believes anything the Party says.
I see that both of you have used ignorant to describe the people in 1984. I'd like to remind you about motto "WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" From the start of the revolution the Party has been teaching the people to be ignorant, and by telling them these things the Party is capable of both lying and being at war or using slaves. Also this keeps people from questioning their authority when they perform these actions.
Emily, Syme is actually my favorite character in the novel because, even though his mind is filled with nonsense that's been stamped into his thoughts by the government, he isn't afraid to think like the other characters. Winston may be against the Party but he is too scared to do anything about it, even though he believes that he has come to terms with his death by writing in the journal. I was struck by how strongly Syme believed in his work but it made me sad because he is so unaware of how he endangers himself. He may be ignorant, but I'd rather someone have an opinion that they aren't afraid to voice instead of just hiding away like Winston. Syme is my favorite character because he is whole-heartedly dedicated to his life and job. In my eyes he is taking something negative and making it a positive. Sometimes ignorance is strength.
While reading this novel, I always find myself wondering how much of the government propaganda is true and how much of it is just made up so that the proles are “lashed into one of their periodic frenzies of patriotism” (149). Before, Winston had noted how important the proles were to government control- they make up most of the population of Oceania, so an uprising on their part would be a death sentence to the Party. The government knows this, and Julia speculates that the government itself fires rocket bombs so that people are frightened. Her theory makes sense; no one really knows if there isn’t a war, so they would naturally assume that the bombs come from enemy lines. If she is correct, then the bombs are a form of propaganda: the Party uses fear to make the proles look to the government for help and protection against Eurasia. However, firing bombs on its own people would also have its downsides. Obviously, the government is killing off members of a class that is essential to their power. Also, if too many people died, the proles might begin to wonder why the government couldn’t stop it. Firing the rocket bombs would destroy the Party’s image of being the only organization able to protect the people. Orwell deliberately confuses us as to the origins of the bombs to make us wonder about the strength and cruelty of the Party. It made me think about people today. How many people, especially those with power, exaggerate threats to inspire loyalty? How far will governments go to create patriotism? During WWII, even the US government created biased films about their enemies (like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNI4LBnMuzk). By making us wonder about the government’s role in creating enemies, Orwell is trying to reduce ignorance in society. But is simply speculating enough to make us immune to ignorance?
To go off of your question Laura, no, I do not believe speculation can make anyone immune to ignorance. You need to have a reason to question first, then you need to have outside information to prove another point of view. However, in the case of Oceania, there is no "other point of view" that the Party members or proles or most anyone for that matter, understand. Because of this, the rebels of the Party are still ignorant to the true workings of the governmnet and to the outside world, even though they have a sneeking suspicion that the Party is in the wrong. In this way, the rebels are still ignorant, despite the fact that they question parts of Big Brother's "plan."
Laura, I definitely think that the government makes up, or at least exaggerates, the war with Eurasia. First, nobody seems to know much about the war or its history except for the worthless information that they hear over the telescreen. Next, there are no soldiers in the novel. If Oceania is constantly being bombed by the Eurasian army, shouldn't there be soldiers filling the streets of London to protect it? To me, there seems to be very little actual evidence. If the government really does censor everything like Winston describes in chapter 4, then I wouldn't trust anything to be real. The Records Department changes the past and manipulates the people just like Squealer did when he changed the commandments. Winston and the other workers of that department are just like Benjamin and Muriel because they know everything it being changed but they do nothing about it. When everything you know isn't real, then your thoughts aren't real.
This past week, I was playing a game with my family and I saw a card that was a picture of a vase, but it was covered in eyes, looking in all different directions. My initial reaction was to connect it to this book, because Big Brother is always watching. It reminded me of not only the telescreen, but how Winston must feel every day, always looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re not being followed or stopping to make sure you’re not thinking about something you shouldn't. Winston’s inner paranoia is something that comes up a lot, especially in chapter 8.
While walking through the streets of where the proles live, he constantly wonders what the proles think of him being there and what other Party members would do if they saw him. He is in a constant internal battle with himself over what he wants to do and what is expected of him. He even says to himself that, “Not that there was any rule if walking home by an unusual route, but it was enough to draw attention to you if the thought police heard about it.” This shows that something as innocent as talking a long walk on your way home from work could be taken the wrong way. Winston is always walking on the line in-between what is right and what is wrong, in the eyes of the Party. Will he cross that line, or has he already? The Party is so influential in his life- it’s obvious that they do look down upon certain things, and people aren't expected to do anything that is different. Winston has struggled with this so far in the book and I am curious about what he does next and if it also threatens the rules of the Party.
So far throughout this book, I don’t believe that our world today is that similar to Orwell’s picture of the future. It’s true that the government does have an influence over us and its propaganda can make us think differently, but in our personal lives, it’s different. We don’t have screens in our homes that watch everything we do; In Orwell’s description, people have no privacy. In our world, we do. Some people even try to share everything about their lives on Facebook or Twitter, which contrasts from having the government do that without our permission. I read an article that agrees with me, here’s the link if anyone else wants to read it- http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-23/tech/tech_social-media_web-1984-orwell-cashmore_1_online-protest-sopa-share?_s=PM:TECH
Anna, to elaborate off of your connection to the vase and how Winston always feels watched, I think the government never stops pressuring the citiznes because the Party is afraid of loosing control. The government is a control freak and desperately wants to maintain a hold on the public. Because of this, everyone lives in fear, just like when Winston debates with himself whether or not walking a different way home is a bad thing. That's probably why he's paranoid, because he's so scared. Its a terrible government, and I would not want to be apart of it.
Anna, I've also noticed that Winston is having trouble deciding who's side he wants to be on. While he writes in a journal and can barely hide his hatred whenever he sees a picture of Big Brother, he is very proud of his job. In chapter 4, when Winston must remove Comrade Withers from Big Brother's Order of the Day he takes the task very seriously. Winston suspects that the man in the cubicle neighboring his, Comrade Tillotson, is also working on the same project and he begins to refer to him as "his rival". When Winston finally completes his story and sends it in, he feels "a profound conviction that it would be his own" to be chosen as the final change. This really struck me as I was reading because Winston is obviously more dedicated to the Party than he shows. It makes me question his reliability. What do you think?
In chapter 4, Winston goes into further detail about what exactly he does at his job at the Ministry of Truth. The first thing I found interesting about this passage was the irony. To begin with, when you hear the name, “Ministry of Truth,” you would expect that it would have to do with ensuring truth. When really, it erases the truth and rewrites history as lies for the approval of the government. It more likely should be called the “Ministry of Lies.” Did anyone notice any other irony within this chapter?
Another thing I found strange was how the people who worked at the Ministry of Truth knew what really happened in history and the lies that the government is programming into the rest of society’s minds, but yet they continue to do it and don’t do anything to stop it. They don’t do anything to try and stop the corruption and they’ll continue to comply with it as long as the government has their hold on them. One reason why I think the workers go along with it is because once the records are changed, there is no way to prove of the falsification. Which means they would have no proof to show the rest of society of the governments actions. Making the worker ultimately trapped into doing the work. Another reason why I don’t think any of the workers speak out is because the rest of society frankly doesn’t care, as Winston put it. As long as the government says its true, then the rest of society just goes along with what the government says because they don’t think it will affect them. When really, they are the ones being directly affected by it because they are the ones being lied to and cheated upon.
I feel like this job feeds onto Winston’s hatred for the Party and Big Brother because it shows him how corrupt and oppressive the government is. If Winston didn’t have this job, I feel like he would be as ignorant as the rest of society and would go along with it, instead of having thoughts of resistance. The Ministry of Truth shares a connection with one of Orwell’s other novels, Animal Farm, which also has a government who changes previous data to support the present. In Animal Farm, Napoleon, the leader, had Squealer rewrite previous statistics of the production of crops and the rations of food to make the other animals believe that this life was better than life with Jones. The ignorance of the animals and the falsification of the data ended up hurting the animals because they were tricked into slavery and hardship by being told lies that this life was better. I feel like this is a similar scenario in 1984 because in the end, the people are the ones who are going to end up getting hurt due to these lies told by the government.
After reading about the Ministry of Truth, I decided to research the statistics of how much people today trust their government to compare it to the people of 1984. I found this website which compares the trust in government over the years and how our trust is slowly shifting more onto other thing like the media: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jan/24/trust-in-government-country-edelman#data
A question that popped up while reading this chapter was why the Party members weren’t allowed to look at the sub-section Pornosec? Did it attach some demoralizing signature to whoever looked at it or is there a deeper meaning?
Maya, to respond to your first question on irony, I believe the entire government is ironic. First, they built their whole system on the belief that everything is better when in reality its all worse. Second, their branches, the Ministry of Love, the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Plenty and the Ministry of Peace, all perform tasks which are the exact opposites of their names. The Ministry of Truth creates a lie for the public (rewrites the past), the Ministry of Peace wages war, the Ministry of Love creates strict laws and orders for the citizens, and the Ministry of Plenty has not solved the devistating economic system in Oceania, since everything seems to be at a loss. Finally, Big Brother's name is an awful irony. A brother is someone who looks after the younger ones, is a role model, morally and intellectually, and strives for the best for others. However, Big Brother condemns his people and claims to be watching them all the time. The entire system he set up is ironic. Whats more, the public continually believes it and works with it.
Maya, the statistics you found are awesome! What a great idea and it definitely relates our world today back to the novel. Personally, I think people depend too much on the media in our society. People have really started to take for granted the freedoms and rights we have. While we have so many problems to fix within our government, there are very few who are even slightly qualified to try and tackle them because many do not even care about the government or understand how it works.
I also agree with the fact that the Ministry of Truth has a name that is very deceiving. However, I am confused. The Department of Fiction is the place where all history is rewritten to benefit the government. Why then would they call it the Department of Fiction if they want the people to believe that is not fiction but, in fact, truth? Also, The Ministry of Love is actually a hateful and terrible place. At the end, someone (I won't spoil anything) even says that the purpose of the Party is to eliminate all other feelings but hate. And yet I cannot seem to understand why they would call it the Ministry of Love in spite of the fact that they are trying to completely abolish love. Just a few things that baffled me...
In the beginning of the book the reader learns that Winston misses the sensations of sex and he describes his encounter with a prostitute. (page 67-69) Soon after, Winston begins to meet with Julia and his feelings about sex change. At first he had a strong desire and often felt lonely in his own home. When Winston starts his affair with Julia the urge is much less visible.
First, when Winston would meet Julia or sit across from her at a table, he was always scared that she might have changed her feelings about him. This seems unlike Winston’s strong sexual desires, and he mentions how he has lost his desires due to living alone for thirty years. This is when I realized that he is more interested in her as a person than he is in sex. As Winston makes his way through the streets in which the proles live he acquires a growing interest in certain people.
Julia is a young woman and had no way of knowing what life was like before the revolution. Julia tells Winston that she knew he was one of “them”(someone that disagrees with the Party) As Winston and Julia talk Winston becomes even more interested in her because she is a rebel to the Party. Julia shows Winston that people born after the revolution also feel rebellious. Also, the Anti-sex sash that she wears shows that she disagrees with the party because she tells Winston about how she has had sex “scores of times”.
Winston was also very interested in Mr. Charrington because of his age. He was born long before the revolution and was expected to have a good memory of what life was like before the revolution. Unfortunately for Winston, Mr. Charrington did not share much useful information. Winston was also very interested in the antiques at the shop that he bought the diary. It is clear that Winston is trying to get as much information about the past as possible.
Overall it is clear that Winston is interested in rebelling against the Party, and is unsatisfied with the revolution. I became very interested in past rebellions, revolutions, and their causes so I found a list of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions
I am wondering what you guys think on Winston’s obsession with rebellions, and if anybody has ideas of how it would be possible in this dystopia.
Chris, as I was looking at the link you posted, I noticed that many of the rebellions and revolutions that have happened in history are sparked by peasant revolt. When the majority of the population is lower class, that can cause anger and rebellion. This relates directly to 1984. In the first line of chapter 7, Winston states that "if there is hope it lies in the proles". If there were any possibility of a rebellion happening in the novel, I would predict that it would be caused by the proles. They make up most of the population and are treated as inferior. It wouldn't surprise me if they rebelled, we see it in history all the time. Because you are interested, here is a link I found. I think what it talks about agrees with the idea of a majority, lower-class revolt. http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Outline_of_Great_Books_Volume_I/aristotle_bdh.html
When I first began reading this chapter, I was under the impression that Winston had gone slightly insane. His thoughts and actions throughout this segment of the book indicate uneasiness and desperation. He is desperate to know the truth, since the word’s meaning has long been contorted, and he is uneasy that the Party will discover his need for that truth. In his desperation, his mind has taken a rebellious course which he cannot seem to control. The reason I think he is a little crazy is because he cannot seem to control his thoughts. He constantly has to swallow his emotions and sooner or later, all of that pent up anger, hate, love, and sadness will explode form his. Already, he is starting to use the journal as an outlet but I do not believe it will suffice. In this way, I believe Winston won’t last working under the Party much longer.
My second reaction to this chapter immediately followed my first. In Chapter 6, Winston is showing the first signs of pure rebellious thought. In the beginning of the chapter, he mentions the proles; “If there is hope [writes Winston] it lies in the proles” (pg 69). He believes that if the proles rise against the Party, then they can shake the government off “like a horse shaking off flies” (pg 69). Winston understands the fragile state the Party is in. They depend upon people such as the proles to provide soldiers and citizens to the country, even if the proles are deemed as low as animals. However, without the proles, there will be no stronghold for the Party to cling to. If Winston can rally up a force of proles, then he could overthrow the government and rid Oceania of Big Brother. This excites Winston because he wants to have a fair government that thinks of the people’s civil rights. As the chapter progresses, one can see that he begins to silently rebel against the government.
