Orwell’s “1984” --Prose Analysis 2 of 2

Independent Reading #2

Orwell’s “1984” --Prose Analysis 2 of 2

“He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head, you could still outwit them. With all their cleverness they had never mastered the secret of finding out what another human being was thinking.” Pg. 138

It’s amazing at the amount of information you can pull from a passage…

The telescreen is a machine that records and watches what you do and say. It can hear you, see you and it even broadcasts important information (like news). In this passage the telescreen is referred to like a human and this is called personification. This machine (non-human being) is given the sense of hearing and sight. It is also given certain humanly characteristics such as cleverness and the act of spying on someone.

Delving into a deeper level, why would Orwell make Winston refer to the telescreen like a much abhorred person? Why is Winston referring to this machine like a person? In my opinion, humans are the most dangerous creatures on this planet. We are capable of many beautiful and wonderful things, but on the flipside, we are also capable of the most horrendous of things (i.e. the destruction of humanity, and the society they live in serves as an excellent example). Humans bring life and destruction. That is why Winston is referring to the telesreen as if it is a living human. By emphasizing how human it is, is Winston hinting on how the telescreen and those who monitor him become the cause of his inevitable destruction? Is this foreshadowing of what will happen to Winston?

Orwell’s “1984” --Response 3 of 4

Independent Reading #2

Orwell’s “1984” --Response 3 of 4

Pgs.132-197

This particular section contained a lot of information and a lot went on in the course of a few chapters. One particular part that I surprisingly enjoyed was when Winston read the book that O’Brien gave to him to read after Julia and Winston visited his flat. The complexity and the amount of knowledge that the book held is astonishing.

It’s quite amusing how I read this entire section in one sitting while waiting for my doctor to arrive. That’s how tedious the whole waiting period was. There were moments where I would have to stop, reread and then brood about a particular paragraph or conversation in the book. Some of the other patients would stare at me in complete curiosity because of my perpetually creased brow. That’s just how fascinated I was. I finally understood more of the operations and functions of previous societies and how Oceana came to be. I especially found pleasure with Orwell’s reference to the classes (i.e. low, middle and high classes). The book written by Goldstein claimed that every society had their Low, Middle and High. For Oceana, the Low would be the Proles, the Middle being the Outer Party and the Inner Party would be the High. Everything stated in this book is true. There was this particular quote in the book that I can’t quite locate that states that if you keep the society ignorant of what they could have, then they won’t want it and believe that what they have is the best that they could ever obtain because they wouldn’t know any better. Of course that’s common sense, but the blatantly wise statement of such an idea is both horrifying and amazing.

Also, the part about having constant war so that the society can keep the peace was amazingly exhilarating. That statement is a paradox, but in Oceana, it is found true. If the society is in constant war with no one really hurting each other and just constantly depleting supplies that your nation manufactured, then that society would be frozen from progress. A perpetual war is just like perpetual peace (which, by the way, never really occurs.) With no outcome, everyone in the society would be kept in constant routine motions and they would be forced to not think otherwise than their common goal.

Another wonderful statement would be when the book states that whoever has control of the past has control of the present and future because if you think about it, it’s quite true. If you had all documents of the past re-written to fit your present, you can control the outcome of the present, therefore creating your future. The “they” who want to hold this power is the High. The problem is, which is stated in the book, is that the Low, Middle and High are in constant changes. The Middle would want what the High have and would rebel with the Low calling it a rebellious act for freedom and “liberty.” Once the Middle have won and have succeeded in throwing the High off their thrown, they become the High and proceed to toss the Low back to where they belong, so really, the Low just stay where they’re at while constantly wishing for a change. Then, the cycle repeats itself.

Doublethink is a newspeak word where you would have to hold two contradicting thoughts and accept both. As a very logical person, I had a hard time comprehending how this is done. Another part of that rule is that if another thing comes up and replaces that of which you accepted already, you just accept it without hesitation. I ask how this is even possible. It’s just wrong. That just goes against everything I was brought up to believe in. It goes against reasoning. If two things are contradicting, it obviously means one is wrong and the other is right; unless both do not supply enough information to discredit the other and both are correct.

