Literature
iNTRODUCTION TO 1984
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George Orwell’s 1984 offers:
Thought-provoking learning experience
A basis upon which students can form their own opinions about today’s society
Stimulating themes of dehumanization, isolation, repression, loneliness, social class disparity, and abuse of power
Relevance to today’s world
Provides challenging reading
Currently, we have subliminal messages, two-way televisions, computer viruses threatening to endanger our much depended-upon information systems (with possible global impact), and countries all over the world committing atrocities against their own people.
Some years ago, Americans envisioned a future that would evolve predictably from the past as a type of extension of the familiar. With the sixties, however, our idyllic dreams were shattered, and new visions began to form.
The characters of postmodern literature lead surface lives that are mere facades put up for the benefit of appearances.
Like the citizens of Oceania, many postmodern writers have become mere recorders of a hopeless world rather than creators of a new one.
1984 depicts a dystopia, a world that went wrong, a world of manipulation and control which uses its people against themselves like pawns.
On the international scene, it has always been easier for us to sit back and criticize the Soviet Union than to deal with our own problems. Perhaps the changes coming about in that country and in the other Soviet bloc nations will force us to be introspective. In the meantime, we should remember that the mindless citizens of Oceania are given neither the opportunity nor the encouragement to think or read.
GENRE ELEMENTS: NOVEL
- Is a long work of fiction
- Is usually written in the first- or third-person point of view
- Can develop characters and conflict more thoroughly than a short story
- Often develops complex plot structures, including subplots
A novel is an extended work of fiction that often has a complicated plot, many major and minor characters, a unifying theme, and several settings. Novels can be grouped in many ways, based on the historical periods in which they are written (such as Victorian), on the subjects and themes that they treat (such Gothic), on the techniques used in them (such as stream of consciousness), or on their part in literary movements (such as Naturalism or Realism).
Chapter 1: Winston Smith
A minor member of the ruling Party in near-future London, Winston Smith is a thin, frail, thirty-nine-year-old. Has a varicose ulcer above his right ankle. He harbors revolutionary dreams. Main traits: thoughtfull, rebelliousness and fatalistic Winston hates the Party passionately and wants to test the limits of its power; he commits innumerable crimes throughout the novel, ranging from writing “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” in his diary.
Telescreen
The main purpose of them are propaganda and surveillance.Winston’s grasping at freedom illustrates the terrifying extent to which citizens are not in control of their own minds. The telescreens in their homes blare out a constant stream of propaganda, touting the greatness of Oceania and the success of the Party in ruling it. These devices can be deemed, but never shut down. They also serve a means of constant surveillance.
Two minutes hate
Each day citizens are required to attend the Two Minutes Hate, an intense mass rally in which they are primed with fury and hatred for Oceania’s rival nations, venting their own pent-up emotions in the process. The government, meanwhile, expresses its role in an outlandishly dishonest fashion, as seen in the stark contradiction between the name and function of each of its ministries. The net effect of this psychological manipulation is a complete breakdown of the independence of an individual’s mind.
O'Brien
A mysterious, powerful, and sophisticated member of the Inner Party whom Winston believes is also a member of the Brotherhood. Winston senses that O’Brien is a rebel as well and wants to establish communication with him. Somehow, Winston feels that he can trust O’Brien.
Emmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein is introduced as the Enemy of the People during the Two Minutes Hate at the beginning of the novel. He was once an important member of the Party but became a traitor. Although he was sentenced to death, he escaped and formed the Brotherhood, an organized body of rebels committed to the destruction of the Party and the party’s way of life. The party members react with fury at his very image and words.
Chapter 2: Children
Winston’s encounter with the Parsons children in Chapter II demonstrates the Party’s influence on family life. Children are effectively converted into spies and trained to watch the actions of their parents with extreme suspicion. Mr. Parsons. Parsons is described as chubby and fervent Party official and the husband of the woman whose plumbing Winston fixed in Chapter II. An obnoxious and dull Party member that works at the Ministry of Truth. He has a dull wife and a group of suspicious, ill-mannered children who are members of the Junior Spies.
Winston's quote
“We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness”
Thoughtcrime
An idea that contradicts the social and political guidelines established by the party
Chapter 3: Winston's dream
Winston dreams of being with his mother on a sinking ship. He feels strangely responsible for his mother’s disappearance in a political purge almost twenty years ago. He then dreams of a place called The Golden Country, where the dark-haired girl takes off her clothes and runs toward him in an act of freedom that annihilates the whole Party.
Doublethink
The idea of “doublethink” emerges as an important consequence of the Party’s massive campaign of large-scale psychological manipulation. Simply put, doublethink is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s mind at the same time. As the Party’s mind-control techniques break down an individual’s capacity for independent thought, it becomes possible for that individual to believe anything that the Party tells them, even while possessing information that runs counter to what they are being told.
Exercising
Three slogans
That the national slogan of Oceania is equally contradictory is an important testament to the power of the Party’s mass campaign of psychological control. In theory, the Party is able to maintain that “War Is Peace” because having a common enemy keeps the people of Oceania united. “Freedom Is Slavery” because, according to the Party, the man who is independent is doomed to fail. By the same token, “Slavery Is Freedom,” because the man subjected to the collective will is free from danger and want. “Ignorance Is Strength” because the inability of the people to recognize these contradictions cements the power of the authoritarian regime.
Atomic bomb
The Party hides information, controls the history: past, present and future. Their alliances with Eurasia.
Chapter 4: Winston's job in the Party
Winston works for the Records section of the Ministry of Truth, where he works with a “speakwrite” (a machine that types as he dictates into it) and destroys obsolete documents. He updates Big Brother’s orders and Party records so that they match new developments—Big Brother can never be wrong. This practice enables the workers at the Ministry of Truth to believe in the false versions of the records that they themselves have altered. With the belief of the workers, the records become functionally true.
Winston’s job with Comrade Ogilvy. Quote: “It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.”
It's showing how if a living person ever did something that defied the government, then any record of them ever existing had to be erased. But in the Ministry of Truth, you could make up a person who wasn't even real, but they would be passed off as a real person. It shows how society in the books has deteriorated so much that the government can erase anyone they want to and make up someone who was never actually real.
Vaporized
All records of their existence are deleted, as if that person never actually existed. They become a “nonperson.” This happens to the rebels against the Party.
Winston decides to fulfill his assignment in regard to Big Brother’s speech.
Winston alters the recorded Big Brother’s speeches to match the actual consequences in order to make Big Brother to always be right. Winston invents a person named Comrade Ogilvy and substitutes him for Comrade Withers in the records. Comrade Ogilvy, though a product of Winston’s imagination, is an ideal Party man, opposed to sex and suspicious of everyone.
Big brother
Though he never appears in the novel, and though he may not actually exist, Big Brother, the perceived ruler of Oceania, is an extremely important figure. Everywhere Winston looks he sees posters of Big Brother’s face bearing the message “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Big Brother’s image is stamped on coins and broadcast on the unavoidable telescreens; it haunts Winston’s life and fills him with hatred and fascination.
Chapter 5: Newspeak
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania. It aims to narrow the range of thought to render thoughtcrime impossible. If there are no words in a language that are capable of expressing independent, rebellious thoughts, no one will ever be able to rebel, or even to conceive of the idea of rebellion. Syme explains that the word “bad” is not necessary when you can always say “ungood”; also, the words “Excellent” or “splendid” can be easily replaced by “plusgood” The goal is to use ONE word for everything, to narrow the range of vocabulary to erase any possibility of generating concepts that could lead to free thinking.
Syme
Syme, an intelligent Party member who works on a revised dictionary of Newspeak. “Orthodoxy means no thinking –No needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” Syme thinks clearly, he’s too smart and speaks accordingly. The Party is not keen on his kind, Winston thinks Syme will be vaporized in the future. Syme wants from Winston a razor blade. At any given moment there was some necessary article which the Party shops were unable to supply. At present it was razor blades.
Ancestral memory
Winston remembers that the previous day the chocolate ration had been decreased to twenty grams. He wonders how all the people manage to believe the lie. He wonders if he is the only person with a memory. Winston wonders if life has always been the way it is now, and why he feels that some things are intolerable. He thinks he must have an ancestral memory that things had once been different.