Finally, my last impression from Chapter 6 was the concept of truth. This chapter made me truly question everything that we know about ourselves, science, government and otherwise. Way back when in the 1400’s, it was the truth that the earth was the center of the universe, until Copernicus said otherwise. In the same time period, it was true that the earth was flat, until Columbus found America and Magellan sailed around the world. Similarly, in 1984, the Party claims that everything was improving. That “people today have more food, more clothes, better houses, better recreation - that they lived longer, worked shorter hours, were bigger, healthier, stronger, happier, more intelligent, better educated, than people fifty years ago” (pg74). But no one knows what life was like fifty years ago because the Party destroyed all evidence of the past and wrote and entirely new one to fit its needs. Because of this, the past is fake, it’s irrelevant. Only the present is right. But even then, the Party lies to the public, to their face, and says that everything is perfect. Everyone is living a lie but no one can see it because they have nothing to compare it to. This terrifies me because I compare that reality to my own. What if everything I have been told as a child is wrong? What if things we know now aren’t real? What is the real definition of good and bad? This chapter really makes me question my surroundings, just like how Winston questions the truths he’s told in his life.
To conclude, I would like to ask this question: Does anyone believe the Party is telling the public anything true? If not, why do you think they continue to believe it?
To answer your question, I honestly don't think that the Party tells the public any true facts. This is backed up by Winston's job, where he has to change the past to make it seem like the Party was right about something. Why the people continue to believe it, however, is a different question. I believe that the people believe the government not because they trust the Party, but because they have no other option. Even if they didn't believe it, what could they do about it? They don't know who is completely loyal to the Party and who isn't, so anyone who disagrees with the Party must keep their opinions to themselves. I hope that there are more people like Winston who don't concur with the Party's ideas and there is some way that they can get together and change them.
To me it seems that we aren't so far off from the state of Oceania, for example telescreens are every where capturing everything. Don't we have cameras that monitor everything that we do? Also people around us have camera phones that can record and take video. Winston's fears aren't far off from ours the constant feeling of being watched by everything. A good outside example of this is found during an episode of Doctor Who. He travels to earth farther in the future where there is a game show called Big Brother House and there are telescreens watching the contestants every move. The only way i can link something substantial is an eye that was on the telescreens always watching http://www.bigbro.info/img/logo.png. You wont believe what happens to the contestants when they get kicked off. They get vaporized, I think it is really cool that modern television shows can reference an older book. It would be interesting to see how you guys feel about this. As well during this episode you see that people have no knowledge of the earths past or just general knowledge around them which is a big part of this novel. Julia, Winstons sexual partner (this is all i can think to call her for the moment), is a gigantic contradiction and the entire feel of their relationship bothers me. Winston even says on page 126 that their first time have sex was "a political act" and while later he says that he now has feelings for her their relationship is only built on their hate of the Party. However, even that is a rouse as Julia only hates the party when it impedes her life and doesn't think about over throwing the party while Winston wants to completely over throw them. In addition, Julia does all these things to keep face while she breaks the rules but these things rub off on her as like i said she wants to keep the party. I can't even compare her to a Benjamin in Animal Farm as sometimes she doesn't even believe that the party is wrong. On top that she get all these items from the black market if this society is so all seeing even with the most careful person how has she not been caught? As well her military precision about their affairs are not the ones of someone who is in love, usually people in love don't think rationally. I think Julia is just a young child that wants to do something "crazy" and she isn't actually in love with Winston. Like Julia I still get an uneasy feel from Winston. He apparently can tell when people are going to get vaporized as Syme has. In addition, I still get the feeling that winston and women are not a good combination even though he isn't rude to Julia. "He remembered the half-darkness of a basement kitchen and a woman's cavernous mouth." Here Winston just compared Julia to a hooker that he slept with, I most certainly would not compare someone I saw to be a future girlfriend to a hooker. Maybe Orwell is trying to tell us just that though that Julia is in essence a hooker and will never amount to something substantial. However, I digress as well Winston's delusions about O'Brien while seem more solid now bothers me. In Conclusion, many things in this book still puzzle me but what puzzled me last week was answered in this weeks reading. In addition, How do you feel about Julia? Do you think Winston's and Julia's relationship will last?
As I read, I keep coming back to the idea of the Proles or Proletariat. At once, they seem both strangely familiar and hopeful. On page 71, Winston describes them: “…the care of home and children,…films, football, beer, and…gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.” I was struck by this as I read it because it sounded just like us today. We take part in all these things that are taught to be filthy and low in this dystopian society. For example, it seems that the government spits on the idea of love and family. Winston often describes how sex should be a duty and not at all positive, children are taught to turn their parents in to the thought-police, and how marriage between two people should not consist of any emotion. Every action preformed is simply a responsibility for the good of the party. When Winston mentioned the “care of home and children” in his description of the proles, I realized that this contributes to their lower status and makes them inferior. In modern history, the people of a nation will revolt if they feel like they are being treated unequally. This is the way of our nature; we know we deserve rights. So, how could we appear so similar to this “untouchable” prole class if they submit to this skewed government? Maybe I will be proven wrong in my further reading and the proles will rebel. In this way, I sense a small bit of hope trailing through the novel. Winston hints that he wants the proles to rebel because he believes they are the only ones who can overthrow Big Brother (and yet judging from Animal Farm, the only other Orwell book I’ve read, I’m not so sure this would happen or be successful). I really am curious as to how this story will play out. Will Winston lead a rebellion? Will the proles? Will a rebellion happen at all? Wandering away from my topic a little, I cannot help but feel sort of bad for Winston when I read. It seems like he wants to have natural human relationships. He wants companionship and emotion and yet he seems so scared and powerless under the reign of this government. I guess I feel bad for Winston rather than all the other powerless people that live under Big Brother because it seems like Winston is aware while everyone else is mindless and ignorant. Winston is tortured by his opposition to the Party because he can’t do much about it. He tries to fulfill his desires. He wanted to have more than detached intimacy with Katharine, but she rejects this. He writes his emotions down in a journal as a small form of rebellion, and yet he knows it will make no difference because if it is found the journal, and him, will be destroyed. I’m interested as to how Winston will act on his need for natural human tendencies.
Emily, I am wondering the same things about rebellion. The idea seems to be growing in Winston's mind, and as he talks about having nothing to live for he has a lesser fear of the punishments and vaporization. Also, he is encountering more and more people with similar ideas and may be able to "rally up troops" or create the "brotherhood" that Winston has heard about.
In the first half of this section I am surprised that Winston isn't using his journal. It was a staple of the story, Winston's way of defy the Party. Now he isn't using it at all and by that logic not defying in anyway. Unless he is turning into Julia and is defying by breaking rules. However, this doesn't feel like Winston while he isn't going to start a rebellion in my opinion his way of fighting back is not this. Still, it felt like he seemed to say that he didn't need to that the journal was his way of letting off steam and now he has Julia to do it with. Reinforcing my thought that Winston doesn't have the nerve to fight back he only wanted to let off steam. So then that begs the question if Julia for some reason slips up and gets caught how will Winston let off steam will he get go back to writing in the journal all the time. I am almost angry at Winston for not saying anything and just writing the journal but on the other hand in this section it brings up if Goldstein was created by the Party. I can not tell what to take as truth and what to take as something that is false. This makes it very hard for me to understand Winston and while you guys are saying he is crazy i just don't know! Its not like we are in this time period how can we judge there is nothing tangible for us to check. Another thing that interest me is Winston's mother. i believe she might be the reason for Winston's hate for women. Young Winston probably thought that she left him and later thinks of how she could have been vaporized and or put into forced labor. As well, the fact that it seemed his mother loved his sister more than she loved him could be a cause for his attitude towards women. However, he seems deeply sadden by the loss of his mother. Yet again this confuses me there is no way to predict what Winston will do next, he simply is not predictable. While I believe we could say Julia is predictable she is military in the core though we see times where she is vulnerable. All of her actions and directions towards Winston are this way like I said in my last entry is no way for a relationship to exist. There is an imbalance of power which means this is a relationship destined to fail. This attitude towards women surprises me though as his father left their family before his mother did so why does he not hate men? Though it could be argued that he does since he thinks they are inferior. I believe that what Julia says is true that the war is not on. We hear talk we even see prisoners but the rulers of Oceania for all we know could be ruling these other places as well. We don't see soldiers the only thing close to a military establishment is the spies but they are children. The war might just be too cover up the failures of the government but then I wonder why would they go through the trouble to switch from fighting Eurasia to Eastasia. Did the wars ever switch or is Winston crazy like my classmates have pointed out. Like I said before I really don't know and it bothers me. In the end I will just have to keep reading to find out, and thats what I will do. Do you guys think the war is real? What will Winston turn to when Julia goes away?
Zach I too found it interesting that Winston did not use his journal. At the start of the story it was often referred to and was just another way for Orwell to describe the dystopia. It seems as if the journal is becoming a less important part of the story.
In Chapter IV, we learn about Winston’s fear of rats. The idea of them being found in the room he rents is horrific to him, and he tells Julia this. (144) It made me wonder why he is so afraid of them, and I think that he is more subconsciously afraid of what they represent than the animals themselves. Rats often symbolize traitors in literature. Even today, a ‘rat’ is someone who betrays another person’s secrets. In Harry Potter, for example, the person who tells the secret of where Harry’s parents are hiding can turn into a rat. At this point in the book, however, Winston is starting to sympathize with traitors. He wishes that he and Julia can live in a different world, one not under the Party’s influence. This type of thinking would definitely be considered “thoughtcrime,” and they would be considered traitors by the government if they were to leave Oceania for another country. So why does Winston fear these animals associated with deception? I think Winston doesn't fear someone who betrays the government, but someone who betrays him and Julia. There are a number of people who could do so at this point in the novel, and I think that this is what he fears the most from human ‘rats.’ I wonder if Winston’s fear of rats will continue to play a part in the book. Personally, I think it will. Anna mentioned Winston’s ever-present paranoia, and I think that finding rats in his ‘safe’ room will only serve to increase that wariness. But I don’t think that will help Winston survive. It seems that to survive in Oceania, you have to be unaware of what is really happening around you. Being unaware of the real situation would make most people somewhat happy, I imagine, and from what we've read, most people seem to be in the dark. So, someone who appears to be visibly paranoid would most likely attract unwanted attention. In the end, I don’t think being wary will do Winston any good. What do you guys think? Will Winston’s decreased ignorance be beneficial or detrimental to him?
Laura, I love how you connected his fear of rats to the role of rats in literature in general. I almost feel as if, though he is obviously paranoid to the reader, others in his society are not aware of his constant wariness. We can see in the text that he's constantly aware of how he is being perceived by others, and how he modifies his appearance to fit the norm. Like back towards the beginning of the novel, when he says he wears a grin that is just happy enough so that those who watch through the telescreens would not be suspicious.
As I read further into the story and the idea of a rebellion started to grow in Winston’s mind and he encountered rebels I started to map out a rebellion in my head. I’m not talking about breaking a rule by having sex, or just thinking about a rebellion. As Winston meets people such as Julia and is able to become more connected to the past through antiques and old people there becomes more and more reason to rebel. That reason is what lies in the history, the amazing life that existed before the revolution.
One thing that I found interesting was that Julia was able to get her hands on things such as real coffee (page 141) or real chocolate that they ate in the clearing in the bushes. Julia says that she got them from the black market, however only “inner Party” members are able to have real chocolate or real coffee. I found this interesting because it comes to show that some of the “inner Party” members are not 100% loyal to the Party, and may too have thoughts of rebellion.
As many of you have mentioned, it is amazing that the people such as the proles, or the workers at the ministry of truth believe some of the documents produced. Some of them even altering the documents themselves believe what the Party has to say. For example, when they reduce the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams, and the next day people are overwhelmed that the Party has increased chocolate rations from 10 grams to 20 grams. Winston is somewhat special because he does not succumb to the ridiculous changes in the Party’s documents.
To find out why the people in 1984 are so ignorant I had to go back to chapter three. In chapter three the reader learns about doublethink. It is described as “as the ability to believe and disbelieve simultaneously in the same idea, or to believe in two contradictory ideas.” Doublethink allows the Party to keep the citizens under their control, and they are able to influence the citizens with slogans such as “WAR IS PEACE” or “SLAVERY IS FREEDOM”. Doublethink causes both workers at the Ministry of Truth and the citizens of Airstrip One to believe the Party’s records and show loyalty towards the Party.
This is a clear description of omniscient narration because it is clear that the reader knows of the lies that the Party produces; however the citizens of Airstrip One are completely unknowledgeable of the way they are being manipulated.
I know that I would despise a world in which Doublethink is real. How do you think doublethink would affect our society, if at all? And do you think that the government should be aloud to use doublethink in their favor? I find it inhumane to use doublethink against the citizens.
Chris, you say that you would despise to live in a world where doublethink is a real thing, but I'm not sure it's something that's completely fictional or made up specifically for this book. I'm sure that people in our government today constantly over exaggerate or under exaggerate in order to make something appear better or worse than it is. Isn't that sort of the same thing? While I agree that it shouldn't be allowed by anyone in a position of power, I can almost guarantee that a majority of the citizens aren't aware of the corruption going on behind closed doors, whether it affects them or not. Our country's government may not seem as bad as Oceania's, but could easily be putting on a facade for us without showing what's truly happening to the people who have a right to know.
In chapter 7, Winston spends a lot of time discussing the Proles and their role in society. He especially described how prominent their role would be in a rebellion against the government of Oceania. Winston tells readers that the Proles are an abundance of the country, about 85% of it's population and that they would be the key in a rebellion to overthrow the government. Winston also discussed the role of the Proles in everyday society. He basically describes them to be the physical labor and to me, the "family care". He says, "They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty" (p. 71). By the way that Winston describes them, he makes them seem almost as though they're disposable or just a small part of Oceania's society. I found this surprising because based on the numbers, they're actually the largest portion of it.
