The book starts off with an interesting first sentence “the clocks were striking 13.” To me this was unusual because there is no 13 on a clock and it is usually considered an unlucky number. I thought it was kind of weird and different compared to what kind of world we are living in today. This is because in London the province of Oceania is where our first and main character Winston Smith lives. There are signs reminding citizens that Big Brother is always watching. Big Brother is the leader of the party in which Winston is a part of as well as all the people of Oceania.
Winston Smith is about 39 and has on ulcer on his left ankle. He had to wear blue overalls as a rule of the party. He lives in Victory Mansions by himself. One vocabulary word that I didn’t know I found on page 6, eddies, which is a current air running contrary to the main current. Also on page 6 I learned that in this place where Winston lives they use what is called a telescreen which watches and hears everything everyone is doing. There is a telescreen placed in every corner of every room. This telescreen could not be turned off. If you are heard thinking of something the Big Brother does not want you to think then you will be punished by the Thought Police. This punishment could be death or a sentence of 25 years in a forced labor camp. You had to keep your feelings to yourself and try to hide them from the Thought Police. “Your worst enemy is your own nervous system,” (page 67) this is something you hear all the time from criminals who say their self conscious got to them.
There are three slogans of the party, theses slogans are War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. Not everyone is a member of the Party. Only about 20% of the people of Oceania are involved in the party. Most people living in Oceania are living in slums. The people are given a small amount of coupons to trade in for clothing, food or anything else they needed. On page 8 we find out the 4 most important buildings in Oceania. They are the four Ministries, which are all government buildings. They are the Ministry of Peace, which is concerned with war. The Ministry of Truth is concerned with news, entertainment, education and the arts. The Ministry of Love maintains law and order. The Ministry of Plenty is responsible for economic affairs. Each ministry had its own concerns and problems. I agree w...
... middle of paper ...
...fter saying this, Winston is eventually let back into the world to work and live. They gave him a new look and a new job. Winston looked different because of all the scars and bruises he had suffered from being beaten in the jail.
Winston then begins to love his new life and enjoys every minute of it. He is also now a good member of the party, doing everything he is suppose to, and not thinking for himself. He is thinking just like the party had taught him. He had found Julia at a restaurant, and they went to the park to talk. They both had turned against each other and decided it was best for them not to be involved anymore. It was mostly because they did not have the physical attraction to each other anymore as they used to. They both had changed because of being beaten in jail.
A few days later an announcement comes onto the telescreen saying they have won the war and defeated Eurasia. People crowded into the street to cheer on the victory of the party. Winston jumped for joy and that’s when the Thought Police had seen on the telescreen and had realized that Winston was cured and a real member of the party. He had loved Big Brother and then he was shot from behind and killed.
Any purported ideology pointing to the political emancipation of the people and attempting to make them rebel is criminalized. Authoritarian rule forms the underlying theme in the novel. It should also be noted that human conflict as a major theme that helps to upstage the former (Authoritarian rule) theme. One experiences the satirical self-glorified human thirst for control often driven by greed and corrupt ideologies to build and gain total control over the populace under them. This thought is held to the effect that the Big Brother party is an epitome of authoritarian and dictatorial governance in the modern world founded on deception and lies.
Winston Smith, from the novel 1984, is a low status member of the Party who rules over the nation of Oceania. Winston is never alone, even in his own house. Everywhere he goes the Party is watching him through what they call telescreens. Oceania is run by a leader that is referred to as Big Brother. Winston is struggling with the fact that he doesn’t even have control of his own life, it’s controlled by the Party and Big Brother. When Winston becomes frustrated by the Party and Big Brother he illegally buys a diary in which to write criminal things like, “Down with Big Brother.” The Thought Police can basically read your mind, so even thinking anything rebellious or illegal will get you in trouble with them. Winston knows that he will soon get caught by the Thought Police for committing a thoughtcrime. He convinces himself that he will be caught no matter what he does, so he continues to rebel. Winston finds the courage to join a secret organization, called the Brotherhood, in order to take down Big Brother.
This novel expresses multiple motifs like part one on Collectivism being the people of Oceania putting their community in the hands of a no so brotherly dictator Big Brother, or part two portraying the Romance between Winston & Julia and about how the party wanted to alter love for their greater good, and later in part three it was about fear and how it controls us. We must realize that this book could act as more of a timeline of events taking place if we carelessly give the government more control, really we are the proles Orwell was mentioning we are were the hope lies and we must make use of it.
Nineteen Eighty-Four describes a world where the most obvious paradox is seen as a commonplace. At least it appears so to the people living in Airstrip One (the former United Kingdom). Winston Smith is one of these citizens who survive on shortages of food and rations of Victory Gin. He believes that his life is being improved day by day even though the reality is the absolute opposite. He is a diligent worker on the Ministry of Truth where he enjoys his job of rewriting the past. One day, however, he decides to start writing a journal. This simple act is already considered as a death crime – the so called “thoughtcrime”. By just thinking against the Party that rules the society, he conspires against it and is considered as a criminal who should be converted to accept the truth that only the Party is right. He should truly love only the Big Brother – an icon and the dictator of the totalitarian Oceania. He finds a place where he believes he can secretly commit his crime of independent creative thinking. He needs to take this precaution because everyone is under a complete surveillance by the authorities through “telescreens” in their households. The phrase “Big Brother is watching you” constantly reminds the people of this through the propaganda system in this state.