Rules regarding sex and marriage for members of the Party in Oceania
Sex should be an act of procreation not to be enjoyed (certainly not by the woman), but to be barely endured as a ‘duty to the Party’. The Party’s real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Sex can be seen as the ultimate act of individualism, as a representation of ultimate emotional and physical pleasure, and for its roots in the individual’s desire to continue himself or herself through reproduction. By transforming sex into a duty, the Party strikes another psychological blow against individualism: under Big Brother’s regime, the goal of sex is not to reproduce one’s individual genes, but simply to create new members of the Party.
Winston's sexual life.
“When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same.”
Winston’s tone is somber. He did not enjoy the experience; he just did it as an attempt to break Big Brother’s rules. Winston’s former wife Katherine hated sex, and as soon as they realized they would never have children, they separated
Setting
- All the events of the novel take place in a fictionalized version of London at some unspecified time in the future. Within the novel, London is the capitol of a province called Airstrip One, which is itself part of the nation of Oceania. Oceania is one of three world powers, and is composed of the Americas, the Atlantic islands including the British Isles, Australasia, and the southern portion of Africa.
- The other two world powers are Eastasia, composed of China, Japan, and parts of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet; and Eurasia, composed of the northern part of the European and Asiatic landmass, from Portugal to the Bering Strait. We might assume from the title that the novel is set in the year 1984, but we never actually know for sure. Because of the way that the Ingsoc Party controls and rewrites history, Winston does not know what the year is, but only suspects that it is 1984.
How is the city of London divided?
How is the city of London divided?
- The city of London is divided between three distinct social groups. The Inner Party lives in relative comfort with servants and access to luxury goods. The Outer Party, of which Winston is a member, lives in stark, dilapidated conditions with very little control over their personal space or property.
The city is dominated by four large mega-structures that represent the four ministries of the Party. What are these ministries? What are their functions? Describe them.
The city is dominated by four large mega-structures that represent the four ministries of the Party. What are these ministries? What are their functions? Describe them.
- The Ministry of Truth: which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts.
- The Ministry of Peace: which concerned itself with war.
- The Ministry of Love: which maintained law and order.
- the Ministry of Plenty: which was responsible for economic affairs.
- Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.
What kind of technology exists?
Chapter 7.
- The power of the proles.
- The brotherhood meetings are inconceivable.
- The proles are fighting for pans and pots.
- doublethink about the proles: Before with the capitalism there was opression, women have to work in coal mines and children were sold to the factories (6 years old). they were infeior people for the party.
- normative lives. working at 6, marriying at 20 and dying at 60.
- The party wants them to be loyal, try to manipulated them, most of them don't have telescreen.
- Ancestral code: crime and prostitution. They were allowed promiscuity, divorce and even a religion.
- Winstons reads a fake story about how life used to be before the party. (poberty, hard work of cruel masters, rich people with servants,capitalist were the owners of everything with slaves. pope, bishops,etc.
- Characterist in modern life: emptiness.
- description of life in london.
- Purges of revolutionaries.
- Winston decides to trust in his perception.
Questios: answer them and think in a currently example
1. How is Prole life different from the life of the Party members? Why? Cite specific examples from the text. 2. Analyze this quote from Winston: “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” Do you agree or disagree with him? 3. Explain what happened during the purges of the Revolution. Who are Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford? 4. What is the current understanding of what happened in the past? 5. Explain in your own words the quote: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
How is Prole life different from the life of the Party members? Why? Cite specific examples from the text.
- The Inner Party members lead a life of comfort and even luxury. The Outer Party members are constantly surveilled by telescreens, they have particular jobs at the fur ministries of the party.
- However, the Proles are responsible of all the manual work in Oceania, they live in miserable conditions and lack of personal goals and objectives since the party keeps them in an almost animalized state. The proles are content with keeping their instincts satisfied since the party encourages vices as a mean of keeping them under control. They constitute the 85% of the population in Oceania. They are exploited, yet, they do ignore they are exploited since their lack of awareness prevents them from recognizing how deprived from their rights and human dignity they are. This is convenient for the party because the more incapable of conceiving abstract ideals and concepts they are, the more controllable they become. This is why they are freer and their homes lack of telescreens.
Analyze this quote from Winston: “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” Do you agree or disagree with him?
- Winston is convinced that a revolution against the party can only come from the Proles. However, his frustration lies on the fact that these people are incapable of reaching the state of awareness needed to claim a better life.
In the novel, what is the current understanding of what happened in the past?
- At the beginning Oceania was a capitalist state; in time a revolution occurred shifting the government system to socialism. During the 1960s, the party was fractured and the more conservative wing organized a purge to get rid of those who opposed their radical and draconian system of beliefs.
- Since then, INSOC proclaimed that the capitalists were only interested in exploiting the people, but they could only find protection under the party’s wings.
How does that differ from our current understanding of the past in our own world? What seems to be George Orwell’s comment or critic? (Hint: look up capitalism and communism)
- A similar situation took place at the beginning of the XXth century through a revolution, when Russia went from being a monarchy, ruled by a distant czar and his elite, to a socialist state known as The Soviet Union. In the early days of the Union, the citizens enjoyed a freer and equalitarian way of life. However, as time passed by, the State succeeded in progressively controlling almost every aspect of the citizens’ lives, eliminating all their liberties. The party proclaimed that they were a happy country made for and by the workers, when in reality, they were abused and exploited while the minuscule ruling elite enjoyed a life of privileges.
Explain what happened during the purges of the Revolution. Who are Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford?
- They were three prominent party members who were betrayed by big Brother since they did not share his radical points of view. They were falsely accused, tortured, publicly trialed, and eventually executed.
- Winston found a photograph which revealed that they were in a different place when the crime that was attributed to them was committed
Explain in your own words the quote: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
- Winston is asserting that truth exists independently from the Party's ideology. Crucially, this also asserts that the conditions of truth rest in part upon the external world.
- Winston thinks he is writing his diary for… whom?
For O’Brien, as a friendly letter.
- What decision does Winston make?
He makes the decision to believe and trust in his own perception of reality, not in the one commanded by the party.
Chapter 8
- smells Real coffe
- ownlife walking trough the city.
- Hope is in the proles.
- they can't choose the path to go back home.
- talks with a man in a bar.
- Antique shop.
- destruction of books.
- rent a room.
- recognize a building.
- mr charrington remembers a song.
- the women wirh dark-hair
- wiston is afraid of dying.
Chapter 8
A colloquial word for “bomb”.
- What is the meaning of “ownlife”? What does Winston’s “ownlife” consist of?
Individualism and eccentricity, or a desire to do something for your own benefit and not for the benefit of Big Brother. Winston writes a journal, takes walks in the prole district, visits prostitutes, and bars.
- Summarize Winston’s conversation with the old prole man in the pub.
Winston treats an old man to a beer with the hope that the man tells him about how life was like before the party existed. Unfortunately, the man could not remember anything.
- What inference can you make about the meaning of the nursery rhyme in this chapter.
Winston’s obsession with the past and the successful eradication of shared English culture by The Party.
- What is Winston’s interaction with the dark-haired girl? Describe it.
As Winston walks back home through the Prole district, he runs into the dark-haired girl from work that he hates. She does not hide from him; she dares to look him in the eye and keep on her way. Winston is convinced that she is spying on him and panics.
Chapter 8
A colloquial word for “bomb”.
- What is the meaning of “ownlife”? What does Winston’s “ownlife” consist of?
Individualism and eccentricity, or a desire to do something for your own benefit and not for the benefit of Big Brother. Winston writes a journal, takes walks in the prole district, visits prostitutes, and bars.
- Summarize Winston’s conversation with the old prole man in the pub.
Winston treats an old man to a beer with the hope that the man tells him about how life was like before the party existed. Unfortunately, the man could not remember anything.
- What inference can you make about the meaning of the nursery rhyme in this chapter.
Winston’s obsession with the past and the successful eradication of shared English culture by The Party.
- What is Winston’s interaction with the dark-haired girl? Describe it.
As Winston walks back home through the Prole district, he runs into the dark-haired girl from work that he hates. She does not hide from him; she dares to look him in the eye and keep on her way. Winston is convinced that she is spying on him and panics.