Something else I noticed in this chapter were the similarities between Winston and his coworkers and the Proles. While Winston is someone who does "office work", the Proles are the ones doing "physical labor". Other than that, I don't see much difference; both groups of people are, unfortunately, under almost constant scrutiny of the government and both are poorly rationed. Neither of them is treated fairly.
Today, I was actually just flipping through channels and I heard someone use the term "Orwellian Society" to describe what the United States was going to become in a number of years. Honestly, the idea of our society ever becoming as harsh as that of Oceania is scary, but with all the technology, as Zach said earlier, available for spying, there isn't really a way to stop it. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be under constant scrutiny by the government, but maybe that's where our society is leading. I have to admit I find it somewhat surprising that our government is getting more and more like Orwell's fictitious Oceania because you would think that through this book, they would realize that's not how anyone wants their government to be. It also makes me wonder whether or not the United States realizes how much tighter their grip of power is getting on the citizens of our country.
While reading 1984 for the past two weeks, I have connected it's plot mainly to Animal Farm. However, while reading last night I suddenly remembered a news story I had briefly seen a week or so ago. Recently, an Italian company has created clothing/department store mannequins who have cameras installed into their eyes. They use face recognition technology to determine the different features of the shoppers in the store. Although they were originally created to document what clothes are popular with different ages and genders, many people have stated that the idea of being watched while shopping is "creepy" and an "invasion of privacy". It is also stated that the company might create technology that gives the mannequins the ability to listen to conversations as well. The article can be found here: http://www.infowars.com/cameras-inside-mannequins-spying-on-shoppers/ The article mentions "Big Brother" a couple times, and compares the idea of being watched to it. This sort of technology, at first, could be helpful to businesses and companies to target their most popular demographics. However, the use of this technology could become a gateway to more intense technology, and could lead to something undesirable. I feel that in the world of Oceania, Big Brother must have possibly started out as a small institution, and slowly took over. This is something that I keep wondering through out the novel. How and why did Big Brother and the Party start? Who are the exclusive people that run it? In a normal society, it seems sort of strange that a whole nation could follow the rules of something that is fabricated out of lies. However, the thought of being "vaporized" and the fear factor that Big Brother serves condemn the people of the nation. What I found interesting in chapter 5, was when Winston was eating lunch with his coworker, Syme, (Winston's closest idea of a "friend") and their conversation on "Newspeak". Newspeak is the new language of the Party, and takes unnecessary words and deletes them from the Party's vocabulary. While Syme is glorifying the idea of Newspeak, he says that "by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?" Winston starts to object, with the Proles on his mind, but stops himself. Despite Winston never mentioning even the idea of the proles, Syme picks up on his statement and replies carelessly, "The proles are not human beings,". At that very moment, Winston guesses that Syme will eventually be vaporized. Syme soon starts going off about the future of language and literature, and Winston knows for a fact that he would be vaporized. He believes that he is too smart and that he understands things that many of the Party members would never understand. An example of an ignorant Party member is Parsons. Parsons is the father of the children that live down the hall from Winston, and he soon starts reveling in his children's success as Junior Spies. Winston can soon tell just who in the lunch room will be vaporized and who won't. The men who work without thinking will be saved, for they truly agree and believe in Big Brother and it's greatness.
In Isabel's last post, she mentioned that those who work without thinking will be saved, and I agree with that. I also believe though, that those who are smart enough to stay under the radar, or to much of a coward to rebel, would survive as well. One character I can relate this idea to is Benjamin from Animal Farm. He was clearly an intelligent animal, because he knew how to read just like the pigs. And because of his intelligence, he knew better than to go up against a power that he knew would destroy him. And with this, I can relate Benjamin to Winston, from 1984. Winston is clearly a cognitive member of the Party. He was strong enough to even open a diary in which he felt he could foster his own thoughts with his own control. And Winston is so aware of the acute mannerisms people have that would raise suspicion. Even just at a regular lunch with his "friend" Syme, he is analyzing the way he is speaking and predicting that he will soon be vaporized based off of keen awareness. The text states, "There was something subtly wrong with Syme", which reinforces the fact that Winston is a conscious thinker and not an unconscious one, which Syme so desperately desires to create with his refinement of Newspeak. Also, I thought it was really interesting when Syme had mentioned "duckspeak". He described it as a word that could mean two completely different things depending on the context- a contronym, much like the English word bolt or clip. I thought it was kind of interesting that he had pointed out this contradictory word because he himself is so against the idea of conscious thought, yet the fact that he contemplates the ironic status of the word "duckspeak" shows he must have been thinking abstractly. The word also made me think of the way in which the government addresses the people, in such a hypocritical and contradictory way. For example, with Oceania's production- if you are a common worker, you are told to believe that there was an overproduction of goods. But if you are on the other side, say a high government position, you would know that in actuality, no goods were produced at all.
Curious Jen that you are to mention contronyms. Theya re pretty much contradicting themselves, thus the name. Also, when you say the governmnet acts in a very contradicting way, I totally agree with you. Everything the Party claims to do, or does for that matter, is the exact opposite of what is expected from a functioning government. Even their slogans and ministries are contradictory; the slogans are paradoxes and the ministries perform the exact opposite tasks of what they are named.
Thoughts on Chapter 1 of Part 2- I found this entire chapter quite odd, because I felt like it went against what the narrator has tried to prove throughout the story so far. In previous chapters, Winston tried to make it clear that to live in this dystopian world, you had to be careful. There could be members of the Thought Police anywhere you went, so you had to make sure you weren’t followed and your thoughts were appropriate. However, this chapter went against all of that. The first example of this is when Winston was on the train, going to meet Julia. He was riding in a car with a family, and they were very open to him even though he could have been a member of the inner Party. They even told him that they were “going out to spend an afternoon with the “in-laws”… to get a hold of black-market butter.” I found this atypical because they had no idea who Winston was, but they told him of their journey to attain a product from the black market. The previous chapters of this book have expressed the importance of keeping secrets in a world like this, so this encounter confused me. Even Orwell knew that this was different, because he wrote that they “freely explained to Winston” their situation. Does anyone know why he wrote this family to be so trustworthy? I wonder why they would easily share something like this with a stranger.
Similarly, I found the scene with Julia to also be different from the rest of the story. As soon as they arrived in the clearing, Julia immediately began talking. Winston didn’t because he didn’t know if there were any hidden microphones, and I think that was smart to do. He eventually did talk, which I thought was weird. He was so quick to trust Julia, a fellow Party member because of his fascination with breaking the rules. The novel has stressed the importance of being careful, yet Winston easily breaks the law in this clearing without knowing if anything was watching or listening to them. As soon as she said that there was no one listening, Winston went from being hesitant to taking her hand without so much as a doubt. To me, Orwell made this chapter contradict the first part of the book, because being careful pretty much flew out the window.
The relationship between Julia and Winston reminds me of Romeo and Juliet, not because these characters are from opposing sides, but because they are “star-crossed lovers” in a way. Julia and Winston will never be able to be together because of the Party, who tries to destroy the joy of feeling love. I looked up a list of these couples and star-crossed lovers usually have relationships that are crushed because of “destiny.” In Shakespeare’s novel, that force was their families, but in this story, the Party definitely fits that role. That brings me to the question- will the relationship between Julia and Winston last? Or will the Party end it, just like they do with anyone who goes against them? (For the list of other star-crossed lovers, just to see if Winston’s and Julia’s fates will be anything like theirs, here’s the link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-crossed)
Anna, to answer your first question on why the familly was so trustworthy, I think it's because they are proles. A stated in previous chapters, they are not closely monitored by the governmnet as Party members are. The Thought Police do not frequent their lifestyles so they don't live in the same paranoid fear Winston does. However, I do find it odd that they express their feelings so openly to a Party member, since Winston was wearing the overalls. To answer your second question, I actually connected Winston and Julia to Katniss and Peeta from the Hunger Games. These lovers are living in Panam, a similar dystopia, though the governmnet is strictly oppressive and don't lie as much as the Party. However, Katniss and Peeta both rebel against the government and their affairs during the Hunger games are purely ppolitical acts. They are closely monitored by cameras, like the telescreens in 1984, and have to be very careful about what they say and do. Although not perfect matches, I think Winston and Julia are similar to Katiniss and Peeta because of their actions against their respectable governments.
Jen, I completely agree! I too was surprised and intrigued by the strange hypocritical statements and words that Syme was mentioning. Many aspects of Newspeak make little to no sense in our minds. However, Syme's enthusiasm and devotion toward it almost makes the reader believe that it is necessary. Words such as "ungood", "plusgood", and "doubleplusgood" are very strange seen out of context, and while reading the novel they, at first, make no sense. Syme's excuse of "limiting the vocabulary of the Party" is very odd. He believes that once the Party members speak only in Newspeak, they will end up thinking in only Newspeak as well. This proves his point that Newspeak is better than Oldspeak, for he says that Thought Crime would be impossible while thinking in Newspeak. This I was unsure about. Although words like "bad" and "great" would be removed from the dictionaries and the Party's vocabulary, the new words such as ungood and plusgood would take their place. Syme argues that the dictionaries get smaller and smaller, and this statement seems to be true. Even with the addition of ungood, many words such as bad, awful, faulty, and even sad would be removed. During chapter 6, I thought of the hypocritical ways of not only the government and those who abide to it, but Winston's hypocritical tendencies as well. The subjects of love and sex seem to be treated in many different ways. The Party does not encourage love, and rather intensely discourages it. If two Party members wish to get married, they must get accepted by the officials. However, if there is any evidence of an attraction between the two people, their request to get married is denied. Marriage is only for reproducing, and the act of reproduction is treated like a task for the government. This is shown when Winston reminisces about his absent wife, Katherine. Winston and Katherine would try once a week to get pregnant, and after it had not worked for a while, Katherine had left. Winston had remembered that Katherine was not bright at all, and had "without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her". This might be the reason why Winston feels attracted to the dark haired woman that he constantly sees around his work. Although she seems like an advocate for Big Brother and the Party, he feels that she is much more smart than his wife could ever be. Winston seems intrigued, and afraid, of those in the Party that are too smart for their own good. They pose a threat to themselves and others. This can relate to Animal Farm. In Animal Farm, once an animal (like Clover or Boxer) had suspected that something was wrong with the pigs' rule system, they were automatically given a well thought out response and proof that the pigs were, in fact, correct. Due to the fact that they could not argue their ideas, they were quickly silenced. This can also relate back to 1984 with the idea of changing documents and evidence to match what Big Brother's ideas are.
Entry 2 – Thoughts on Julia and Winston in *Part 2*
When Julia first came into the picture, I honestly believed that she was a part of the Thought Police. Over the course of the novel, Winston has described the Party as a deceptive agent with many spies everywhere watching your every move. Also, Winston has been committing some rebellious acts, what with the diary and then exploring the prole streets. However, he has not yet been vaporized or caught. But then Julia came into the picture. Although she seems perfectly harmless and on Winston’s side, her age, beauty, and rash actions against the government, coupled with a “sort of military precision” (pg 115), all point to her as a spy. All the Party does is vaporize people, but they have not yet been known to understand the thoughts of their “enemies.” In this way, I believe they are using Julia in order to gain information about certain rebels and see how they act. Also, Julia gains Winston’s trust instantly because she is the only other person (knowingly) with whom he can share similar ideas about the Party. But to add onto that relief, she claims to love him, which truly strikes his heart since he lives in a world where true love is outlawed. Due to these incidents, I do not trust Julia as a character, and I especially do not trust her with Winston.
But if Julia were not a spy of the government but just a girl, I don’t believe she is a real threat to the Party. Through all of her rebellious actions by stealing real sugar and coffee, having sex with Winston as a “political act,” and seeing him over the course of many months, they are all harmless for the government. If caught she will be punished, but she does not see the larger side of the confrontation. Julia believes that one can outwit the government and disobey them and that is all that is needed. She only cares how the government directly affects her own life, she does not bother with the entire scheme the Party proposes. Winston tries to explain the horrid corruptness of the Party to her but she brushes him off. When he says that the enemy (Euarsia and Eastasia) switched four years ago, she says, “it’s always one bloody war after another” (pg 154); when he tells her that airplanes weren’t invented in Oceania, she doesn’t care; when he reveals the story about Rutherford and his friends, she blows them aside, saying people are killed daily; and when Winston explains to Julia about the importance of the newspaper article and how it can disprove some of the Party’s claims, revealing a true past, she says, “I’m quite ready to take risks, but only for something worthwhile, not for bits of old newspaper” (pg 155). Julia refuses to think of the overthrow of the Party as a whole and what it could mean for the next generation. If the problem does not relate to her, then she does not see the point in going after it. In this way, I think she is not helping Winston in his rebellion against Big Brother. Yes, it keeps him silent but as a whole, but if he were to openly challenge the Party’s rule, Julia would not take part in the rebellion.
Winston and O'Brien's encounter in chapter VI seemed imminent from the first mention of O'Brien's character. Although brief, their interaction will no doubt lead into the climax of the plot and will either result in Winston's success or in his demise. Although I'd like to believe that O'Brien will be an ally in Winston's crusade against the Party, I am somewhat doubtful. Although I do think that O'Brien is definitely not an ordinary straight-laced Inner Party member, something about his character seems off. The way that Winston is so interested, one may even say obsessed, with O'Brien is worrisome and strange. This obsession, in addition to many other of Winston's peculiar characteristics, strengthens my belief that perhaps Winston's feeling of loneliness and despair has caused him to jump to conclusions about O'Brien without really thinking things through. Was it even really O'Brien's voice that he heard in his dream? Does it even matter? It's rare enough to find a Party member who shares the same resentment of the Party as Winston, much less an Inner Party member, and finding one who will actually admit it is basically impossible. Winston's irrational reasoning is due largely to his desperation to find another person who feels the same as he does, to know that he is not the only one who is unable to accept the injustices of the Party, to know that he is not alone in having a conscience and a memory. The whole introduction of Winston's relationship with O'Brien is peculiar to begin with, and Winston's fixation with O'Brien, while understandable, makes me question how accurate his assumptions about O'Brien actually are. Is Winston right in thinking he can trust O'Brien? Or is Orwell instilling the reader with doubt simply to communicate the constant suspicion that one must feel living in the world of 1984? Is there something more to O'Brien's communication with Winston?