I apologize with the jumbled thoughts, but like I asserted earlier, there was a significant amount of information and my mind is recovering from shock. I seriously was mind-blown with all these epiphanies. One thing I’m sure of: I would never survive in Oceania. I’m too opposite; different. I do not conform and I don’t bode well with incompetent, bigoted authorities. I'm glad I live in this society. How would you feel if you were forced to even think a certain way and you would be immediately annihilated if you do otherwise?

Orwell’s “1984” --Response 2 of 4

Independent Reading #2

Orwell’s “1984” --Response 2 of 4

Pgs.70-129

Again, this section was a fabulous read. I literally ate this part in one sitting; that’s just how awesome it is. There are several parts in this section that have literally caught me off guard and have amazed me thus far. Some of these parts include Julia confessing her love for Winston, them condemning their lives when Winston allows himself to be slowly drawn towards the adventure, and Winston accepting Julia’s advances leaving him doomed.

The story is complex in a way because of Julia and Winston’s lovemaking. It’s ironic because Julia is just a means for Winston, even if Winston does not recognize it yet. The irony stems from Winston’s need to live and his involvement in life occurring exactly at the moment when his time is short because of the very nature of the act itself. Winston’s dual mind characterized him throughout the second part. He knew that what he and Julia are doing is wrong, but she has given him hope. Winston has learned to hope but he has learned to hope at the very moment when he has placed himself in a hopeless situation. This is where we need to realize that Julia is just the means, as I mentioned earlier.

Something else I realized is that even if Julia and Winston share the same dislike towards the Party and Big Brother, they have nothing else in common. Julia doesn’t care for anything that doesn’t touch her life; she deems it unimportant, even if Winston believes that it is important. Julia just wants to be able to live how she wants to but she believes that there is no way to change what’s happened to their world, even if Winston believes otherwise. During this part of the story, there are a lot of realizations that occur and I can’t help but think, “Why is he with this girl?” The only reason must be because he was initially attracted to her, like other males. She was full of youth and she was against the Party’s ways.

IR#2- Orwell’s “1984”-Response 1 of 4

Orwell’s “1984”-Response 1 of 4

Independent Reading #2

Reader’s Response #1

I had an amazing time reading the first section of my book. Orwell is a genius! His scope of comprehension, especially at that time, is amazing! For someone to be able to know so much and to think in depth, like he does, is just ridiculously cool. He is someone I would most likely enjoy meeting (I think). There are several statements in this book that is just total genius that I must quote them:

“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” (Pg. 64)

My response to this quote would be one of horrification. Think about the power that “Big Brother” and “The Party” must wield to be able to make something as preposterous and hideous as this to occur. I was always that you can’t change history, but you have the power to control your present and therefore, alter the future. But this, this is just ludicrous! Everything recorded “historically” is altered and re-altered and the piece that was altered was destroyed. Doesn’t that just defeat the purpose of “history.” We were meant to learn from our mistakes through history because that is our nature. How will these people ever learn if all they do is change the past to fit their needs in the present and to secure their future? No human being has the right to alter and change what has already happened. If “the lie became the truth,” I wouldn’t know how to live with myself. Granted, it would be harder to remember what was right and what was wrong because the past is erased and changed to something different so then I would have no stable hold to cling to.

If the lie became the truth and the truth became the lie, the world will be chaotic. No one has the right to turn the world upside down. The funny thing about altering the past is that when you do that, you end up not having a legitimate past to rely on so all you’re living for is the present and I guess that’s what Big Brother wants to achieve to secure his future.

“He seemed to be breaking up before one’s eyes, like a mountain crumbling.”

Winston is describing how Rutherford looked like when he saw him a couple years back at this café. What caught my attention was his simile. I could understand if he compared Rutherford’s crumbling to some other insignificant object like a rock, or a building, but the mountain? Now why would Orwell make Winston compare Rutherford to a crumbling mountain? This is because Rutherford was considered a very strong, unyielding, immobile, and stubborn person. He was a source of undiscovered hope for this people and he too crumpled under the tyranny of Big Brother. He crumbled like a mountain. For a mountain to crumble and fall apart, it takes much effort, determination, erosion and persistence. It’s obvious that even hope can cease to exist in extreme cases; especially when the people who need the hope don’t recognize their need for change- their need for hope.