Real examples in Mexico and world.
Symbolism
A symbol is a person, place, or object that has a concrete meaning in itself and also represents something beyond itself, such as an idea or feeling. This chart provides some examples of common symbols. Symbolism is the practice of using symbols, and it is also the name of a literary movement that began in France in the late 19th century. The Symbolists emphasized the use of symbols to suggest states of mind and ideas that cannot be expressed directly.
ANALYZE CHARACTERIZATION
Characterization is the way a writer creates and develops characters. There are four basic methods of characterization:
- The narrator may comment directly about a character, including discussion of the character’s personality, social class, and economic status.
- The writer may describe the character’s physical appearance.
- The writer may present the character’s own thoughts, speech, and actions.
- The writer may present the character’s own thoughts, speech, and actions.The writer may develop the character through the thoughts, speech, and actions of other characters.
Characterization is often affected by the point of view from which a story is told, and it can have important connections to the theme, setting, and plot.
Julia
Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark-haired girl working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Julia enjoys sex and claims to have had affairs with many Party members. Julia is pragmatic and optimistic. Her rebellion against the Party is small and personal, for her own enjoyment, in contrast to Winston’s ideological motivation.
Part 2- Chapter 1
At work one morning, Winston walks toward the men’s room and notices the dark-haired girl with her arm in a sling. She falls, and when Winston helps her up, she passes him a note that reads “I love you.” Winston tries desperately to figure out the note’s meaning. He has long suspected that the dark-haired girl is a political spy monitoring his behavior, but now she claims to love him. Before Winston can fully comprehend this development, Parsons interrupts him with talk about his preparations for Hate Week. The note from the dark-haired girl makes Winston feel a sudden, powerful desire to live. After several days of nervous tension during which he does not speak to her, Winston manages to sit at the same lunchroom table as the girl. They look down as they converse to avoid being noticed and plan a meeting in Victory Square where they will be able to hide from the telescreens amid the movement of the crowds. They meet in the square and witness a convoy of Eurasian prisoners being tormented by a venomous crowd. The girl gives Winston directions to a place where they can have their tryst, instructing him to take a train from Paddington Station to the countryside. They manage to hold hands briefly.
Part 2- Chapter 2
Executing their plan, Winston and the girl meet in the country. Though he has no idea what to expect, Winston no longer believes that the dark-haired girl is a spy. He worries that there might be microphones hidden in the bushes but feels reassured by the dark-haired girl’s evident experience. She tells him that her name is Julia, and tears off her Junior Anti-Sex League sash. Winston becomes aroused when they move into the woods, and they make love; the experience is nearly identical to the passionate sexual encounter about which Winston has dreamed. Afterward, Winston asks Julia if she has done this before, and she replies that she has—scores of times. Thrilled, he tells her that the more men she has been with, the more he loves her, since it means that more Party members are committing crimes.
Part 2- Chapter 3
The next morning, Julia makes the practical preparations for their return to London, and she and Winston head back to their normal lives. Over the coming weeks, they arrange several brief meetings in the city. At a rendezvous in a ruined church, Julia tells Winston about living in a hostel with thirty other girls, and about her first illicit sexual encounter. Unlike Winston, Julia is not interested in widespread rebellion; she simply likes outwitting the party and enjoying herself. She explains to Winston that the Party prohibits sex in order to channel the sexual frustration of the citizenry into fervent opposition to Party enemies and impassioned worship of Big Brother.
Part 2- Chapter 4
Winston looks around the little room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, which he has rented—foolishly, he thinks—for his affair with Julia. Outside, a burly, red-armed woman sings a song and hangs up her laundry. Winston and Julia have been busy with the city’s preparations for Hate Week, and Winston has been frustrated by their inability to meet. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Julia has had her period. Winston wishes that he and Julia could lead a more leisurely, romantic life, like an old, married couple. Julia comes into the room with sugar, coffee, and bread—luxuries only members of the Inner Party could normally obtain. She puts on makeup, and her beauty and femininity overwhelm Winston. Lounging in bed in the evening, Julia sees a rat; Winston, afraid of rats more than anything else, is horrified. Julia looks through the room and notices the paperweight. Winston tells her that the paperweight is a link to the past. They sing the song about St. Clement’s Church, and Julia says that one day she will clean the old picture of the church. When Julia leaves, Winston sits gazing into the crystal paperweight, imagining living inside it with Julia in eternal stasis.
Part 2- Chapter 5
As Winston predicted would happen, Syme vanishes. During the preparations for Hate Week, the city comes alive with the heat of the summer, and even the proles seem rowdy. Parsons hangs streamers everywhere and his children sing a new song, called “Hate Song,” written in celebration of the event. Winston becomes increasingly obsessed with the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, thinking about it even when he cannot go there. He fantasizes that Katherine will die, which would allow him to marry Julia; he even dreams of altering his identity to become a prole. Winston and Julia talk about the Brotherhood; he tells her about the strange kinship he feels with O’Brien, and she tells him that she believes the war and Party enemies like Emmanuel Goldstein to be Party inventions. Winston is put off by her thoughtless lack of concern and scolds her for being a rebel only from the waist down.
Part 2- Chapter 6
O’Brien makes contact with Winston, who has been waiting for this moment all his life. During his brief meeting with O’Brien in the hallway at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is anxious and excited. O’Brien alludes to Syme and tells Winston that he can see a Newspeak dictionary if he will come to O’Brien’s house one evening. Winston feels that his meeting with O’Brien continues a path in his life that began the day of his first rebellious thought. He thinks gloomily that this path will lead him to the Ministry of Love, where he expects to be killed. Though he accepts his fate, he is thrilled to have O’Brien’s address.
Part 2- Chapter 7
One morning, Winston wakes up crying in the room above Mr. Charrington’s antiques shop. Julia is with him and asks him what is wrong. He tells her that he has been dreaming of his mother and that until that moment, he has subconsciously believed that he murdered her. He is suddenly gripped with a sequence of memories that he had repressed. He remembers his childhood after his father left: he, his mother, and his baby sister spent most of their time in underground shelters hiding from air raids, often going without food. Consumed by hunger, Winston stole some chocolate from them and ran away, never to see them again. He hates the Party for having eliminated human feelings. He believes that the proles are still human, but that Party members like him and Julia are forced to suppress their own feelings to the point that they become virtually inhuman.Winston and Julia worry because they know that if they are captured, they will be tortured and possibly killed, and that renting the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop dramatically increases the likelihood that they will be captured. Fretfully, they reassure one another that although the torture will undoubtedly make them confess their crimes, it cannot make them stop loving each other. They agree that the wisest course of action would be to leave the room forever, but they cannot.
Part 2- Chapter 8
The two take a serious risk by traveling to O’Brien’s together. Inside his sumptuous apartment, O’Brien shocks Winston by turning off the telescreen. Believing that he is free of the Party’s observation, Winston boldly declares that he and Julia are enemies of the Party and wish to join the Brotherhood. O’Brien tells them that the Brotherhood is real, that Emmanuel Goldstein exists and is alive, and leads them through a ritual song to initiate them into the order of rebellion. He asked to Julia and Winston: Are you ready to be apart from each other? O’Brien gives them wine, and Winston proposes that they drink to the past. Julia leaves, and O’Brien promises to give Winston a copy of Goldstein’s book, the manifesto of the revolution. O’Brien tells Winston that they might meet again one day. Winston asks if he means in the place where there is no darkness, and O’Brien confirms by repeating the phrase. O’Brien fills Winston in on the missing verses from the St. Clement’s Church rhyme. As Winston leaves, O’Brien turns on the telescreen and returns to his work.
Part 2- Chapter 9
After a ninety-hour workweek, Winston is exhausted. In the middle of Hate Week, Oceania has switched enemies and allies in the ongoing war, heaping upon Winston a tremendous amount of work to compensate for the change. At one rally, the speaker is forced to change his speech halfway through to point out that Oceania is not, and has never been, at war with Eurasia. Rather, the speaker says, Oceania is, and always has been, at war with Eastasia. The people become embarrassed about carrying the anti-Eurasia signs and blame Emmanuel Goldstein’s agents for sabotaging them. Nevertheless, they exhibit full-fledged hatred for Eastasia. In the room at Mr. Charrington’s, Winston reads through Goldstein’s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, given to him by O’Brien. This lengthy book, with chapter titles taken from party slogans such as “WAR IS PEACE” and “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” traces a theory of social classes throughout recent history: High Class, Middle Class, and Low Class—the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. According to the manifesto, Eurasia was created when Russia subsumed all of Europe, Oceania was created when the United States absorbed the British Empire, and Eastasia is made up of the remaining nations. These three nations keep their respective populaces preoccupied with a perpetual border war in order to preserve power among the High class.