In chapter 7, Winston writes down an entry from the textbook given to present day children in his journal, which was surely rewritten and edited by the Party. It makes sure to describe the times before the Revolution as “dark, dirty and miserable…where hardly anybody had enough to eat and where hundreds and thousands of poor people had no boots on their feet and not even a roof to sleep under,” (72) to make sure that nobody would try to change things back to how they used to be. The Party targets the children specifically by stating in the entry, “children no older than you are had to work twelve hours a day for cruel masters, who flogged them with whips if they worked too slowly and fed them on nothing but stale breadcrusts and water.” (72) The Party does this to ensure that the children reading this grow up with a burning hatred towards the past, thus motivating them to turn in any who look suspicious of wanting to return to previous lifestyle. They don’t know what really happened, all they know are what the bias entries from the textbook tell them. This contributes to the future of unconsciousness that Syme describes earlier in the chapter. However, Winston doesn’t buy into it. He still believes that the pre-Revolution times were better from what he remembers, despite any statistics fed to him by the Party.
After reading about the bias entries of the children’s textbook in this society, I decided to research bias entries in textbooks of our society. I found an article of a high school student claiming there to be political bias in a textbook: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24018762/ns/us_news-education/t/student-sees-political-bias-high-school-text/#.UOI7tUI1bFI This shows how our society today may not be so different from the society that Orwell has created in this novel.
One thing that I thought was interesting was how the Party decided to keep the part out about the jus primae noctis, the law from pre-Revolution times where every Capitalist had the right to sleep with any woman working in one of his factories, from the children’s’ textbook. From my understanding, they did this to prevent any provocative or seductive thinking in the children’s minds since they want to remove those thoughts from society. This is a vast contrast from the book, Brave New World, by Aldus Huxley. In the dystopia of Brave New World, the government actually promotes exotic thinking and tries to eliminate monogamy.
Another thing I found interesting was how Winston had the last bit of the catalogue memorized. It was most likely already programmed into his brain much like the other thoughts and aspects of his daily life. This shows how Winston is slowly gravitating towards the life of unconsciousness, giving him only so much time left of his own thought. He even foreshadows this loss of identity early in the novel when he mentions how his memory is slowly slipping away of how things used to be.
One question I pose to others is did anyone else notice the similarities between how the Party describes the past and how the current society is? They talk about how in the past people had barely enough to eat, when currently rations are diminishing. Or how children used to work 12 hours a day in bad conditions and only receiving water and bread, when in the present, children are still working long hours a day as spies for the government and receiving little in return.
In chapter one of part two, Winston agonizes over the note saying, "I love you," almost constantly as well as tries his hardest to find a way to talk to the woman who gave it to him, Julia. Towards the end of the chapter, after they meet in the square and are running from the criminals, they hold hands for about ten seconds. It says, "He had time to learn every detail of her hand. He explored the long fingers, the shapely nails, the work-hardened palm with its row of calluses, the smooth flesh under her wrist... In the same instant it occurred to him that that he did not know what color the girl's eyes were." To me, this quote shows how little Winston's interacted with humans, or at least had some physical contact with them. By the amount of small details he uses to describe Julia's hands, it makes it seem as though he is marveling at them instead of simply holding them. He describes them far more than I would be able to describe a hand, especially because he focuses on the smallest details.
Within this same passage, he discusses how he can't possibly look in her eyes in fear that it will give them away. This made me wonder how infrequently he must look into peoples' eyes and why this would be. One reason that I came up with was that in earlier chapters, Winston mentions how just one wrong look or move can sentence you to death. I just find this really sad, especially if they love each other and they can't even look each other in the eyes.
Something else I question in this book is whether or not these two people are ACTUALLY in love with each other. I find it somewhat surprising, to say the least. I can see that they would be physically attracted to each other, but by the way that Winston describes it, they don't really know each other at all. He was always questioning Julia's motives and if she was a member of the Party or not. He also never expresses his interest in her other than to protect himself. I also found it surprising that Winston trusted her so easily when they live in a society where virtually no one can be trusted, especially when they're constantly being spied on by their government.
I feel that through these blogs, we're sort of discussing the possibility of the United States becoming something similar to Oceania or an "Orwellian society". While at the beginning of the novel, I was sure that our country could never get this bad, now I'm not so sure. We're well on our way to a government that constantly spies on us and a world where you can't trust anyone in fear that they'll turn you in. As I read more and more of this book and compare it to our lives now, I'm beginning to see more and more similarities between the two societies. Like many of you have said, we're already being "spied on" in many ways, including security cameras, camera phones and, as Isabel said, even in shopping stores. So, I was just wondering what you guys thought; could the United States ever get to become a society like Oceania? Odds are that Oceania didn't start out as badly as it did, but probably progressed into the horrible society it became and while I'd hate it, I can imagine our country following the same pattern.
Kathryn, I do not really think that Julia and Winston are in love with each other. Winston refers to their meetings as "political acts", which I found a little horrifying. I think that what you said about Winston marveling at Julia's hands instead of holding them perfectly sums up human interaction within this novel. Winston is not socially awkward, he just has never really known what it is to be with another person, and he still doesn't. It's said that the "eyes are the windows to the soul", which is why the people of Oceania cannot look at each other. I cannot imagine how low morale must be among the people if they cannot even look at each other or smile at each other. Winston says that "if there is hope, it lies in the proles" but nobody will accomplish anything if they cannot band together. In Oceania, there is no sense of community because people must always shield their faces.
Entry #2, 1984-focus on the Records Department and censorship throughout the novel
If Winston hates the government as much as he tells himself, then why does he enjoy his job to much? This question was nagging me as I read through part two of the novel, so I went back and read chapter 4 again. At first, I thought I had misunderstood the tone of the chapter, but Winston really does take pride in his work. Every time he gets a new task, Winston feels like he is actively participating in the government. I thought he would be above that, considering how disgusted he is watching the public accepting everything the government tells them without question. It's not as if he is voting, he's further corrupting the public! It seems like there are some similarities between Winston and Mr. Parsons. By working for the government, they feel almost a part of it. However, this is just another mirage created by the Party, Winston still has no power.
What does Winston want? By writing in the journal, he was basically asking for death. Then, I thought Winston was dreaming of a full overthrow of his Brother, but now it seems like he only wants some representation in the government. He wants to be able to play an active part in deciding how his country will be led, and will jump at any chance that may allow him to do do, as seem in chapter 4. I just saw Les Miserables at the movie theater and was asking the same question. The rebels didn't really know what they wanted, their plan was not long-term. How could they expect their barricade to hold up against the French army? They were doomed from the start yet, in death, Enjorlas feels like he has done something very important and influential by holding up the flag bravely before he is shot. The government probably didn't think twice about the loss of a few young men in the film just as the Party does not have any personal interest in Winston.
I've concluded that Winston must only want representation because he really doesn't care that the government censors so many aspects of his life. Nobody seems to mind. The Ministry must support a huge labor force, all those people could band together and stop the censorship if they really wanted to. Winston really thinks that by changing the past, history, he is not making a difference: "most of the stuff you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world." He seems to have given up: "statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version." He may deny it, but the Party has made an impact on him and the way he thinks. Reading this novel, it completely goes against every value I have been raised with, all those "American" ideas like freedom and autonomy. I wish I had the opinions of students from other countries who have read this novel to compare to mine. For example, I know from hosting French students that asking for help is sort of looked down upon there. While we love individualism in the US, we also strongly depend on community and family. We are not afraid to admit our flaws and try to better them while in France you keep those things to yourself. To others, the novel could have a completely different meaning.
What I find truly fascinating about this society is the passiveness they possess towards the government’s manipulation. This is especially seen when right in the middle of Hate Week, the war has switched between being at war with Eurasia before and now with Eastasia. The citizens, right in the midst of a rally, do not even seem to question the change, but are only bewildered that they have made hate signs and posters with the “wrong” faces and names on them (pg 180). Of course, like in Animal Farm where Napoleon was always used as the scapegoat, Goldstein and his agents were put to blame, which doesn’t make any sense. This is either because the citizens are so ignorant that they do not realize that they truly had been at war with Eurasia just a few hours before, or they do know the “truth” (the truth only lies in their memory) and just avoid to acknowledge it in fear of being vaporized? I feel as though the second is the truer of the two. It’s amazing what far-fetched lies the general public is willing to accept when the fear of death is constantly being thrust upon you. No one dares questioning the way things are. Much like how Winston and many of the other Party members knew that the lottery figures were a total sham, but stayed silent because it is his duty to be submissive and thoughtless. I also feel as though it is not pure brainwashing and ignorance that keeps the citizens in check because of Julia. In the very beginning, she is seen as the definition of orthodoxy- a cunning, loyal, innocent, active Party member. She knows every slogan, every song. But then once she and Winston’s romance unfolds, we see that all along, though she put on the perfect face of loyalty, she is all but loyal. Her thoughts are completely Anti-Big Brother and she despises the system and lies that she was raised under. Because of her deceptive appearance, it is of my opinion that perhaps more citizens, perhaps even most, are of the same thinking, and are only staying silent to save themselves from vaporization, like Syme who was much to audible with his opinions. Also, the sudden and drastic change that occurred when Oceania had yet again switched sides immediately altered what was known as truth, another fascinating thought discussed in this book. Winston is bothered so much by the fact that because the government goes to such great lengths to alter or remove parts of history, he has no evidence of what the world was like before and whether they were better off. He is so frustrated towards the old man in the pub who cannot give him concrete historical opinions, only insignificant details of his life. Winston also treasures the glass coral paperweight he bought off of Mr. Charrington because it gives him a connection to the past, proof that something in another era existed, not only in the mind. “What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different from the present one.” (pg 96) And a small ripple in Julia and Winston’s relationship that I could detect was that she had no care for the fact that the past could all be a lie and nothing in history was for certain. Reading this from Winston’s perspective, I could almost feel his frustration at her lack of appreciation for anything concrete and true. She has no interest for the subtleties and complexities that was in Winston’s story of the 3 old men and the newspaper clipping which was his evidence, which greatly bothered Winston. From this you can tell that Winston’s mind is deeply rooted and dependent on the state of the past- He values knowing that what happened yesterday truly happened. This can only further be enhanced when he suggested a toast to “the past” when in O’Brien’s office. And I found it so interesting when he said that he did not mind being a lunatic in the eyes of others, he would mind if he were wrong. Perhaps this relationship he has with the events of the past is linked to the ambiguities related to his mother’s death and his insecurities that he possibly was the cause of her death.
Entry #1, 1984- focus on antique shop in chapter 8
ReplyDeleteWhile Mr. Charrington's antique shop has only been described over a few pages in the novel, I feel that it plays a large part in the novel. Winston is constantly battling himself as he contemplates the value of his own life and dreams of what it could have been if there had been no Revolution. He has a craving for the truth, not the fake stories that the Party is always creating. The scene where Winston accidentally stumbles back into the antique shop is my favorite so far in the novel because that small little run-down shack is Winston's little patch of heaven. The junk in that shop instills hope in Winston and he realizes that, while he often feels alone in his belief of a better life, he is not alone. Mr. Charrington reassures him that the world has not always been so dreary and bleak as it is now. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
When Winston was in the antique shop, I felt as if time had frozen in the novel. Mr. Charrington has been strangely unaffected by the revolution, except for the loss of his memory in old age. Sporadically throughout the story, the narrator seemingly becomes omniscient and we, the readers, are given a glimpse into Winston's thoughts. At these times, the mood is that of unbeatable oppression and I feel as if Winston is locked in invisible chains that he always has to drag around. Sort of like Jacob Marley from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. However, when Mr. Charrington speaks I do not get this feeling. He is unconcerned with Big Brother and has somehow built a life almost entirely free of his influence. When Winston mentions that there is no telescreen in his shop, Mr. Charrington speaks as if a telescreen was a extraneous material object for useless entertainment instead of an tool for the government to spy on you every second of the day, making a personal life almost entirely impossible. He says, "I never had one of those things. Too expensive. And I never seemed to feel the need of it, somehow." His response reminded me of the time I tried to explain to my grandpa what an ipad was. Similarly to Mr. Charrington, he thought it was a complete waste of money and couldn't see why you couldn't just use a computer instead.
This is the first time in the novel that we see Winston completely unreserved and, his memories may be blurry, but the antique shop rekindles something deep within him: "the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory." There seems to be a story that Winston has pushed to the back of his mind, and I'm excited to see how it is revealed later in the book.
Winston has finally found someone who may shed light on the past. In such dark times, Mr. Charrington's nursery rhyme has given him something to comfort himself with, like a child does. It is also important to notice that the song is about churches, a symbol of purity and innocence. Although, this song may also become the song of a revolt against the Party because, while it starts off describing beautiful church bells ringing, it ends with the chopping off of a man's head. The rhyme is a real song and you can read the entire version here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons
I think that as Winston's hatred of the Party grows, Mr. Charrington will remember more parts of the song during Winston's visits until they both reach the end- a new revolution. This song may be foreshadowing for Big Brother's demise at the end of the novel, or it may just represent Winston's childish foolishness. The shop, Winston can escape the Party, it is a portal to another world and another time.