“The heresy of heresies was common sense.”

Because thoughtcrime was inadmissible, a lot of thoughts have been prohibited to the public. To think that even your thoughts were not your own, is a scary thing to behold to someone like me, who relishes imagination and logic. If even common sense (something my parents try to teach me) is not allowed, then what other thoughts can I own?

“If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself was controllable, what then?”

Exactly Winston! What then? Oh, what shall we do?

Then, whoever is the controller of that mind, controls how the controlled person perceives the past and the external world. Meaning, if the controller controlled all the minds of the people under his influence, then he controls the past and the external world (for those set of people). Power is scary.

What I thought to be quite interesting was how Huxley’s Brave New World is the total opposite of Orwell’s 1984. While Huxley’s setting in the book is clean, antiseptic and perfectly ordered, Orwell’s setting in his book is dingy, unclean to the point of disease infestation, sickly, dire and other unimaginable horror; even if there is some sense of control. A perfect-scary clean, brainwashed world vs. a chaotic-perfect-scary, dirty controlled hell. Science fiction- you’ve got to love it.

George Orwell's "1984"

Well, first quarter has come to pass and so has Independent Reading #1 (well, that’s what I’m hoping for all of you). Now, we move on to second quarter and also to Independent Reading #2. As you can see by the picture posted above (also the only picture that I could scrounge up from Google that looked anything remotely like the book I have), I am currently reading a novel called 1984 by George Orwell. Why have I chosen this book? Some of you (like Kazzandra) amusingly thought that I chose this book because it reminded them of the song 1985 by Bowling for Soup. Although that thought did fleetingly passed through my mind and that 1985 happens to be a really good song, “surprisingly”, that was not the reason of my choice. As most of you may know, I am guilty of having pleasure in reading science fiction. I did particularly enjoy devouring Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and since Mrs. Griffin suggested (since I loooved sci fi) that I tackle 1984, I made up my ever indecisive mind and signed the book out.
Since then, I must say, I am quite happy with my choice. Even though I have read half of the first section of my book, I still have many expectations from this book. I have already grown attached to the protagonist Winston Smith, who is a “happy” civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party’s propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient always correct. Already, he has gained thoughts of rebellion even though he confessed that he took pride in his work. (Ok, I’m starting to gush. Enough of that incessant rambling Alana! I’m terribly sorry. You wouldn’t understand much of what I’m saying.)
I have a funny feeling that he’s going to get together with that sexy brunette that swore herself to this anti-sex league (intriguing to all males right?). I also believe that that small act of rebellion is going to grow. I guess I’ll have to read to find out…
**Food for thought: George Orwell was not always against totalitarianism (even though he really detested authority), but a lot of several things led to his decision of finally being against totalitarianism and being for democratic socialism. (Which also lead him to write several of his books including 1984) I read some excerpts of his essay, “Why I Write” which was published in1947. Some of the initiators would be Hitler, the Spanish Civil war, etc. The Spanish war and other events during 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter, he knew where he would be standing. After writing a book that would fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole (Animal Farm), he hoped to write another that would expose the lie that he wants to draw attention to and to initially get a hearing. Then he wrote 1984. This miraculous book has been translated to 62 languages. Along with Animal Farm, they had sold more than 40 million copies by 1984. In the US, it sold 1,000 copies a day that year. (That is AMWAZING!) What was sad about what had occurred while he was writing this book was: he experienced a bout of tuberculosis. He was then admitted to the hospital where even then they took away his typewriter. Ever determined and undaunted, he wrote longhand and with ball-point pen and continued his work. Sadly, he was administered a newly developed drug to which he suffered severe allergic reactions. Because of this allergic reaction, his skin flaked, his mouth became painfully ulcerated, and his hair and nails fell out. After several months of recuperation in the hospital, he was allowed to be discharged and returned to his home on the remote Scottish island on Jura. There, he finished writing 1984 in December 1948. After that, he went immediately back into the hospital and was never again healthy enough to return home. 1984 was published in June 1949 and Orwell died several months later on January 21, 1950 at the age of 46.
What did I say, isn’t he amazing or what? The book should have already relayed this fact right?
Anyway, that was just a fun fact that I learned about.