Part 2- Chapter 9
Goldstein writes that the war never advances significantly, as no two allied nations can defeat the third. The war is simply a fact of life that enables the ruling powers to keep the masses ignorant of life in other places—the real meaning of the phrase “WAR IS PEACE.” As Winston reads, Julia enters the room and flings herself into his arms. She is casually glad to know that he has the book. After half an hour in bed together, during which they hear the red-armed woman singing outside, Winston reads to Julia from the book. Goldstein explains that the control of history is a central tool of the Party. He adds that doublethink allows Inner Party members to be the most zealous about pursuing the war mentality, even though they know the falsity of the histories they write. Winston finally asks Julia if she is awake—she is not—and falls asleep himself. His last thought is that “sanity is not statistical.”
Part 2- Chapter 9
While Winston lies in bed the next morning, the red-armed woman outside begins to sing, waking Julia. Winston looks at the woman through the window, admires her fertility, and imagines that the proles will one day give rise to a race of conscious, independent individuals who will throw off the yoke of Party control. Winston and Julia look at the woman and realize that although they are doomed, she might hold the key to the future. Both Winston and Julia say, “We are the dead,” and out of the shadows a third voice interjects, “You are the dead.” Suddenly, the two realize that a telescreen is hidden behind the picture of St. Clement’s Church. Stomping boots echo from outside; the house is surrounded. A familiar voice speaks the last lines of the St. Clement’s rhyme: “Here comes a candle to light you to bed / Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!” The window shatters, and black-clad troops pour in. They smash the paperweight, and Winston thinks about its smallness. The troops kick Winston and beat Julia. Winston becomes disoriented; he cannot tell the time on the old-fashioned clock in the room. As the troops restrain Winston, Mr. Charrington enters the room and orders someone to pick up the shards from the shattered paperweight. Winston realizes that Mr. Charrington’s voice was the one coming from the telescreen, and that Mr. Charrington is a member of the Thought Police.
Part 3- Chapter 1
Winston sits in a bright, bare cell in which the lights are always on—he has, at last, arrived at the place where there is no darkness. Four telescreens monitor him. He has been transferred here from a holding cell in which a huge prole woman who shares the last name Smith wonders if she is Winston’s mother. In his solitary cell, Winston envisions his captors beating him, and he worries that sheer physical pain will force him to betray Julia. Ampleforth, a poet whose crime was leaving the word “God” in a Rudyard Kipling translation, is tossed into the cell. He is soon dragged away to the dreaded Room 101, a place of mysterious and unspeakable horror. Winston shares his cell with a variety of fellow prisoners, including his flatulent neighbor Parsons, who was turned in by his own children for committing thoughtcrime. Seeing starvation, beating, and mangling, Winston hopes dearly that the Brotherhood will send him a razorblade with which he might commit suicide. His dreams of the Brotherhood are wrecked when O’Brien, his hoped-for link to the rebellion, enters his cell. Winston cries out, “They’ve got you too!” To which O’Brien replies, “They got me long ago,” and identifies himself as an operative of the Ministry of Love. O’Brien asserts that Winston has known O’Brien was an operative all along, and Winston admits that this is true. A guard smashes Winston’s elbow, and Winston thinks that no one can become a hero in the face of physical pain because it is too much to endure.
Part 3- Chapter 2
O’Brien oversees Winston’s prolonged torture sessions. O’Brien tells Winston that his crime was refusing to accept the Party’s control of history and his memory. As O’Brien increases the pain, Winston agrees to accept that O’Brien is holding up five fingers, though he knows that O’Brien is actually holding up only four—he agrees that anything O’Brien wants him to believe is true. He begins to love O’Brien, because O’Brien stops the pain; he even convinces himself that O’Brien isn’t the source of the pain. O’Brien tells Winston that Winston’s current outlook is insane, but that torture will cure him. O’Brien tells Winston that the Party has perfected the system practiced by the Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Soviets—it has learned how to eliminate its enemies without making martyrs of them. It converts them, and then ensures that, in the eyes of the people, they cease to exist. Slowly, Winston begins to accept O’Brien’s version of events. He begins to understand how to practice doublethink, refusing to believe memories he knows are real. O’Brien offers to answer his questions, and Winston asks about Julia. O’Brien tells him that Julia betrayed him immediately. Winston asks if Big Brother exists in the same way that he himself does, and O’Brien replies that Winston does not exist. Winston asks about the Brotherhood, and O’Brien responds that Winston will never know the answer to that question. Winston asks what waits in Room 101, and O’Brien states that everyone knows what waits in Room 101.
Part 3- Chapter 3
After weeks of interrogation and torture, O’Brien tells Winston about the Party’s motives. Winston speculates that the Party rules the proles for their own good. O’Brien tortures him for this answer, saying that the Party’s only goal is absolute, endless, and limitless power. Winston argues that the Party cannot alter the stars or the universe; O’Brien answers that it could if it needed to because the only reality that matters is in the human mind, which the Party controls. O’Brien forces Winston to look in a mirror; he has completely deteriorated and looks gray and skeletal. Winston begins to weep and blames O’Brien for his condition. O’Brien replies that Winston knew what would happen the moment he began his diary. O’Brien acknowledges that Winston has held out by not betraying Julia, and Winston feels overwhelmed with love and gratitude toward O’Brien for recognizing his strength. However, O’Brien tells Winston not to worry, as he will soon be cured. O’Brien then notes that it doesn’t matter, since, in the end, everyone is shot anyhow.
Part 3- Chapter 4
After some time, Winston is transferred to a more comfortable room and the torture eases. He dreams contently of Julia, his mother, and O’Brien in the Golden Country. He gains weight and is allowed to write on a small slate. He comes to the conclusion that he was foolish to oppose the Party alone and tries to make himself believe in Party slogans. He writes on his slate “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,” “TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE,” and “GOD IS POWER.” One day, in a sudden, passionate fit of misery, Winston screams out Julia’s name many times, terrifying himself. Though he knows that crying out in this way will lead O’Brien to torture him, he realizes his deep desire to continue hating the Party. He tries to bottle up his hatred so that even he will not recognize it. Therefore, when the Party kills him, he will die hating Big Brother—a personal victory. But he cannot hide his feelings. When O’Brien arrives with the guards, Winston tells him that he hates Big Brother. O’Brien replies that obeying Big Brother is not sufficient—Winston must learn to love him. O’Brien then instructs the guards to take Winston to Room 101.
Part 3- Chapter 5
In Room 101, O’Brien straps Winston to a chair, then clamps Winston’s head so that he cannot move. He tells Winston that Room 101 contains “the worst thing in the world.” He reminds Winston of his worst nightmare—the dream of being in a dark place with something terrible on the other side of the wall—and informs him that rats are on the other side of the wall. O’Brien picks up a cage full of enormous, squirming rats and places it near Winston. He says that when he presses a lever, the door will slide up and the rats will leap onto Winston’s face and eat it. With the writhing, starving rats just inches away, Winston cracks. He screams that he wants O’Brien to subject Julia to this torture instead of him. O’Brien, satisfied by this betrayal, removes the cage.
Part 3- Chapter 6
Winston, now free, sits at the Chestnut Tree Café, where dismissed Party members go to drink. He enjoys a glass of Victory Gin and watches the telescreen. He accepts everything the Party says and does. Without acknowledging it to himself, he can still smell the rats. On the table, Winston traces “2 + 2 = 5” in the dust. He remembers seeing Julia on a bitter-cold day that March. She had thickened and stiffened, and he now found the thought of sex with her repulsive. They acknowledged that they had betrayed one another, and agreed to meet again, though neither is truly interested in continuing their relationship. Winston thinks he hears the song lyrics “Under the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you sold me,” which he heard when he saw the political prisoners there many years earlier. He begins to cry. He remembers a moment of happiness with his mother and sister, but thinks it must be a false memory. He looks up and sees a picture of Big Brother on the telescreen, making him feel happy and safe. As he listens to the war news, he reassures himself of both the great victory he has won over himself and his newfound love for Big Brother.