In chapter 5, the introduction of Syme portrays the idea that Newspeak may be used as a manipulative tool and that simply having an opinion is prohibited. On page 52, we see how Newspeak can be used to eliminate thoughtcrime, the act of thinking anything that Big Brother wouldn't approve of: "... we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it". Here, the idea of government control is reinforced with the implication that now, even thinking can be controlled. This is ironic because in the beginning if the book, Winston mentions how he believes only his thoughts are safe, and now they no longer are. The theory is that if there is no name or word to put to a thought, it cannot be and, therefore, does not exist. This emphasizes that the government is controlling and manipulative and they are extremely tricky in their way of doing it because they make the people believe it is beneficial to them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Winston presents the interesting notion that Syme will be vaporized simply for having an opinion, even though his opinion is one that completely agrees with the government and promotes Big Brother. This shows how, to the government, any kind of intelligence is dangerous and all ignorance is crucial because it allows them to get away with anything they want and still maintain extreme power and devotion. But how could a population of people become so easily manipulated?
I think that this novel relates to today's world, even though the book is at a greater extreme. Everyday, we are being manipulated to think or believe certain things and we don't realize it. Simply watching a political advertisement can influence your beliefs and actions. I think Orwell is trying to scare readers into being more aware of how they are being influenced in their everyday lives, and he is very effective. It really makes you question every decision you make to believe something.
Emily, page 52 actually stood out to me as well. I wonder too, how these people could believe everything that the Party says and a quote that I thought was interesting is "...demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday... the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week." It's crazy that the citizens thank Big Brother for raising the ration when they heard just yesterday that it was actually reduced.
DeleteI was actually surprised by this passage as well. I find it surprising that no one even bothers to question it, but it also makes me wonder whether the government is doing something to their minds or if they're just THAT ignorant. It just doesn't seem likely to me that they would forget something that quickly.
DeleteIn a way, the reaction of the people are similar to the animals from Animal Farm. They are ignorant when Squealer tells the lies about how well they are doing, just like the population from 1984 believes anything the Party says.
DeleteI see that both of you have used ignorant to describe the people in 1984. I'd like to remind you about motto "WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" From the start of the revolution the Party has been teaching the people to be ignorant, and by telling them these things the Party is capable of both lying and being at war or using slaves. Also this keeps people from questioning their authority when they perform these actions.
DeleteEmily, Syme is actually my favorite character in the novel because, even though his mind is filled with nonsense that's been stamped into his thoughts by the government, he isn't afraid to think like the other characters. Winston may be against the Party but he is too scared to do anything about it, even though he believes that he has come to terms with his death by writing in the journal. I was struck by how strongly Syme believed in his work but it made me sad because he is so unaware of how he endangers himself. He may be ignorant, but I'd rather someone have an opinion that they aren't afraid to voice instead of just hiding away like Winston. Syme is my favorite character because he is whole-heartedly dedicated to his life and job. In my eyes he is taking something negative and making it a positive. Sometimes ignorance is strength.
DeleteWhile reading this novel, I always find myself wondering how much of the government propaganda is true and how much of it is just made up so that the proles are “lashed into one of their periodic frenzies of patriotism” (149). Before, Winston had noted how important the proles were to government control- they make up most of the population of Oceania, so an uprising on their part would be a death sentence to the Party.
ReplyDeleteThe government knows this, and Julia speculates that the government itself fires rocket bombs so that people are frightened. Her theory makes sense; no one really knows if there isn’t a war, so they would naturally assume that the bombs come from enemy lines. If she is correct, then the bombs are a form of propaganda: the Party uses fear to make the proles look to the government for help and protection against Eurasia.
However, firing bombs on its own people would also have its downsides. Obviously, the government is killing off members of a class that is essential to their power. Also, if too many people died, the proles might begin to wonder why the government couldn’t stop it. Firing the rocket bombs would destroy the Party’s image of being the only organization able to protect the people.
Orwell deliberately confuses us as to the origins of the bombs to make us wonder about the strength and cruelty of the Party. It made me think about people today. How many people, especially those with power, exaggerate threats to inspire loyalty? How far will governments go to create patriotism? During WWII, even the US government created biased films about their enemies (like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNI4LBnMuzk). By making us wonder about the government’s role in creating enemies, Orwell is trying to reduce ignorance in society. But is simply speculating enough to make us immune to ignorance?
To go off of your question Laura, no, I do not believe speculation can make anyone immune to ignorance. You need to have a reason to question first, then you need to have outside information to prove another point of view. However, in the case of Oceania, there is no "other point of view" that the Party members or proles or most anyone for that matter, understand. Because of this, the rebels of the Party are still ignorant to the true workings of the governmnet and to the outside world, even though they have a sneeking suspicion that the Party is in the wrong. In this way, the rebels are still ignorant, despite the fact that they question parts of Big Brother's "plan."
DeleteLaura, I definitely think that the government makes up, or at least exaggerates, the war with Eurasia. First, nobody seems to know much about the war or its history except for the worthless information that they hear over the telescreen. Next, there are no soldiers in the novel. If Oceania is constantly being bombed by the Eurasian army, shouldn't there be soldiers filling the streets of London to protect it? To me, there seems to be very little actual evidence. If the government really does censor everything like Winston describes in chapter 4, then I wouldn't trust anything to be real. The Records Department changes the past and manipulates the people just like Squealer did when he changed the commandments. Winston and the other workers of that department are just like Benjamin and Muriel because they know everything it being changed but they do nothing about it. When everything you know isn't real, then your thoughts aren't real.
DeleteThis past week, I was playing a game with my family and I saw a card that was a picture of a vase, but it was covered in eyes, looking in all different directions. My initial reaction was to connect it to this book, because Big Brother is always watching. It reminded me of not only the telescreen, but how Winston must feel every day, always looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re not being followed or stopping to make sure you’re not thinking about something you shouldn't. Winston’s inner paranoia is something that comes up a lot, especially in chapter 8.
ReplyDeleteWhile walking through the streets of where the proles live, he constantly wonders what the proles think of him being there and what other Party members would do if they saw him. He is in a constant internal battle with himself over what he wants to do and what is expected of him. He even says to himself that, “Not that there was any rule if walking home by an unusual route, but it was enough to draw attention to you if the thought police heard about it.” This shows that something as innocent as talking a long walk on your way home from work could be taken the wrong way. Winston is always walking on the line in-between what is right and what is wrong, in the eyes of the Party. Will he cross that line, or has he already? The Party is so influential in his life- it’s obvious that they do look down upon certain things, and people aren't expected to do anything that is different. Winston has struggled with this so far in the book and I am curious about what he does next and if it also threatens the rules of the Party.
So far throughout this book, I don’t believe that our world today is that similar to Orwell’s picture of the future. It’s true that the government does have an influence over us and its propaganda can make us think differently, but in our personal lives, it’s different. We don’t have screens in our homes that watch everything we do; In Orwell’s description, people have no privacy. In our world, we do. Some people even try to share everything about their lives on Facebook or Twitter, which contrasts from having the government do that without our permission. I read an article that agrees with me, here’s the link if anyone else wants to read it- http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-23/tech/tech_social-media_web-1984-orwell-cashmore_1_online-protest-sopa-share?_s=PM:TECH
Anna, to elaborate off of your connection to the vase and how Winston always feels watched, I think the government never stops pressuring the citiznes because the Party is afraid of loosing control. The government is a control freak and desperately wants to maintain a hold on the public. Because of this, everyone lives in fear, just like when Winston debates with himself whether or not walking a different way home is a bad thing. That's probably why he's paranoid, because he's so scared. Its a terrible government, and I would not want to be apart of it.
DeleteAnna, I've also noticed that Winston is having trouble deciding who's side he wants to be on. While he writes in a journal and can barely hide his hatred whenever he sees a picture of Big Brother, he is very proud of his job. In chapter 4, when Winston must remove Comrade Withers from Big Brother's Order of the Day he takes the task very seriously. Winston suspects that the man in the cubicle neighboring his, Comrade Tillotson, is also working on the same project and he begins to refer to him as "his rival". When Winston finally completes his story and sends it in, he feels "a profound conviction that it would be his own" to be chosen as the final change. This really struck me as I was reading because Winston is obviously more dedicated to the Party than he shows. It makes me question his reliability. What do you think?
DeleteEntry 1- 1984- Thoughts on the Ministry of Truth
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 4, Winston goes into further detail about what exactly he does at his job at the Ministry of Truth. The first thing I found interesting about this passage was the irony. To begin with, when you hear the name, “Ministry of Truth,” you would expect that it would have to do with ensuring truth. When really, it erases the truth and rewrites history as lies for the approval of the government. It more likely should be called the “Ministry of Lies.” Did anyone notice any other irony within this chapter?
Another thing I found strange was how the people who worked at the Ministry of Truth knew what really happened in history and the lies that the government is programming into the rest of society’s minds, but yet they continue to do it and don’t do anything to stop it. They don’t do anything to try and stop the corruption and they’ll continue to comply with it as long as the government has their hold on them. One reason why I think the workers go along with it is because once the records are changed, there is no way to prove of the falsification. Which means they would have no proof to show the rest of society of the governments actions. Making the worker ultimately trapped into doing the work. Another reason why I don’t think any of the workers speak out is because the rest of society frankly doesn’t care, as Winston put it. As long as the government says its true, then the rest of society just goes along with what the government says because they don’t think it will affect them. When really, they are the ones being directly affected by it because they are the ones being lied to and cheated upon.
I feel like this job feeds onto Winston’s hatred for the Party and Big Brother because it shows him how corrupt and oppressive the government is. If Winston didn’t have this job, I feel like he would be as ignorant as the rest of society and would go along with it, instead of having thoughts of resistance.
The Ministry of Truth shares a connection with one of Orwell’s other novels, Animal Farm, which also has a government who changes previous data to support the present. In Animal Farm, Napoleon, the leader, had Squealer rewrite previous statistics of the production of crops and the rations of food to make the other animals believe that this life was better than life with Jones. The ignorance of the animals and the falsification of the data ended up hurting the animals because they were tricked into slavery and hardship by being told lies that this life was better. I feel like this is a similar scenario in 1984 because in the end, the people are the ones who are going to end up getting hurt due to these lies told by the government.
After reading about the Ministry of Truth, I decided to research the statistics of how much people today trust their government to compare it to the people of 1984. I found this website which compares the trust in government over the years and how our trust is slowly shifting more onto other thing like the media: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jan/24/trust-in-government-country-edelman#data
A question that popped up while reading this chapter was why the Party members weren’t allowed to look at the sub-section Pornosec? Did it attach some demoralizing signature to whoever looked at it or is there a deeper meaning?
Maya, to respond to your first question on irony, I believe the entire government is ironic. First, they built their whole system on the belief that everything is better when in reality its all worse. Second, their branches, the Ministry of Love, the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Plenty and the Ministry of Peace, all perform tasks which are the exact opposites of their names. The Ministry of Truth creates a lie for the public (rewrites the past), the Ministry of Peace wages war, the Ministry of Love creates strict laws and orders for the citizens, and the Ministry of Plenty has not solved the devistating economic system in Oceania, since everything seems to be at a loss. Finally, Big Brother's name is an awful irony. A brother is someone who looks after the younger ones, is a role model, morally and intellectually, and strives for the best for others. However, Big Brother condemns his people and claims to be watching them all the time. The entire system he set up is ironic. Whats more, the public continually believes it and works with it.
DeleteMaya, the statistics you found are awesome! What a great idea and it definitely relates our world today back to the novel. Personally, I think people depend too much on the media in our society. People have really started to take for granted the freedoms and rights we have. While we have so many problems to fix within our government, there are very few who are even slightly qualified to try and tackle them because many do not even care about the government or understand how it works.
DeleteI also agree with the fact that the Ministry of Truth has a name that is very deceiving. However, I am confused. The Department of Fiction is the place where all history is rewritten to benefit the government. Why then would they call it the Department of Fiction if they want the people to believe that is not fiction but, in fact, truth? Also, The Ministry of Love is actually a hateful and terrible place. At the end, someone (I won't spoil anything) even says that the purpose of the Party is to eliminate all other feelings but hate. And yet I cannot seem to understand why they would call it the Ministry of Love in spite of the fact that they are trying to completely abolish love. Just a few things that baffled me...
Delete1984 – Winston’s reactions about love
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the book the reader learns that Winston misses the sensations of sex and he describes his encounter with a prostitute. (page 67-69) Soon after, Winston begins to meet with Julia and his feelings about sex change. At first he had a strong desire and often felt lonely in his own home. When Winston starts his affair with Julia the urge is much less visible.
First, when Winston would meet Julia or sit across from her at a table, he was always scared that she might have changed her feelings about him. This seems unlike Winston’s strong sexual desires, and he mentions how he has lost his desires due to living alone for thirty years. This is when I realized that he is more interested in her as a person than he is in sex. As Winston makes his way through the streets in which the proles live he acquires a growing interest in certain people.
Julia is a young woman and had no way of knowing what life was like before the revolution. Julia tells Winston that she knew he was one of “them”(someone that disagrees with the Party) As Winston and Julia talk Winston becomes even more interested in her because she is a rebel to the Party. Julia shows Winston that people born after the revolution also feel rebellious. Also, the Anti-sex sash that she wears shows that she disagrees with the party because she tells Winston about how she has had sex “scores of times”.
Winston was also very interested in Mr. Charrington because of his age. He was born long before the revolution and was expected to have a good memory of what life was like before the revolution. Unfortunately for Winston, Mr. Charrington did not share much useful information. Winston was also very interested in the antiques at the shop that he bought the diary. It is clear that Winston is trying to get as much information about the past as possible.
Overall it is clear that Winston is interested in rebelling against the Party, and is unsatisfied with the revolution. I became very interested in past rebellions, revolutions, and their causes so I found a list of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions
I am wondering what you guys think on Winston’s obsession with rebellions, and if anybody has ideas of how it would be possible in this dystopia.
