1.
1984 is
a dystopian story about a man named Winston Smith, who is living in nightmarish
society that seems to reflect our own more and more every day. The government
is over controlling and numbs all of the public of Oceania, the world power
that was once Europe. The totalitarian government controls the people with
propaganda, fear and, basically, hypnotism (we all know that “Big Brother is
watching you,” phrase from the posters). Winston works in the records
department of the “Ministry of Truth;” however, one day, he begins his silent
resistance by recording some of his rebellious thoughts in a little (illegal)
diary. His resistance is joined by a fiery rebel named Julia, who he falls in
love with; to paraphrase the Muse song I posted a little while ago, “love is
their resistance.” Together, in their little hideaways out of the prying
telescreen’s view, they begin to question the system in place (“Ingsoc”—English
Socialism), eventually meeting up with the mysterious O’Brien as their interest
in the rebel group, the Brotherhood, develops. Sadly, the Thought Police
catches Winston and Julia—they are tortured (it turns out O’Brien was behind
his torture) and “reintegrated” before being released back into their dreadful
society. ..Later on, Winston is taken back to be tortured, but he cries out, “Do
it to Julia!” (the torture involved his greatest fear: rats) Winston is
released again, loving Big Brother just like the rest of them.
2.
After studying bits and pieces of this novel in
English classes over the past four years, I’ve heard quite a few excellent
themes, but I’ll just stick with rebellion and resistance. (I feel like I say
that same thing every time I’m asked to write about a story’s theme.) 1984 is a story of rebellion. Winston
rebels against the system with his journal, he rebels with his brief memories
of the past, with his constant questioning in his mind. When he meets Julia, as
mentioned before, their love, their meetings—those become acts of rebellion.
Even Julia’s sexuality was her rebellion (her first and main form of
resistance): “You’re only a rebel from the waist downwards.” (Woah, there
Winston.) Everything the two did was in the interest of revolution.
3.
Orwell’s tone in 1984 is not terribly ornate or fancy, which reflects the dreary and
utterly austere plot and setting of the story.
Examples include:
·
“The hallway smelt of boiling cabbage and old
rag mats. At one end of it a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had
been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a meter
wide…” [Book one/chapter one/pg. 1]
·
“He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness
had descended upon him. To begin, he did not know with any certainty that it was 1984.” [Book one/chapter one/pg. 6]
·
“He walked on. The bomb had demolished a group
of houses two hundred meters up the street…Apart from the bloody stump, the
hand was so completely whitened as to resemble a plaster cast./He kicked the
thing into the gutter, and then, to avoid the crowd, turned down a side street
to the right. Within three or four minutes he was out of the area which the
bomb had affected, the sordid swarming life of the streets was going on as though
nothing had happened.” [Book one/chapter eight/pg. 84]
4.
The
glass paperweight that Winston bought in Mr. Carrington’s shop is a symbol of
the past; something that has no basis in reality during Winston’s time. The picture
of the church and the accompanying tune that Mr. Carrington and a couple of
other characters knew also seemed to be symbolic of another time.
Flashbacks were also employed within the plot as
Winston remembered and dreamt of his childhood; the regime might try to erase
the past but they couldn’t erase the torturous memories that Winston held onto.
Winston dreams that he will meet O’Brien in “the
place where there is no darkness.” This concept
serves a couple of different purposes in the novel. It is foreshadowing—Winston
does end up in that place with O’Brien—but
it is also a source of irony—that place where there is no darkness is not what
it sounds like it would be.
Julia’s red Junior Anti-Sex League sash is meant as a
symbol of her devotion to the Party’s causes, though she practices quite the
opposite. I read somewhere that it becomes a symbol of Julia’s duality, and
frankly, I just really like the way that was worded. Couldn’t have said it
better myself.
Winston’s memories of his mother seem to be representative
of his feelings of guilt. This becomes very evident starting with his memory of
stealing his baby sister’s last bit of chocolate as a child, right before his
mother and sister vanished.
The backwards ways of the Party were all great
examples of irony: “War is peace/Freedom is slavery/Ignorance is strength.”
Endless wars against a common enemy kept people comfortable and together. Big Brother was also ironic; his presence was
supposed to intimidate you, yet also comfort you. He was your Big Brother, why
would he want anything but to take care of you?