Part 3- Chapter 6
Winston, now free, sits at the Chestnut Tree Café, where dismissed Party members go to drink. He enjoys a glass of Victory Gin and watches the telescreen. He accepts everything the Party says and does. Without acknowledging it to himself, he can still smell the rats. On the table, Winston traces “2 + 2 = 5” in the dust. He remembers seeing Julia on a bitter-cold day that March. She had thickened and stiffened, and he now found the thought of sex with her repulsive. They acknowledged that they had betrayed one another, and agreed to meet again, though neither is truly interested in continuing their relationship. Winston thinks he hears the song lyrics “Under the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you sold me,” which he heard when he saw the political prisoners there many years earlier. He begins to cry. He remembers a moment of happiness with his mother and sister, but thinks it must be a false memory. He looks up and sees a picture of Big Brother on the telescreen, making him feel happy and safe. As he listens to the war news, he reassures himself of both the great victory he has won over himself and his newfound love for Big Brother.
ANALYZE THEMES
Theme is the central idea, concern, or purpose in a literary work. In an essay, the theme might be directly stated in what is known as a thesis statement. In a serious literary work, the theme is usually expressed indirectly rather than directly. A light work, one written strictly for entertainment, may not have a theme. Main theme: Dangers of Totalitarianism 1984 is a political novel written to warn readers in the West of the dangers of having a totalitarian government. Having witnessed firsthand the horrific lengths to which totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia would go to sustain and increase their power, Orwell designed 1984 to sound the alarm in Western nations still unsure about how to approach the rise of communism. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, many American intellectuals supported communism, and the state of diplomacy between democratic and communist nations was highly ambiguous. In the American press, the Soviet Union was often portrayed as a great moral experiment. Orwell, however, was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppressions he observed in communist countries and seems to have been particularly concerned by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments to monitor and control their citizens.
Intro 1984-Novel
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Transcript
Literature
iNTRODUCTION TO 1984
Start
George Orwell’s 1984 offers:
Thought-provoking learning experience
A basis upon which students can form their own opinions about today’s society
Stimulating themes of dehumanization, isolation, repression, loneliness, social class disparity, and abuse of power
Relevance to today’s world
Provides challenging reading
Currently, we have subliminal messages, two-way televisions, computer viruses threatening to endanger our much depended-upon information systems (with possible global impact), and countries all over the world committing atrocities against their own people.
Some years ago, Americans envisioned a future that would evolve predictably from the past as a type of extension of the familiar. With the sixties, however, our idyllic dreams were shattered, and new visions began to form.
The characters of postmodern literature lead surface lives that are mere facades put up for the benefit of appearances.
Like the citizens of Oceania, many postmodern writers have become mere recorders of a hopeless world rather than creators of a new one.
1984 depicts a dystopia, a world that went wrong, a world of manipulation and control which uses its people against themselves like pawns.
On the international scene, it has always been easier for us to sit back and criticize the Soviet Union than to deal with our own problems. Perhaps the changes coming about in that country and in the other Soviet bloc nations will force us to be introspective. In the meantime, we should remember that the mindless citizens of Oceania are given neither the opportunity nor the encouragement to think or read.
GENRE ELEMENTS: NOVEL
- Is a long work of fiction
- Is usually written in the first- or third-person point of view
- Can develop characters and conflict more thoroughly than a short story
- Often develops complex plot structures, including subplots
A novel is an extended work of fiction that often has a complicated plot, many major and minor characters, a unifying theme, and several settings. Novels can be grouped in many ways, based on the historical periods in which they are written (such as Victorian), on the subjects and themes that they treat (such Gothic), on the techniques used in them (such as stream of consciousness), or on their part in literary movements (such as Naturalism or Realism).Chapter 1: Winston Smith
A minor member of the ruling Party in near-future London, Winston Smith is a thin, frail, thirty-nine-year-old. Has a varicose ulcer above his right ankle. He harbors revolutionary dreams. Main traits: thoughtfull, rebelliousness and fatalistic Winston hates the Party passionately and wants to test the limits of its power; he commits innumerable crimes throughout the novel, ranging from writing “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” in his diary.
Telescreen
The main purpose of them are propaganda and surveillance.Winston’s grasping at freedom illustrates the terrifying extent to which citizens are not in control of their own minds. The telescreens in their homes blare out a constant stream of propaganda, touting the greatness of Oceania and the success of the Party in ruling it. These devices can be deemed, but never shut down. They also serve a means of constant surveillance.
Two minutes hate
Each day citizens are required to attend the Two Minutes Hate, an intense mass rally in which they are primed with fury and hatred for Oceania’s rival nations, venting their own pent-up emotions in the process. The government, meanwhile, expresses its role in an outlandishly dishonest fashion, as seen in the stark contradiction between the name and function of each of its ministries. The net effect of this psychological manipulation is a complete breakdown of the independence of an individual’s mind.
O'Brien
A mysterious, powerful, and sophisticated member of the Inner Party whom Winston believes is also a member of the Brotherhood. Winston senses that O’Brien is a rebel as well and wants to establish communication with him. Somehow, Winston feels that he can trust O’Brien.
Emmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein is introduced as the Enemy of the People during the Two Minutes Hate at the beginning of the novel. He was once an important member of the Party but became a traitor. Although he was sentenced to death, he escaped and formed the Brotherhood, an organized body of rebels committed to the destruction of the Party and the party’s way of life. The party members react with fury at his very image and words.
Chapter 2: Children
Winston’s encounter with the Parsons children in Chapter II demonstrates the Party’s influence on family life. Children are effectively converted into spies and trained to watch the actions of their parents with extreme suspicion. Mr. Parsons. Parsons is described as chubby and fervent Party official and the husband of the woman whose plumbing Winston fixed in Chapter II. An obnoxious and dull Party member that works at the Ministry of Truth. He has a dull wife and a group of suspicious, ill-mannered children who are members of the Junior Spies.
Winston's quote
“We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness”
Thoughtcrime
An idea that contradicts the social and political guidelines established by the party
Chapter 3: Winston's dream
Winston dreams of being with his mother on a sinking ship. He feels strangely responsible for his mother’s disappearance in a political purge almost twenty years ago. He then dreams of a place called The Golden Country, where the dark-haired girl takes off her clothes and runs toward him in an act of freedom that annihilates the whole Party.
Doublethink
The idea of “doublethink” emerges as an important consequence of the Party’s massive campaign of large-scale psychological manipulation. Simply put, doublethink is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s mind at the same time. As the Party’s mind-control techniques break down an individual’s capacity for independent thought, it becomes possible for that individual to believe anything that the Party tells them, even while possessing information that runs counter to what they are being told.
Exercising
Three slogans
That the national slogan of Oceania is equally contradictory is an important testament to the power of the Party’s mass campaign of psychological control. In theory, the Party is able to maintain that “War Is Peace” because having a common enemy keeps the people of Oceania united. “Freedom Is Slavery” because, according to the Party, the man who is independent is doomed to fail. By the same token, “Slavery Is Freedom,” because the man subjected to the collective will is free from danger and want. “Ignorance Is Strength” because the inability of the people to recognize these contradictions cements the power of the authoritarian regime.
Atomic bomb
The Party hides information, controls the history: past, present and future. Their alliances with Eurasia.
Chapter 4: Winston's job in the Party
Winston works for the Records section of the Ministry of Truth, where he works with a “speakwrite” (a machine that types as he dictates into it) and destroys obsolete documents. He updates Big Brother’s orders and Party records so that they match new developments—Big Brother can never be wrong. This practice enables the workers at the Ministry of Truth to believe in the false versions of the records that they themselves have altered. With the belief of the workers, the records become functionally true.
Winston’s job with Comrade Ogilvy. Quote: “It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.”
It's showing how if a living person ever did something that defied the government, then any record of them ever existing had to be erased. But in the Ministry of Truth, you could make up a person who wasn't even real, but they would be passed off as a real person. It shows how society in the books has deteriorated so much that the government can erase anyone they want to and make up someone who was never actually real.