Chris, as I was looking at the link you posted, I noticed that many of the rebellions and revolutions that have happened in history are sparked by peasant revolt. When the majority of the population is lower class, that can cause anger and rebellion. This relates directly to 1984. In the first line of chapter 7, Winston states that "if there is hope it lies in the proles". If there were any possibility of a rebellion happening in the novel, I would predict that it would be caused by the proles. They make up most of the population and are treated as inferior. It wouldn't surprise me if they rebelled, we see it in history all the time.
DeleteBecause you are interested, here is a link I found. I think what it talks about agrees with the idea of a majority, lower-class revolt.
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Outline_of_Great_Books_Volume_I/aristotle_bdh.html
Entry 1 – Thoughts on *Chapter 6*
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began reading this chapter, I was under the impression that Winston had gone slightly insane. His thoughts and actions throughout this segment of the book indicate uneasiness and desperation. He is desperate to know the truth, since the word’s meaning has long been contorted, and he is uneasy that the Party will discover his need for that truth. In his desperation, his mind has taken a rebellious course which he cannot seem to control. The reason I think he is a little crazy is because he cannot seem to control his thoughts. He constantly has to swallow his emotions and sooner or later, all of that pent up anger, hate, love, and sadness will explode form his. Already, he is starting to use the journal as an outlet but I do not believe it will suffice. In this way, I believe Winston won’t last working under the Party much longer.
My second reaction to this chapter immediately followed my first. In Chapter 6, Winston is showing the first signs of pure rebellious thought. In the beginning of the chapter, he mentions the proles; “If there is hope [writes Winston] it lies in the proles” (pg 69). He believes that if the proles rise against the Party, then they can shake the government off “like a horse shaking off flies” (pg 69). Winston understands the fragile state the Party is in. They depend upon people such as the proles to provide soldiers and citizens to the country, even if the proles are deemed as low as animals. However, without the proles, there will be no stronghold for the Party to cling to. If Winston can rally up a force of proles, then he could overthrow the government and rid Oceania of Big Brother. This excites Winston because he wants to have a fair government that thinks of the people’s civil rights. As the chapter progresses, one can see that he begins to silently rebel against the government.
Finally, my last impression from Chapter 6 was the concept of truth. This chapter made me truly question everything that we know about ourselves, science, government and otherwise. Way back when in the 1400’s, it was the truth that the earth was the center of the universe, until Copernicus said otherwise. In the same time period, it was true that the earth was flat, until Columbus found America and Magellan sailed around the world. Similarly, in 1984, the Party claims that everything was improving. That “people today have more food, more clothes, better houses, better recreation - that they lived longer, worked shorter hours, were bigger, healthier, stronger, happier, more intelligent, better educated, than people fifty years ago” (pg74). But no one knows what life was like fifty years ago because the Party destroyed all evidence of the past and wrote and entirely new one to fit its needs. Because of this, the past is fake, it’s irrelevant. Only the present is right. But even then, the Party lies to the public, to their face, and says that everything is perfect. Everyone is living a lie but no one can see it because they have nothing to compare it to. This terrifies me because I compare that reality to my own. What if everything I have been told as a child is wrong? What if things we know now aren’t real? What is the real definition of good and bad? This chapter really makes me question my surroundings, just like how Winston questions the truths he’s told in his life.
To conclude, I would like to ask this question: Does anyone believe the Party is telling the public anything true? If not, why do you think they continue to believe it?
To answer your question, I honestly don't think that the Party tells the public any true facts. This is backed up by Winston's job, where he has to change the past to make it seem like the Party was right about something. Why the people continue to believe it, however, is a different question. I believe that the people believe the government not because they trust the Party, but because they have no other option. Even if they didn't believe it, what could they do about it? They don't know who is completely loyal to the Party and who isn't, so anyone who disagrees with the Party must keep their opinions to themselves. I hope that there are more people like Winston who don't concur with the Party's ideas and there is some way that they can get together and change them.
DeleteTo me it seems that we aren't so far off from the state of Oceania, for example telescreens are every where capturing everything. Don't we have cameras that monitor everything that we do? Also people around us have camera phones that can record and take video. Winston's fears aren't far off from ours the constant feeling of being watched by everything. A good outside example of this is found during an episode of Doctor Who. He travels to earth farther in the future where there is a game show called Big Brother House and there are telescreens watching the contestants every move. The only way i can link something substantial is an eye that was on the telescreens always watching http://www.bigbro.info/img/logo.png. You wont believe what happens to the contestants when they get kicked off. They get vaporized, I think it is really cool that modern television shows can reference an older book. It would be interesting to see how you guys feel about this. As well during this episode you see that people have no knowledge of the earths past or just general knowledge around them which is a big part of this novel.
ReplyDeleteJulia, Winstons sexual partner (this is all i can think to call her for the moment), is a gigantic contradiction and the entire feel of their relationship bothers me. Winston even says on page 126 that their first time have sex was "a political act" and while later he says that he now has feelings for her their relationship is only built on their hate of the Party. However, even that is a rouse as Julia only hates the party when it impedes her life and doesn't think about over throwing the party while Winston wants to completely over throw them. In addition, Julia does all these things to keep face while she breaks the rules but these things rub off on her as like i said she wants to keep the party. I can't even compare her to a Benjamin in Animal Farm as sometimes she doesn't even believe that the party is wrong. On top that she get all these items from the black market if this society is so all seeing even with the most careful person how has she not been caught? As well her military precision about their affairs are not the ones of someone who is in love, usually people in love don't think rationally. I think Julia is just a young child that wants to do something "crazy" and she isn't actually in love with Winston.
Like Julia I still get an uneasy feel from Winston. He apparently can tell when people are going to get vaporized as Syme has. In addition, I still get the feeling that winston and women are not a good combination even though he isn't rude to Julia. "He remembered the half-darkness of a basement kitchen and a woman's cavernous mouth." Here Winston just compared Julia to a hooker that he slept with, I most certainly would not compare someone I saw to be a future girlfriend to a hooker. Maybe Orwell is trying to tell us just that though that Julia is in essence a hooker and will never amount to something substantial. However, I digress as well Winston's delusions about O'Brien while seem more solid now bothers me.
In Conclusion, many things in this book still puzzle me but what puzzled me last week was answered in this weeks reading. In addition, How do you feel about Julia? Do you think Winston's and Julia's relationship will last?
As I read, I keep coming back to the idea of the Proles or Proletariat. At once, they seem both strangely familiar and hopeful. On page 71, Winston describes them: “…the care of home and children,…films, football, beer, and…gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.” I was struck by this as I read it because it sounded just like us today. We take part in all these things that are taught to be filthy and low in this dystopian society. For example, it seems that the government spits on the idea of love and family. Winston often describes how sex should be a duty and not at all positive, children are taught to turn their parents in to the thought-police, and how marriage between two people should not consist of any emotion. Every action preformed is simply a responsibility for the good of the party. When Winston mentioned the “care of home and children” in his description of the proles, I realized that this contributes to their lower status and makes them inferior.
ReplyDeleteIn modern history, the people of a nation will revolt if they feel like they are being treated unequally. This is the way of our nature; we know we deserve rights. So, how could we appear so similar to this “untouchable” prole class if they submit to this skewed government? Maybe I will be proven wrong in my further reading and the proles will rebel. In this way, I sense a small bit of hope trailing through the novel. Winston hints that he wants the proles to rebel because he believes they are the only ones who can overthrow Big Brother (and yet judging from Animal Farm, the only other Orwell book I’ve read, I’m not so sure this would happen or be successful). I really am curious as to how this story will play out. Will Winston lead a rebellion? Will the proles? Will a rebellion happen at all?
Wandering away from my topic a little, I cannot help but feel sort of bad for Winston when I read. It seems like he wants to have natural human relationships. He wants companionship and emotion and yet he seems so scared and powerless under the reign of this government. I guess I feel bad for Winston rather than all the other powerless people that live under Big Brother because it seems like Winston is aware while everyone else is mindless and ignorant. Winston is tortured by his opposition to the Party because he can’t do much about it. He tries to fulfill his desires. He wanted to have more than detached intimacy with Katharine, but she rejects this. He writes his emotions down in a journal as a small form of rebellion, and yet he knows it will make no difference because if it is found the journal, and him, will be destroyed. I’m interested as to how Winston will act on his need for natural human tendencies.
Emily, I am wondering the same things about rebellion. The idea seems to be growing in Winston's mind, and as he talks about having nothing to live for he has a lesser fear of the punishments and vaporization. Also, he is encountering more and more people with similar ideas and may be able to "rally up troops" or create the "brotherhood" that Winston has heard about.
DeleteIn the first half of this section I am surprised that Winston isn't using his journal. It was a staple of the story, Winston's way of defy the Party. Now he isn't using it at all and by that logic not defying in anyway. Unless he is turning into Julia and is defying by breaking rules. However, this doesn't feel like Winston while he isn't going to start a rebellion in my opinion his way of fighting back is not this. Still, it felt like he seemed to say that he didn't need to that the journal was his way of letting off steam and now he has Julia to do it with. Reinforcing my thought that Winston doesn't have the nerve to fight back he only wanted to let off steam. So then that begs the question if Julia for some reason slips up and gets caught how will Winston let off steam will he get go back to writing in the journal all the time. I am almost angry at Winston for not saying anything and just writing the journal but on the other hand in this section it brings up if Goldstein was created by the Party. I can not tell what to take as truth and what to take as something that is false. This makes it very hard for me to understand Winston and while you guys are saying he is crazy i just don't know! Its not like we are in this time period how can we judge there is nothing tangible for us to check.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that interest me is Winston's mother. i believe she might be the reason for Winston's hate for women. Young Winston probably thought that she left him and later thinks of how she could have been vaporized and or put into forced labor. As well, the fact that it seemed his mother loved his sister more than she loved him could be a cause for his attitude towards women. However, he seems deeply sadden by the loss of his mother. Yet again this confuses me there is no way to predict what Winston will do next, he simply is not predictable. While I believe we could say Julia is predictable she is military in the core though we see times where she is vulnerable. All of her actions and directions towards Winston are this way like I said in my last entry is no way for a relationship to exist. There is an imbalance of power which means this is a relationship destined to fail. This attitude towards women surprises me though as his father left their family before his mother did so why does he not hate men? Though it could be argued that he does since he thinks they are inferior.
I believe that what Julia says is true that the war is not on. We hear talk we even see prisoners but the rulers of Oceania for all we know could be ruling these other places as well. We don't see soldiers the only thing close to a military establishment is the spies but they are children. The war might just be too cover up the failures of the government but then I wonder why would they go through the trouble to switch from fighting Eurasia to Eastasia. Did the wars ever switch or is Winston crazy like my classmates have pointed out. Like I said before I really don't know and it bothers me.
In the end I will just have to keep reading to find out, and thats what I will do. Do you guys think the war is real? What will Winston turn to when Julia goes away?
Zach I too found it interesting that Winston did not use his journal. At the start of the story it was often referred to and was just another way for Orwell to describe the dystopia. It seems as if the journal is becoming a less important part of the story.
DeleteIn Chapter IV, we learn about Winston’s fear of rats. The idea of them being found in the room he rents is horrific to him, and he tells Julia this. (144) It made me wonder why he is so afraid of them, and I think that he is more subconsciously afraid of what they represent than the animals themselves. Rats often symbolize traitors in literature. Even today, a ‘rat’ is someone who betrays another person’s secrets. In Harry Potter, for example, the person who tells the secret of where Harry’s parents are hiding can turn into a rat.
ReplyDeleteAt this point in the book, however, Winston is starting to sympathize with traitors. He wishes that he and Julia can live in a different world, one not under the Party’s influence. This type of thinking would definitely be considered “thoughtcrime,” and they would be considered traitors by the government if they were to leave Oceania for another country.
So why does Winston fear these animals associated with deception? I think Winston doesn't fear someone who betrays the government, but someone who betrays him and Julia. There are a number of people who could do so at this point in the novel, and I think that this is what he fears the most from human ‘rats.’
I wonder if Winston’s fear of rats will continue to play a part in the book. Personally, I think it will. Anna mentioned Winston’s ever-present paranoia, and I think that finding rats in his ‘safe’ room will only serve to increase that wariness. But I don’t think that will help Winston survive. It seems that to survive in Oceania, you have to be unaware of what is really happening around you. Being unaware of the real situation would make most people somewhat happy, I imagine, and from what we've read, most people seem to be in the dark. So, someone who appears to be visibly paranoid would most likely attract unwanted attention. In the end, I don’t think being wary will do Winston any good. What do you guys think? Will Winston’s decreased ignorance be beneficial or detrimental to him?
Laura, I love how you connected his fear of rats to the role of rats in literature in general. I almost feel as if, though he is obviously paranoid to the reader, others in his society are not aware of his constant wariness. We can see in the text that he's constantly aware of how he is being perceived by others, and how he modifies his appearance to fit the norm. Like back towards the beginning of the novel, when he says he wears a grin that is just happy enough so that those who watch through the telescreens would not be suspicious.
DeleteAs I read further into the story and the idea of a rebellion started to grow in Winston’s mind and he encountered rebels I started to map out a rebellion in my head. I’m not talking about breaking a rule by having sex, or just thinking about a rebellion. As Winston meets people such as Julia and is able to become more connected to the past through antiques and old people there becomes more and more reason to rebel. That reason is what lies in the history, the amazing life that existed before the revolution.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I found interesting was that Julia was able to get her hands on things such as real coffee (page 141) or real chocolate that they ate in the clearing in the bushes. Julia says that she got them from the black market, however only “inner Party” members are able to have real chocolate or real coffee. I found this interesting because it comes to show that some of the “inner Party” members are not 100% loyal to the Party, and may too have thoughts of rebellion.