...ecause Winston said he was against everything the Party believed in. Winston showed he was rebellious in the book because he owned a diary, had affairs with Julia, and he joined the Brotherhood.
It is evident that truth cannot be hidden, a facade will fade away and your true colours will show. Neo and Winston do this by waking from the dream world metaphorically and physically, both characters had to realize the situations that were in. Neo is shown by Morpheus that he has been living in a Virtual reality Neo begins to accept this when Morpheus tells him to open his mind and leaps of a building(A Wachowski, L Wachowski, The matrix). Neo realizes that he is in a dream and he needs to find a way to wake up. Winston and the rest of Oceania have been manipulated by false knowledge that makes the government
The beginning of the closing chapter (Chapter 6; part 3), starts off with imagery “A ray of sunlight slanting through a window” “A tinny music trickled from the telescreens” these terms of imagery make the reader imagine as if they were at the moment, which has a big effect on the reader. The term “a ray of sunlight” starts to confuse the readers because usually sunlight is associated with happiness, but throughout the description the readers notice that the environment is not happy. The events of the final chapter has great effect on the readers, the events that take place at the Chestnut tree café are very normal and calm, no one has reacted to Winston’s appearance after being tortured, this shows how the act of being tortured and beaten is normal, but having the waiter fill Winston’s glass unbidden shows the waiters sympathy to Winston. Winston not being able to think is a sign that points to the ending. Orwell’s uses symbolism, where he symbolizes Big Brother as the white chess peace, white symbolizes good, and this contradicts to the beginning of the book, where he shows Big Brother as a cruel, unjust person. There is a use of memory, where Orwell reminds the readers of what has happened before and how it is going to affect the ending, “They cant get inside she said” ...
The final part of the novel tells of the anarchy of the days immediately after the end of the war and ends with Jim being reunited with his parents. Again, the fascination is with the people and how they react to their new found freedom.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
The government portrayed in the book as well as in the film is referred to as “Big Brother” the mastermind of establishing a totalitarian government. A totalitarian government is a single party that rules over everything and is superior to everyone. The totalitarian government was created to prevent corruption in the society and keep the people believing in what “Big Brother” wants them to believe. “Big Brother” kept the society in believing his reality by intimidation and brain washing. Also the lack of privacy was enforced by the use of surveillance like system known as the tele. The involvement of the government helped in conforming and controlling the society.
In this novel the party manipulates reality in one way through the use of changing the past. They do this by rewriting the past to make everyone believe that everything they are taught really happened. When this is done people are lead to believe what they are told is the truth when in reality it is not. Another way the party takes control of existence is by bringing life and death to non-existent people. One such instance is the creation of Comrade Ogilvy. Winston creates this man with the intention of pure fantasy. He makes Comrade Olgilvy a war hero and a patriot that dies in battle but in all fact this man never existed. The final way the party controls the lives of the people is through a process called vaporization. Vaporization is the process by which every record of everything you have ever accomplished is wiped out and your one-time existence is forever forgotten.
of history. Winston struggles to face the state of Oceania and ultimately loses everything in the end.
O’Brien begins to “improve” Winston’s mind through physical pain; by using cruel methods of torture, he succeeds in weakening and molding Winston’s mentality. In their early sessions, O’Brien tries to convince Winston of his “truth” that two plus two equals five. He subjects Winston to physical pain until Winston’s mind begins to question itself. Eventually torture wears him down to the point of madness, as “the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five fingers and there was no deformity.” (270) O’Brien then attempts to break Winston by demoralizing his spirit and crushing his hope for mankind’s future. He forces Winston to strip down to nothing, revealing his frail physical form. O’Brien then labels him as “the last man” (285): “do you see that thing facing you?... that is humanity… a bundle of bones in filthy underclothes sitting weeping in the harsh white light” (285). At this moment, Winston feels powerless against the seemingly unstoppable Party, knowing that his life is at the mercy of O’Brien. Thus, Winston’s already weak willpower continues to wither away, rendering him more vulnerable to further reformation. The final procedure in completely transforming Winston’s personality occurs in the dreaded Room 101. To achieve his ultimate goal of breaking Winston’s loyalty towards Julia, O’Brien exploits Winston’s deepest fear of rats in a rather gruesome manner. As the rats are
Just as Winston constantly judges his society - readers guess at the reality of the situation where he is placed in. This includes larger facts of the Party and who exactly controls everything and
... knew from the start that Neo was the One. He is the One to protect humanity and secure its future. Winston, on the other hand, did not receive any of the answers that he was looking for. He wanted to know if he was the only one in possession of a memory, and he wanted to know if this was all there is to life. But the Party convicts him of thoughtcrime and changes everything he ever believed in. The Party made him learn about Big Brother, they made him accept him, and ultimately, they made him love Big Brother and the principles of Ingsoc, and Winston did. Winston failed and he will never know what came of his mother and his younger sister, and know what really happened to them. He will never know what life was like before this and what life is like afterwards.