Vaporized
All records of their existence are deleted, as if that person never actually existed. They become a “nonperson.” This happens to the rebels against the Party.
Winston decides to fulfill his assignment in regard to Big Brother’s speech.
Winston alters the recorded Big Brother’s speeches to match the actual consequences in order to make Big Brother to always be right. Winston invents a person named Comrade Ogilvy and substitutes him for Comrade Withers in the records. Comrade Ogilvy, though a product of Winston’s imagination, is an ideal Party man, opposed to sex and suspicious of everyone.
Big brother
Though he never appears in the novel, and though he may not actually exist, Big Brother, the perceived ruler of Oceania, is an extremely important figure. Everywhere Winston looks he sees posters of Big Brother’s face bearing the message “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Big Brother’s image is stamped on coins and broadcast on the unavoidable telescreens; it haunts Winston’s life and fills him with hatred and fascination.
Chapter 5: Newspeak
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania. It aims to narrow the range of thought to render thoughtcrime impossible. If there are no words in a language that are capable of expressing independent, rebellious thoughts, no one will ever be able to rebel, or even to conceive of the idea of rebellion. Syme explains that the word “bad” is not necessary when you can always say “ungood”; also, the words “Excellent” or “splendid” can be easily replaced by “plusgood” The goal is to use ONE word for everything, to narrow the range of vocabulary to erase any possibility of generating concepts that could lead to free thinking.
Syme
Syme, an intelligent Party member who works on a revised dictionary of Newspeak. “Orthodoxy means no thinking –No needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” Syme thinks clearly, he’s too smart and speaks accordingly. The Party is not keen on his kind, Winston thinks Syme will be vaporized in the future. Syme wants from Winston a razor blade. At any given moment there was some necessary article which the Party shops were unable to supply. At present it was razor blades.
Ancestral memory
Winston remembers that the previous day the chocolate ration had been decreased to twenty grams. He wonders how all the people manage to believe the lie. He wonders if he is the only person with a memory. Winston wonders if life has always been the way it is now, and why he feels that some things are intolerable. He thinks he must have an ancestral memory that things had once been different.
Rules regarding sex and marriage for members of the Party in Oceania
Sex should be an act of procreation not to be enjoyed (certainly not by the woman), but to be barely endured as a ‘duty to the Party’. The Party’s real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Sex can be seen as the ultimate act of individualism, as a representation of ultimate emotional and physical pleasure, and for its roots in the individual’s desire to continue himself or herself through reproduction. By transforming sex into a duty, the Party strikes another psychological blow against individualism: under Big Brother’s regime, the goal of sex is not to reproduce one’s individual genes, but simply to create new members of the Party.
Winston's sexual life.
“When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same.” Winston’s tone is somber. He did not enjoy the experience; he just did it as an attempt to break Big Brother’s rules. Winston’s former wife Katherine hated sex, and as soon as they realized they would never have children, they separated
Setting
How is the city of London divided?
How is the city of London divided?
The city is dominated by four large mega-structures that represent the four ministries of the Party. What are these ministries? What are their functions? Describe them.
The city is dominated by four large mega-structures that represent the four ministries of the Party. What are these ministries? What are their functions? Describe them.
What kind of technology exists?
Chapter 7.
Questios: answer them and think in a currently example
1. How is Prole life different from the life of the Party members? Why? Cite specific examples from the text. 2. Analyze this quote from Winston: “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” Do you agree or disagree with him? 3. Explain what happened during the purges of the Revolution. Who are Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford? 4. What is the current understanding of what happened in the past? 5. Explain in your own words the quote: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
How is Prole life different from the life of the Party members? Why? Cite specific examples from the text.
Analyze this quote from Winston: “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” Do you agree or disagree with him?
In the novel, what is the current understanding of what happened in the past?
How does that differ from our current understanding of the past in our own world? What seems to be George Orwell’s comment or critic? (Hint: look up capitalism and communism)
Explain what happened during the purges of the Revolution. Who are Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford?
Explain in your own words the quote: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
- Winston thinks he is writing his diary for… whom?
For O’Brien, as a friendly letter.- What decision does Winston make?
He makes the decision to believe and trust in his own perception of reality, not in the one commanded by the party.Chapter 8
Chapter 8
- What is a steamer?
A colloquial word for “bomb”.- What is the meaning of “ownlife”? What does Winston’s “ownlife” consist of?
Individualism and eccentricity, or a desire to do something for your own benefit and not for the benefit of Big Brother. Winston writes a journal, takes walks in the prole district, visits prostitutes, and bars.- Summarize Winston’s conversation with the old prole man in the pub.
Winston treats an old man to a beer with the hope that the man tells him about how life was like before the party existed. Unfortunately, the man could not remember anything.- What inference can you make about the meaning of the nursery rhyme in this chapter.
Winston’s obsession with the past and the successful eradication of shared English culture by The Party.- What is Winston’s interaction with the dark-haired girl? Describe it.
As Winston walks back home through the Prole district, he runs into the dark-haired girl from work that he hates. She does not hide from him; she dares to look him in the eye and keep on her way. Winston is convinced that she is spying on him and panics.Chapter 8
- What is a steamer?
A colloquial word for “bomb”.- What is the meaning of “ownlife”? What does Winston’s “ownlife” consist of?
Individualism and eccentricity, or a desire to do something for your own benefit and not for the benefit of Big Brother. Winston writes a journal, takes walks in the prole district, visits prostitutes, and bars.- Summarize Winston’s conversation with the old prole man in the pub.
Winston treats an old man to a beer with the hope that the man tells him about how life was like before the party existed. Unfortunately, the man could not remember anything.- What inference can you make about the meaning of the nursery rhyme in this chapter.
Winston’s obsession with the past and the successful eradication of shared English culture by The Party.- What is Winston’s interaction with the dark-haired girl? Describe it.
As Winston walks back home through the Prole district, he runs into the dark-haired girl from work that he hates. She does not hide from him; she dares to look him in the eye and keep on her way. Winston is convinced that she is spying on him and panics.Real examples in Mexico and world.
Symbolism
A symbol is a person, place, or object that has a concrete meaning in itself and also represents something beyond itself, such as an idea or feeling. This chart provides some examples of common symbols. Symbolism is the practice of using symbols, and it is also the name of a literary movement that began in France in the late 19th century. The Symbolists emphasized the use of symbols to suggest states of mind and ideas that cannot be expressed directly.
ANALYZE CHARACTERIZATION
Characterization is the way a writer creates and develops characters. There are four basic methods of characterization:
- The narrator may comment directly about a character, including discussion of the character’s personality, social class, and economic status.
- The writer may describe the character’s physical appearance.
- The writer may present the character’s own thoughts, speech, and actions.
- The writer may present the character’s own thoughts, speech, and actions.The writer may develop the character through the thoughts, speech, and actions of other characters.
Characterization is often affected by the point of view from which a story is told, and it can have important connections to the theme, setting, and plot.Julia
Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark-haired girl working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Julia enjoys sex and claims to have had affairs with many Party members. Julia is pragmatic and optimistic. Her rebellion against the Party is small and personal, for her own enjoyment, in contrast to Winston’s ideological motivation.
Part 2- Chapter 1
At work one morning, Winston walks toward the men’s room and notices the dark-haired girl with her arm in a sling. She falls, and when Winston helps her up, she passes him a note that reads “I love you.” Winston tries desperately to figure out the note’s meaning. He has long suspected that the dark-haired girl is a political spy monitoring his behavior, but now she claims to love him. Before Winston can fully comprehend this development, Parsons interrupts him with talk about his preparations for Hate Week. The note from the dark-haired girl makes Winston feel a sudden, powerful desire to live. After several days of nervous tension during which he does not speak to her, Winston manages to sit at the same lunchroom table as the girl. They look down as they converse to avoid being noticed and plan a meeting in Victory Square where they will be able to hide from the telescreens amid the movement of the crowds. They meet in the square and witness a convoy of Eurasian prisoners being tormented by a venomous crowd. The girl gives Winston directions to a place where they can have their tryst, instructing him to take a train from Paddington Station to the countryside. They manage to hold hands briefly.