As many of you have mentioned, it is amazing that the people such as the proles, or the workers at the ministry of truth believe some of the documents produced. Some of them even altering the documents themselves believe what the Party has to say. For example, when they reduce the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams, and the next day people are overwhelmed that the Party has increased chocolate rations from 10 grams to 20 grams. Winston is somewhat special because he does not succumb to the ridiculous changes in the Party’s documents.
To find out why the people in 1984 are so ignorant I had to go back to chapter three. In chapter three the reader learns about doublethink. It is described as “as the ability to believe and disbelieve simultaneously in the same idea, or to believe in two contradictory ideas.” Doublethink allows the Party to keep the citizens under their control, and they are able to influence the citizens with slogans such as “WAR IS PEACE” or “SLAVERY IS FREEDOM”. Doublethink causes both workers at the Ministry of Truth and the citizens of Airstrip One to believe the Party’s records and show loyalty towards the Party.
This is a clear description of omniscient narration because it is clear that the reader knows of the lies that the Party produces; however the citizens of Airstrip One are completely unknowledgeable of the way they are being manipulated.
I know that I would despise a world in which Doublethink is real. How do you think doublethink would affect our society, if at all? And do you think that the government should be aloud to use doublethink in their favor? I find it inhumane to use doublethink against the citizens.
Chris, you say that you would despise to live in a world where doublethink is a real thing, but I'm not sure it's something that's completely fictional or made up specifically for this book. I'm sure that people in our government today constantly over exaggerate or under exaggerate in order to make something appear better or worse than it is. Isn't that sort of the same thing? While I agree that it shouldn't be allowed by anyone in a position of power, I can almost guarantee that a majority of the citizens aren't aware of the corruption going on behind closed doors, whether it affects them or not. Our country's government may not seem as bad as Oceania's, but could easily be putting on a facade for us without showing what's truly happening to the people who have a right to know.
DeleteIn chapter 7, Winston spends a lot of time discussing the Proles and their role in society. He especially described how prominent their role would be in a rebellion against the government of Oceania. Winston tells readers that the Proles are an abundance of the country, about 85% of it's population and that they would be the key in a rebellion to overthrow the government. Winston also discussed the role of the Proles in everyday society. He basically describes them to be the physical labor and to me, the "family care". He says, "They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty" (p. 71). By the way that Winston describes them, he makes them seem almost as though they're disposable or just a small part of Oceania's society. I found this surprising because based on the numbers, they're actually the largest portion of it.
ReplyDeleteSomething else I noticed in this chapter were the similarities between Winston and his coworkers and the Proles. While Winston is someone who does "office work", the Proles are the ones doing "physical labor". Other than that, I don't see much difference; both groups of people are, unfortunately, under almost constant scrutiny of the government and both are poorly rationed. Neither of them is treated fairly.
Today, I was actually just flipping through channels and I heard someone use the term "Orwellian Society" to describe what the United States was going to become in a number of years. Honestly, the idea of our society ever becoming as harsh as that of Oceania is scary, but with all the technology, as Zach said earlier, available for spying, there isn't really a way to stop it. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be under constant scrutiny by the government, but maybe that's where our society is leading. I have to admit I find it somewhat surprising that our government is getting more and more like Orwell's fictitious Oceania because you would think that through this book, they would realize that's not how anyone wants their government to be. It also makes me wonder whether or not the United States realizes how much tighter their grip of power is getting on the citizens of our country.
While reading 1984 for the past two weeks, I have connected it's plot mainly to Animal Farm. However, while reading last night I suddenly remembered a news story I had briefly seen a week or so ago. Recently, an Italian company has created clothing/department store mannequins who have cameras installed into their eyes. They use face recognition technology to determine the different features of the shoppers in the store. Although they were originally created to document what clothes are popular with different ages and genders, many people have stated that the idea of being watched while shopping is "creepy" and an "invasion of privacy". It is also stated that the company might create technology that gives the mannequins the ability to listen to conversations as well. The article can be found here: http://www.infowars.com/cameras-inside-mannequins-spying-on-shoppers/ The article mentions "Big Brother" a couple times, and compares the idea of being watched to it. This sort of technology, at first, could be helpful to businesses and companies to target their most popular demographics. However, the use of this technology could become a gateway to more intense technology, and could lead to something undesirable. I feel that in the world of Oceania, Big Brother must have possibly started out as a small institution, and slowly took over. This is something that I keep wondering through out the novel. How and why did Big Brother and the Party start? Who are the exclusive people that run it? In a normal society, it seems sort of strange that a whole nation could follow the rules of something that is fabricated out of lies. However, the thought of being "vaporized" and the fear factor that Big Brother serves condemn the people of the nation.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting in chapter 5, was when Winston was eating lunch with his coworker, Syme, (Winston's closest idea of a "friend") and their conversation on "Newspeak". Newspeak is the new language of the Party, and takes unnecessary words and deletes them from the Party's vocabulary. While Syme is glorifying the idea of Newspeak, he says that "by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?" Winston starts to object, with the Proles on his mind, but stops himself. Despite Winston never mentioning even the idea of the proles, Syme picks up on his statement and replies carelessly, "The proles are not human beings,". At that very moment, Winston guesses that Syme will eventually be vaporized. Syme soon starts going off about the future of language and literature, and Winston knows for a fact that he would be vaporized. He believes that he is too smart and that he understands things that many of the Party members would never understand. An example of an ignorant Party member is Parsons. Parsons is the father of the children that live down the hall from Winston, and he soon starts reveling in his children's success as Junior Spies. Winston can soon tell just who in the lunch room will be vaporized and who won't. The men who work without thinking will be saved, for they truly agree and believe in Big Brother and it's greatness.
In Isabel's last post, she mentioned that those who work without thinking will be saved, and I agree with that. I also believe though, that those who are smart enough to stay under the radar, or to much of a coward to rebel, would survive as well. One character I can relate this idea to is Benjamin from Animal Farm. He was clearly an intelligent animal, because he knew how to read just like the pigs. And because of his intelligence, he knew better than to go up against a power that he knew would destroy him. And with this, I can relate Benjamin to Winston, from 1984. Winston is clearly a cognitive member of the Party. He was strong enough to even open a diary in which he felt he could foster his own thoughts with his own control. And Winston is so aware of the acute mannerisms people have that would raise suspicion. Even just at a regular lunch with his "friend" Syme, he is analyzing the way he is speaking and predicting that he will soon be vaporized based off of keen awareness. The text states, "There was something subtly wrong with Syme", which reinforces the fact that Winston is a conscious thinker and not an unconscious one, which Syme so desperately desires to create with his refinement of Newspeak.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought it was really interesting when Syme had mentioned "duckspeak". He described it as a word that could mean two completely different things depending on the context- a contronym, much like the English word bolt or clip. I thought it was kind of interesting that he had pointed out this contradictory word because he himself is so against the idea of conscious thought, yet the fact that he contemplates the ironic status of the word "duckspeak" shows he must have been thinking abstractly. The word also made me think of the way in which the government addresses the people, in such a hypocritical and contradictory way. For example, with Oceania's production- if you are a common worker, you are told to believe that there was an overproduction of goods. But if you are on the other side, say a high government position, you would know that in actuality, no goods were produced at all.
Curious Jen that you are to mention contronyms. Theya re pretty much contradicting themselves, thus the name. Also, when you say the governmnet acts in a very contradicting way, I totally agree with you. Everything the Party claims to do, or does for that matter, is the exact opposite of what is expected from a functioning government. Even their slogans and ministries are contradictory; the slogans are paradoxes and the ministries perform the exact opposite tasks of what they are named.
DeleteThoughts on Chapter 1 of Part 2-
ReplyDeleteI found this entire chapter quite odd, because I felt like it went against what the narrator has tried to prove throughout the story so far. In previous chapters, Winston tried to make it clear that to live in this dystopian world, you had to be careful. There could be members of the Thought Police anywhere you went, so you had to make sure you weren’t followed and your thoughts were appropriate. However, this chapter went against all of that. The first example of this is when Winston was on the train, going to meet Julia. He was riding in a car with a family, and they were very open to him even though he could have been a member of the inner Party. They even told him that they were “going out to spend an afternoon with the “in-laws”… to get a hold of black-market butter.” I found this atypical because they had no idea who Winston was, but they told him of their journey to attain a product from the black market. The previous chapters of this book have expressed the importance of keeping secrets in a world like this, so this encounter confused me. Even Orwell knew that this was different, because he wrote that they “freely explained to Winston” their situation. Does anyone know why he wrote this family to be so trustworthy? I wonder why they would easily share something like this with a stranger.
Similarly, I found the scene with Julia to also be different from the rest of the story. As soon as they arrived in the clearing, Julia immediately began talking. Winston didn’t because he didn’t know if there were any hidden microphones, and I think that was smart to do. He eventually did talk, which I thought was weird. He was so quick to trust Julia, a fellow Party member because of his fascination with breaking the rules. The novel has stressed the importance of being careful, yet Winston easily breaks the law in this clearing without knowing if anything was watching or listening to them. As soon as she said that there was no one listening, Winston went from being hesitant to taking her hand without so much as a doubt. To me, Orwell made this chapter contradict the first part of the book, because being careful pretty much flew out the window.
The relationship between Julia and Winston reminds me of Romeo and Juliet, not because these characters are from opposing sides, but because they are “star-crossed lovers” in a way. Julia and Winston will never be able to be together because of the Party, who tries to destroy the joy of feeling love. I looked up a list of these couples and star-crossed lovers usually have relationships that are crushed because of “destiny.” In Shakespeare’s novel, that force was their families, but in this story, the Party definitely fits that role. That brings me to the question- will the relationship between Julia and Winston last? Or will the Party end it, just like they do with anyone who goes against them? (For the list of other star-crossed lovers, just to see if Winston’s and Julia’s fates will be anything like theirs, here’s the link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-crossed)
Anna, to answer your first question on why the familly was so trustworthy, I think it's because they are proles. A stated in previous chapters, they are not closely monitored by the governmnet as Party members are. The Thought Police do not frequent their lifestyles so they don't live in the same paranoid fear Winston does. However, I do find it odd that they express their feelings so openly to a Party member, since Winston was wearing the overalls.
DeleteTo answer your second question, I actually connected Winston and Julia to Katniss and Peeta from the Hunger Games. These lovers are living in Panam, a similar dystopia, though the governmnet is strictly oppressive and don't lie as much as the Party. However, Katniss and Peeta both rebel against the government and their affairs during the Hunger games are purely ppolitical acts. They are closely monitored by cameras, like the telescreens in 1984, and have to be very careful about what they say and do. Although not perfect matches, I think Winston and Julia are similar to Katiniss and Peeta because of their actions against their respectable governments.
Jen, I completely agree! I too was surprised and intrigued by the strange hypocritical statements and words that Syme was mentioning. Many aspects of Newspeak make little to no sense in our minds. However, Syme's enthusiasm and devotion toward it almost makes the reader believe that it is necessary. Words such as "ungood", "plusgood", and "doubleplusgood" are very strange seen out of context, and while reading the novel they, at first, make no sense. Syme's excuse of "limiting the vocabulary of the Party" is very odd. He believes that once the Party members speak only in Newspeak, they will end up thinking in only Newspeak as well. This proves his point that Newspeak is better than Oldspeak, for he says that Thought Crime would be impossible while thinking in Newspeak. This I was unsure about. Although words like "bad" and "great" would be removed from the dictionaries and the Party's vocabulary, the new words such as ungood and plusgood would take their place. Syme argues that the dictionaries get smaller and smaller, and this statement seems to be true. Even with the addition of ungood, many words such as bad, awful, faulty, and even sad would be removed.
ReplyDeleteDuring chapter 6, I thought of the hypocritical ways of not only the government and those who abide to it, but Winston's hypocritical tendencies as well. The subjects of love and sex seem to be treated in many different ways. The Party does not encourage love, and rather intensely discourages it. If two Party members wish to get married, they must get accepted by the officials. However, if there is any evidence of an attraction between the two people, their request to get married is denied. Marriage is only for reproducing, and the act of reproduction is treated like a task for the government. This is shown when Winston reminisces about his absent wife, Katherine. Winston and Katherine would try once a week to get pregnant, and after it had not worked for a while, Katherine had left. Winston had remembered that Katherine was not bright at all, and had "without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her". This might be the reason why Winston feels attracted to the dark haired woman that he constantly sees around his work. Although she seems like an advocate for Big Brother and the Party, he feels that she is much more smart than his wife could ever be. Winston seems intrigued, and afraid, of those in the Party that are too smart for their own good. They pose a threat to themselves and others. This can relate to Animal Farm. In Animal Farm, once an animal (like Clover or Boxer) had suspected that something was wrong with the pigs' rule system, they were automatically given a well thought out response and proof that the pigs were, in fact, correct. Due to the fact that they could not argue their ideas, they were quickly silenced. This can also relate back to 1984 with the idea of changing documents and evidence to match what Big Brother's ideas are.
Entry 2 – Thoughts on Julia and Winston in *Part 2*
ReplyDeleteWhen Julia first came into the picture, I honestly believed that she was a part of the Thought Police. Over the course of the novel, Winston has described the Party as a deceptive agent with many spies everywhere watching your every move. Also, Winston has been committing some rebellious acts, what with the diary and then exploring the prole streets. However, he has not yet been vaporized or caught. But then Julia came into the picture. Although she seems perfectly harmless and on Winston’s side, her age, beauty, and rash actions against the government, coupled with a “sort of military precision” (pg 115), all point to her as a spy. All the Party does is vaporize people, but they have not yet been known to understand the thoughts of their “enemies.” In this way, I believe they are using Julia in order to gain information about certain rebels and see how they act. Also, Julia gains Winston’s trust instantly because she is the only other person (knowingly) with whom he can share similar ideas about the Party. But to add onto that relief, she claims to love him, which truly strikes his heart since he lives in a world where true love is outlawed. Due to these incidents, I do not trust Julia as a character, and I especially do not trust her with Winston.