Part 2- Chapter 2
Executing their plan, Winston and the girl meet in the country. Though he has no idea what to expect, Winston no longer believes that the dark-haired girl is a spy. He worries that there might be microphones hidden in the bushes but feels reassured by the dark-haired girl’s evident experience. She tells him that her name is Julia, and tears off her Junior Anti-Sex League sash. Winston becomes aroused when they move into the woods, and they make love; the experience is nearly identical to the passionate sexual encounter about which Winston has dreamed. Afterward, Winston asks Julia if she has done this before, and she replies that she has—scores of times. Thrilled, he tells her that the more men she has been with, the more he loves her, since it means that more Party members are committing crimes.
Part 2- Chapter 3
The next morning, Julia makes the practical preparations for their return to London, and she and Winston head back to their normal lives. Over the coming weeks, they arrange several brief meetings in the city. At a rendezvous in a ruined church, Julia tells Winston about living in a hostel with thirty other girls, and about her first illicit sexual encounter. Unlike Winston, Julia is not interested in widespread rebellion; she simply likes outwitting the party and enjoying herself. She explains to Winston that the Party prohibits sex in order to channel the sexual frustration of the citizenry into fervent opposition to Party enemies and impassioned worship of Big Brother.
Part 2- Chapter 4
Winston looks around the little room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, which he has rented—foolishly, he thinks—for his affair with Julia. Outside, a burly, red-armed woman sings a song and hangs up her laundry. Winston and Julia have been busy with the city’s preparations for Hate Week, and Winston has been frustrated by their inability to meet. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Julia has had her period. Winston wishes that he and Julia could lead a more leisurely, romantic life, like an old, married couple. Julia comes into the room with sugar, coffee, and bread—luxuries only members of the Inner Party could normally obtain. She puts on makeup, and her beauty and femininity overwhelm Winston. Lounging in bed in the evening, Julia sees a rat; Winston, afraid of rats more than anything else, is horrified. Julia looks through the room and notices the paperweight. Winston tells her that the paperweight is a link to the past. They sing the song about St. Clement’s Church, and Julia says that one day she will clean the old picture of the church. When Julia leaves, Winston sits gazing into the crystal paperweight, imagining living inside it with Julia in eternal stasis.
Part 2- Chapter 5
As Winston predicted would happen, Syme vanishes. During the preparations for Hate Week, the city comes alive with the heat of the summer, and even the proles seem rowdy. Parsons hangs streamers everywhere and his children sing a new song, called “Hate Song,” written in celebration of the event. Winston becomes increasingly obsessed with the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, thinking about it even when he cannot go there. He fantasizes that Katherine will die, which would allow him to marry Julia; he even dreams of altering his identity to become a prole. Winston and Julia talk about the Brotherhood; he tells her about the strange kinship he feels with O’Brien, and she tells him that she believes the war and Party enemies like Emmanuel Goldstein to be Party inventions. Winston is put off by her thoughtless lack of concern and scolds her for being a rebel only from the waist down.
Part 2- Chapter 6
O’Brien makes contact with Winston, who has been waiting for this moment all his life. During his brief meeting with O’Brien in the hallway at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is anxious and excited. O’Brien alludes to Syme and tells Winston that he can see a Newspeak dictionary if he will come to O’Brien’s house one evening. Winston feels that his meeting with O’Brien continues a path in his life that began the day of his first rebellious thought. He thinks gloomily that this path will lead him to the Ministry of Love, where he expects to be killed. Though he accepts his fate, he is thrilled to have O’Brien’s address.
Part 2- Chapter 7
One morning, Winston wakes up crying in the room above Mr. Charrington’s antiques shop. Julia is with him and asks him what is wrong. He tells her that he has been dreaming of his mother and that until that moment, he has subconsciously believed that he murdered her. He is suddenly gripped with a sequence of memories that he had repressed. He remembers his childhood after his father left: he, his mother, and his baby sister spent most of their time in underground shelters hiding from air raids, often going without food. Consumed by hunger, Winston stole some chocolate from them and ran away, never to see them again. He hates the Party for having eliminated human feelings. He believes that the proles are still human, but that Party members like him and Julia are forced to suppress their own feelings to the point that they become virtually inhuman.Winston and Julia worry because they know that if they are captured, they will be tortured and possibly killed, and that renting the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop dramatically increases the likelihood that they will be captured. Fretfully, they reassure one another that although the torture will undoubtedly make them confess their crimes, it cannot make them stop loving each other. They agree that the wisest course of action would be to leave the room forever, but they cannot.
Part 2- Chapter 8
The two take a serious risk by traveling to O’Brien’s together. Inside his sumptuous apartment, O’Brien shocks Winston by turning off the telescreen. Believing that he is free of the Party’s observation, Winston boldly declares that he and Julia are enemies of the Party and wish to join the Brotherhood. O’Brien tells them that the Brotherhood is real, that Emmanuel Goldstein exists and is alive, and leads them through a ritual song to initiate them into the order of rebellion. He asked to Julia and Winston: Are you ready to be apart from each other? O’Brien gives them wine, and Winston proposes that they drink to the past. Julia leaves, and O’Brien promises to give Winston a copy of Goldstein’s book, the manifesto of the revolution. O’Brien tells Winston that they might meet again one day. Winston asks if he means in the place where there is no darkness, and O’Brien confirms by repeating the phrase. O’Brien fills Winston in on the missing verses from the St. Clement’s Church rhyme. As Winston leaves, O’Brien turns on the telescreen and returns to his work.
Part 2- Chapter 9
After a ninety-hour workweek, Winston is exhausted. In the middle of Hate Week, Oceania has switched enemies and allies in the ongoing war, heaping upon Winston a tremendous amount of work to compensate for the change. At one rally, the speaker is forced to change his speech halfway through to point out that Oceania is not, and has never been, at war with Eurasia. Rather, the speaker says, Oceania is, and always has been, at war with Eastasia. The people become embarrassed about carrying the anti-Eurasia signs and blame Emmanuel Goldstein’s agents for sabotaging them. Nevertheless, they exhibit full-fledged hatred for Eastasia. In the room at Mr. Charrington’s, Winston reads through Goldstein’s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, given to him by O’Brien. This lengthy book, with chapter titles taken from party slogans such as “WAR IS PEACE” and “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” traces a theory of social classes throughout recent history: High Class, Middle Class, and Low Class—the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. According to the manifesto, Eurasia was created when Russia subsumed all of Europe, Oceania was created when the United States absorbed the British Empire, and Eastasia is made up of the remaining nations. These three nations keep their respective populaces preoccupied with a perpetual border war in order to preserve power among the High class.
Part 2- Chapter 9
Goldstein writes that the war never advances significantly, as no two allied nations can defeat the third. The war is simply a fact of life that enables the ruling powers to keep the masses ignorant of life in other places—the real meaning of the phrase “WAR IS PEACE.” As Winston reads, Julia enters the room and flings herself into his arms. She is casually glad to know that he has the book. After half an hour in bed together, during which they hear the red-armed woman singing outside, Winston reads to Julia from the book. Goldstein explains that the control of history is a central tool of the Party. He adds that doublethink allows Inner Party members to be the most zealous about pursuing the war mentality, even though they know the falsity of the histories they write. Winston finally asks Julia if she is awake—she is not—and falls asleep himself. His last thought is that “sanity is not statistical.”
Part 2- Chapter 9
While Winston lies in bed the next morning, the red-armed woman outside begins to sing, waking Julia. Winston looks at the woman through the window, admires her fertility, and imagines that the proles will one day give rise to a race of conscious, independent individuals who will throw off the yoke of Party control. Winston and Julia look at the woman and realize that although they are doomed, she might hold the key to the future. Both Winston and Julia say, “We are the dead,” and out of the shadows a third voice interjects, “You are the dead.” Suddenly, the two realize that a telescreen is hidden behind the picture of St. Clement’s Church. Stomping boots echo from outside; the house is surrounded. A familiar voice speaks the last lines of the St. Clement’s rhyme: “Here comes a candle to light you to bed / Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!” The window shatters, and black-clad troops pour in. They smash the paperweight, and Winston thinks about its smallness. The troops kick Winston and beat Julia. Winston becomes disoriented; he cannot tell the time on the old-fashioned clock in the room. As the troops restrain Winston, Mr. Charrington enters the room and orders someone to pick up the shards from the shattered paperweight. Winston realizes that Mr. Charrington’s voice was the one coming from the telescreen, and that Mr. Charrington is a member of the Thought Police.
Part 3- Chapter 1
Winston sits in a bright, bare cell in which the lights are always on—he has, at last, arrived at the place where there is no darkness. Four telescreens monitor him. He has been transferred here from a holding cell in which a huge prole woman who shares the last name Smith wonders if she is Winston’s mother. In his solitary cell, Winston envisions his captors beating him, and he worries that sheer physical pain will force him to betray Julia. Ampleforth, a poet whose crime was leaving the word “God” in a Rudyard Kipling translation, is tossed into the cell. He is soon dragged away to the dreaded Room 101, a place of mysterious and unspeakable horror. Winston shares his cell with a variety of fellow prisoners, including his flatulent neighbor Parsons, who was turned in by his own children for committing thoughtcrime. Seeing starvation, beating, and mangling, Winston hopes dearly that the Brotherhood will send him a razorblade with which he might commit suicide. His dreams of the Brotherhood are wrecked when O’Brien, his hoped-for link to the rebellion, enters his cell. Winston cries out, “They’ve got you too!” To which O’Brien replies, “They got me long ago,” and identifies himself as an operative of the Ministry of Love. O’Brien asserts that Winston has known O’Brien was an operative all along, and Winston admits that this is true. A guard smashes Winston’s elbow, and Winston thinks that no one can become a hero in the face of physical pain because it is too much to endure.
Part 3- Chapter 2
O’Brien oversees Winston’s prolonged torture sessions. O’Brien tells Winston that his crime was refusing to accept the Party’s control of history and his memory. As O’Brien increases the pain, Winston agrees to accept that O’Brien is holding up five fingers, though he knows that O’Brien is actually holding up only four—he agrees that anything O’Brien wants him to believe is true. He begins to love O’Brien, because O’Brien stops the pain; he even convinces himself that O’Brien isn’t the source of the pain. O’Brien tells Winston that Winston’s current outlook is insane, but that torture will cure him. O’Brien tells Winston that the Party has perfected the system practiced by the Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Soviets—it has learned how to eliminate its enemies without making martyrs of them. It converts them, and then ensures that, in the eyes of the people, they cease to exist. Slowly, Winston begins to accept O’Brien’s version of events. He begins to understand how to practice doublethink, refusing to believe memories he knows are real. O’Brien offers to answer his questions, and Winston asks about Julia. O’Brien tells him that Julia betrayed him immediately. Winston asks if Big Brother exists in the same way that he himself does, and O’Brien replies that Winston does not exist. Winston asks about the Brotherhood, and O’Brien responds that Winston will never know the answer to that question. Winston asks what waits in Room 101, and O’Brien states that everyone knows what waits in Room 101.
Part 3- Chapter 3
After weeks of interrogation and torture, O’Brien tells Winston about the Party’s motives. Winston speculates that the Party rules the proles for their own good. O’Brien tortures him for this answer, saying that the Party’s only goal is absolute, endless, and limitless power. Winston argues that the Party cannot alter the stars or the universe; O’Brien answers that it could if it needed to because the only reality that matters is in the human mind, which the Party controls. O’Brien forces Winston to look in a mirror; he has completely deteriorated and looks gray and skeletal. Winston begins to weep and blames O’Brien for his condition. O’Brien replies that Winston knew what would happen the moment he began his diary. O’Brien acknowledges that Winston has held out by not betraying Julia, and Winston feels overwhelmed with love and gratitude toward O’Brien for recognizing his strength. However, O’Brien tells Winston not to worry, as he will soon be cured. O’Brien then notes that it doesn’t matter, since, in the end, everyone is shot anyhow.
Part 3- Chapter 4
After some time, Winston is transferred to a more comfortable room and the torture eases. He dreams contently of Julia, his mother, and O’Brien in the Golden Country. He gains weight and is allowed to write on a small slate. He comes to the conclusion that he was foolish to oppose the Party alone and tries to make himself believe in Party slogans. He writes on his slate “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,” “TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE,” and “GOD IS POWER.” One day, in a sudden, passionate fit of misery, Winston screams out Julia’s name many times, terrifying himself. Though he knows that crying out in this way will lead O’Brien to torture him, he realizes his deep desire to continue hating the Party. He tries to bottle up his hatred so that even he will not recognize it. Therefore, when the Party kills him, he will die hating Big Brother—a personal victory. But he cannot hide his feelings. When O’Brien arrives with the guards, Winston tells him that he hates Big Brother. O’Brien replies that obeying Big Brother is not sufficient—Winston must learn to love him. O’Brien then instructs the guards to take Winston to Room 101.
Part 3- Chapter 5
In Room 101, O’Brien straps Winston to a chair, then clamps Winston’s head so that he cannot move. He tells Winston that Room 101 contains “the worst thing in the world.” He reminds Winston of his worst nightmare—the dream of being in a dark place with something terrible on the other side of the wall—and informs him that rats are on the other side of the wall. O’Brien picks up a cage full of enormous, squirming rats and places it near Winston. He says that when he presses a lever, the door will slide up and the rats will leap onto Winston’s face and eat it. With the writhing, starving rats just inches away, Winston cracks. He screams that he wants O’Brien to subject Julia to this torture instead of him. O’Brien, satisfied by this betrayal, removes the cage.
Part 3- Chapter 6
Winston, now free, sits at the Chestnut Tree Café, where dismissed Party members go to drink. He enjoys a glass of Victory Gin and watches the telescreen. He accepts everything the Party says and does. Without acknowledging it to himself, he can still smell the rats. On the table, Winston traces “2 + 2 = 5” in the dust. He remembers seeing Julia on a bitter-cold day that March. She had thickened and stiffened, and he now found the thought of sex with her repulsive. They acknowledged that they had betrayed one another, and agreed to meet again, though neither is truly interested in continuing their relationship. Winston thinks he hears the song lyrics “Under the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you sold me,” which he heard when he saw the political prisoners there many years earlier. He begins to cry. He remembers a moment of happiness with his mother and sister, but thinks it must be a false memory. He looks up and sees a picture of Big Brother on the telescreen, making him feel happy and safe. As he listens to the war news, he reassures himself of both the great victory he has won over himself and his newfound love for Big Brother.
Part 3- Chapter 6
Winston, now free, sits at the Chestnut Tree Café, where dismissed Party members go to drink. He enjoys a glass of Victory Gin and watches the telescreen. He accepts everything the Party says and does. Without acknowledging it to himself, he can still smell the rats. On the table, Winston traces “2 + 2 = 5” in the dust. He remembers seeing Julia on a bitter-cold day that March. She had thickened and stiffened, and he now found the thought of sex with her repulsive. They acknowledged that they had betrayed one another, and agreed to meet again, though neither is truly interested in continuing their relationship. Winston thinks he hears the song lyrics “Under the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you sold me,” which he heard when he saw the political prisoners there many years earlier. He begins to cry. He remembers a moment of happiness with his mother and sister, but thinks it must be a false memory. He looks up and sees a picture of Big Brother on the telescreen, making him feel happy and safe. As he listens to the war news, he reassures himself of both the great victory he has won over himself and his newfound love for Big Brother.
ANALYZE THEMES
Theme is the central idea, concern, or purpose in a literary work. In an essay, the theme might be directly stated in what is known as a thesis statement. In a serious literary work, the theme is usually expressed indirectly rather than directly. A light work, one written strictly for entertainment, may not have a theme. Main theme: Dangers of Totalitarianism 1984 is a political novel written to warn readers in the West of the dangers of having a totalitarian government. Having witnessed firsthand the horrific lengths to which totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia would go to sustain and increase their power, Orwell designed 1984 to sound the alarm in Western nations still unsure about how to approach the rise of communism. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, many American intellectuals supported communism, and the state of diplomacy between democratic and communist nations was highly ambiguous. In the American press, the Soviet Union was often portrayed as a great moral experiment. Orwell, however, was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppressions he observed in communist countries and seems to have been particularly concerned by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments to monitor and control their citizens.