But if Julia were not a spy of the government but just a girl, I don’t believe she is a real threat to the Party. Through all of her rebellious actions by stealing real sugar and coffee, having sex with Winston as a “political act,” and seeing him over the course of many months, they are all harmless for the government. If caught she will be punished, but she does not see the larger side of the confrontation. Julia believes that one can outwit the government and disobey them and that is all that is needed. She only cares how the government directly affects her own life, she does not bother with the entire scheme the Party proposes. Winston tries to explain the horrid corruptness of the Party to her but she brushes him off. When he says that the enemy (Euarsia and Eastasia) switched four years ago, she says, “it’s always one bloody war after another” (pg 154); when he tells her that airplanes weren’t invented in Oceania, she doesn’t care; when he reveals the story about Rutherford and his friends, she blows them aside, saying people are killed daily; and when Winston explains to Julia about the importance of the newspaper article and how it can disprove some of the Party’s claims, revealing a true past, she says, “I’m quite ready to take risks, but only for something worthwhile, not for bits of old newspaper” (pg 155). Julia refuses to think of the overthrow of the Party as a whole and what it could mean for the next generation. If the problem does not relate to her, then she does not see the point in going after it. In this way, I think she is not helping Winston in his rebellion against Big Brother. Yes, it keeps him silent but as a whole, but if he were to openly challenge the Party’s rule, Julia would not take part in the rebellion.
*SPOILER - PAGE 157*
ReplyDeleteWinston and O'Brien's encounter in chapter VI seemed imminent from the first mention of O'Brien's character. Although brief, their interaction will no doubt lead into the climax of the plot and will either result in Winston's success or in his demise. Although I'd like to believe that O'Brien will be an ally in Winston's crusade against the Party, I am somewhat doubtful. Although I do think that O'Brien is definitely not an ordinary straight-laced Inner Party member, something about his character seems off. The way that Winston is so interested, one may even say obsessed, with O'Brien is worrisome and strange. This obsession, in addition to many other of Winston's peculiar characteristics, strengthens my belief that perhaps Winston's feeling of loneliness and despair has caused him to jump to conclusions about O'Brien without really thinking things through. Was it even really O'Brien's voice that he heard in his dream? Does it even matter? It's rare enough to find a Party member who shares the same resentment of the Party as Winston, much less an Inner Party member, and finding one who will actually admit it is basically impossible. Winston's irrational reasoning is due largely to his desperation to find another person who feels the same as he does, to know that he is not the only one who is unable to accept the injustices of the Party, to know that he is not alone in having a conscience and a memory.
The whole introduction of Winston's relationship with O'Brien is peculiar to begin with, and Winston's fixation with O'Brien, while understandable, makes me question how accurate his assumptions about O'Brien actually are. Is Winston right in thinking he can trust O'Brien? Or is Orwell instilling the reader with doubt simply to communicate the constant suspicion that one must feel living in the world of 1984? Is there something more to O'Brien's communication with Winston?
Entry 2-- 1984-- Pre-Revolution
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 7, Winston writes down an entry from the textbook given to present day children in his journal, which was surely rewritten and edited by the Party. It makes sure to describe the times before the Revolution as “dark, dirty and miserable…where hardly anybody had enough to eat and where hundreds and thousands of poor people had no boots on their feet and not even a roof to sleep under,” (72) to make sure that nobody would try to change things back to how they used to be. The Party targets the children specifically by stating in the entry, “children no older than you are had to work twelve hours a day for cruel masters, who flogged them with whips if they worked too slowly and fed them on nothing but stale breadcrusts and water.” (72) The Party does this to ensure that the children reading this grow up with a burning hatred towards the past, thus motivating them to turn in any who look suspicious of wanting to return to previous lifestyle. They don’t know what really happened, all they know are what the bias entries from the textbook tell them. This contributes to the future of unconsciousness that Syme describes earlier in the chapter. However, Winston doesn’t buy into it. He still believes that the pre-Revolution times were better from what he remembers, despite any statistics fed to him by the Party.
After reading about the bias entries of the children’s textbook in this society, I decided to research bias entries in textbooks of our society. I found an article of a high school student claiming there to be political bias in a textbook:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24018762/ns/us_news-education/t/student-sees-political-bias-high-school-text/#.UOI7tUI1bFI
This shows how our society today may not be so different from the society that Orwell has created in this novel.
One thing that I thought was interesting was how the Party decided to keep the part out about the jus primae noctis, the law from pre-Revolution times where every Capitalist had the right to sleep with any woman working in one of his factories, from the children’s’ textbook. From my understanding, they did this to prevent any provocative or seductive thinking in the children’s minds since they want to remove those thoughts from society. This is a vast contrast from the book, Brave New World, by Aldus Huxley. In the dystopia of Brave New World, the government actually promotes exotic thinking and tries to eliminate monogamy.
Another thing I found interesting was how Winston had the last bit of the catalogue memorized. It was most likely already programmed into his brain much like the other thoughts and aspects of his daily life. This shows how Winston is slowly gravitating towards the life of unconsciousness, giving him only so much time left of his own thought. He even foreshadows this loss of identity early in the novel when he mentions how his memory is slowly slipping away of how things used to be.
One question I pose to others is did anyone else notice the similarities between how the Party describes the past and how the current society is? They talk about how in the past people had barely enough to eat, when currently rations are diminishing. Or how children used to work 12 hours a day in bad conditions and only receiving water and bread, when in the present, children are still working long hours a day as spies for the government and receiving little in return.
In chapter one of part two, Winston agonizes over the note saying, "I love you," almost constantly as well as tries his hardest to find a way to talk to the woman who gave it to him, Julia. Towards the end of the chapter, after they meet in the square and are running from the criminals, they hold hands for about ten seconds. It says, "He had time to learn every detail of her hand. He explored the long fingers, the shapely nails, the work-hardened palm with its row of calluses, the smooth flesh under her wrist... In the same instant it occurred to him that that he did not know what color the girl's eyes were." To me, this quote shows how little Winston's interacted with humans, or at least had some physical contact with them. By the amount of small details he uses to describe Julia's hands, it makes it seem as though he is marveling at them instead of simply holding them. He describes them far more than I would be able to describe a hand, especially because he focuses on the smallest details.
ReplyDeleteWithin this same passage, he discusses how he can't possibly look in her eyes in fear that it will give them away. This made me wonder how infrequently he must look into peoples' eyes and why this would be. One reason that I came up with was that in earlier chapters, Winston mentions how just one wrong look or move can sentence you to death. I just find this really sad, especially if they love each other and they can't even look each other in the eyes.
Something else I question in this book is whether or not these two people are ACTUALLY in love with each other. I find it somewhat surprising, to say the least. I can see that they would be physically attracted to each other, but by the way that Winston describes it, they don't really know each other at all. He was always questioning Julia's motives and if she was a member of the Party or not. He also never expresses his interest in her other than to protect himself. I also found it surprising that Winston trusted her so easily when they live in a society where virtually no one can be trusted, especially when they're constantly being spied on by their government.
I feel that through these blogs, we're sort of discussing the possibility of the United States becoming something similar to Oceania or an "Orwellian society". While at the beginning of the novel, I was sure that our country could never get this bad, now I'm not so sure. We're well on our way to a government that constantly spies on us and a world where you can't trust anyone in fear that they'll turn you in. As I read more and more of this book and compare it to our lives now, I'm beginning to see more and more similarities between the two societies. Like many of you have said, we're already being "spied on" in many ways, including security cameras, camera phones and, as Isabel said, even in shopping stores. So, I was just wondering what you guys thought; could the United States ever get to become a society like Oceania? Odds are that Oceania didn't start out as badly as it did, but probably progressed into the horrible society it became and while I'd hate it, I can imagine our country following the same pattern.
Kathryn, I do not really think that Julia and Winston are in love with each other. Winston refers to their meetings as "political acts", which I found a little horrifying. I think that what you said about Winston marveling at Julia's hands instead of holding them perfectly sums up human interaction within this novel. Winston is not socially awkward, he just has never really known what it is to be with another person, and he still doesn't. It's said that the "eyes are the windows to the soul", which is why the people of Oceania cannot look at each other. I cannot imagine how low morale must be among the people if they cannot even look at each other or smile at each other. Winston says that "if there is hope, it lies in the proles" but nobody will accomplish anything if they cannot band together. In Oceania, there is no sense of community because people must always shield their faces.
DeleteEntry #2, 1984-focus on the Records Department and censorship throughout the novel
ReplyDeleteIf Winston hates the government as much as he tells himself, then why does he enjoy his job to much? This question was nagging me as I read through part two of the novel, so I went back and read chapter 4 again. At first, I thought I had misunderstood the tone of the chapter, but Winston really does take pride in his work. Every time he gets a new task, Winston feels like he is actively participating in the government. I thought he would be above that, considering how disgusted he is watching the public accepting everything the government tells them without question. It's not as if he is voting, he's further corrupting the public! It seems like there are some similarities between Winston and Mr. Parsons. By working for the government, they feel almost a part of it. However, this is just another mirage created by the Party, Winston still has no power.
What does Winston want? By writing in the journal, he was basically asking for death. Then, I thought Winston was dreaming of a full overthrow of his Brother, but now it seems like he only wants some representation in the government. He wants to be able to play an active part in deciding how his country will be led, and will jump at any chance that may allow him to do do, as seem in chapter 4. I just saw Les Miserables at the movie theater and was asking the same question. The rebels didn't really know what they wanted, their plan was not long-term. How could they expect their barricade to hold up against the French army? They were doomed from the start yet, in death, Enjorlas feels like he has done something very important and influential by holding up the flag bravely before he is shot. The government probably didn't think twice about the loss of a few young men in the film just as the Party does not have any personal interest in Winston.
I've concluded that Winston must only want representation because he really doesn't care that the government censors so many aspects of his life. Nobody seems to mind. The Ministry must support a huge labor force, all those people could band together and stop the censorship if they really wanted to. Winston really thinks that by changing the past, history, he is not making a difference: "most of the stuff you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world." He seems to have given up: "statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version." He may deny it, but the Party has made an impact on him and the way he thinks. Reading this novel, it completely goes against every value I have been raised with, all those "American" ideas like freedom and autonomy. I wish I had the opinions of students from other countries who have read this novel to compare to mine. For example, I know from hosting French students that asking for help is sort of looked down upon there. While we love individualism in the US, we also strongly depend on community and family. We are not afraid to admit our flaws and try to better them while in France you keep those things to yourself. To others, the novel could have a completely different meaning.
I just want to say that I am enjoying reading your posts. Happy New Year, everyone. See you tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find truly fascinating about this society is the passiveness they possess towards the government’s manipulation. This is especially seen when right in the middle of Hate Week, the war has switched between being at war with Eurasia before and now with Eastasia. The citizens, right in the midst of a rally, do not even seem to question the change, but are only bewildered that they have made hate signs and posters with the “wrong” faces and names on them (pg 180). Of course, like in Animal Farm where Napoleon was always used as the scapegoat, Goldstein and his agents were put to blame, which doesn’t make any sense. This is either because the citizens are so ignorant that they do not realize that they truly had been at war with Eurasia just a few hours before, or they do know the “truth” (the truth only lies in their memory) and just avoid to acknowledge it in fear of being vaporized? I feel as though the second is the truer of the two. It’s amazing what far-fetched lies the general public is willing to accept when the fear of death is constantly being thrust upon you. No one dares questioning the way things are. Much like how Winston and many of the other Party members knew that the lottery figures were a total sham, but stayed silent because it is his duty to be submissive and thoughtless. I also feel as though it is not pure brainwashing and ignorance that keeps the citizens in check because of Julia. In the very beginning, she is seen as the definition of orthodoxy- a cunning, loyal, innocent, active Party member. She knows every slogan, every song. But then once she and Winston’s romance unfolds, we see that all along, though she put on the perfect face of loyalty, she is all but loyal. Her thoughts are completely Anti-Big Brother and she despises the system and lies that she was raised under. Because of her deceptive appearance, it is of my opinion that perhaps more citizens, perhaps even most, are of the same thinking, and are only staying silent to save themselves from vaporization, like Syme who was much to audible with his opinions.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the sudden and drastic change that occurred when Oceania had yet again switched sides immediately altered what was known as truth, another fascinating thought discussed in this book. Winston is bothered so much by the fact that because the government goes to such great lengths to alter or remove parts of history, he has no evidence of what the world was like before and whether they were better off. He is so frustrated towards the old man in the pub who cannot give him concrete historical opinions, only insignificant details of his life. Winston also treasures the glass coral paperweight he bought off of Mr. Charrington because it gives him a connection to the past, proof that something in another era existed, not only in the mind. “What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different from the present one.” (pg 96) And a small ripple in Julia and Winston’s relationship that I could detect was that she had no care for the fact that the past could all be a lie and nothing in history was for certain. Reading this from Winston’s perspective, I could almost feel his frustration at her lack of appreciation for anything concrete and true. She has no interest for the subtleties and complexities that was in Winston’s story of the 3 old men and the newspaper clipping which was his evidence, which greatly bothered Winston. From this you can tell that Winston’s mind is deeply rooted and dependent on the state of the past- He values knowing that what happened yesterday truly happened. This can only further be enhanced when he suggested a toast to “the past” when in O’Brien’s office. And I found it so interesting when he said that he did not mind being a lunatic in the eyes of others, he would mind if he were wrong. Perhaps this relationship he has with the events of the past is linked to the ambiguities related to his mother’s death and his insecurities that he possibly was the cause of her death.