The Ending To 1984 And The U.S.

The ending of 1984 left me pondering the idea of the control of the government, one of the major themes of the book. It is interesting the idea of torture to change people and to get people to divulge information especially about the others in their society. Another  parallel that we seen between our society and Oceania. Recently we have seen the U.S. use torture as a mechanism to intimidate and interrogate other people, despite it being against our constitution. They can get away with if it is beyond our borders or if it is done to non-U.S citizens, which is basically bending the rules while most people turn a blind eye. It is interesting to think that one day the U.S. and the CIA could bend the rules in our own country and people would be tortured for information, even for fairly menial bits. It could easily happen and it has in various points in war time, as well as incidents including camps for the Japanese American citizens in California. The hidden power and potential of the government is quite scary when we look at from a far.
I think that 1984 is a really interesting book because of the parallels to our society today; however, the plot itself I found not as compelling and I was never that engaged. Still worth the read but it is not as fast paced and mind blowing as I thought it would be, due to the great reviews that it receives even to this day.

Newspeak

Orwell plays with the idea of using language to control people.  Language controls and limits what people think.  In Oceania they created a new language called Newspeak.  Newspeak is a language in its beginning years.  Winston and his friends do not use it very often, but sporadically.  Syme is one of the people who is helping to create the Newspeak dictionary and he explains that the ultimate goal is to keep cutting the language down.  Instead of new words being added like in normal languages, they want to keep eliminating words that they decide are unnecessary or that could be used to think or say things that are contrary to what the Party believes or that is in opposition to Big Brother.  By doing this the Party will have the people completely under their control.  Nobody will be able to think or speak in opposition of them because there will be no words in which to explain that notion.

This concept is hard for me to relate to because I cannot imagine a world in which I am incapable of having an opinion different from everyone else.  Before reading this book, I never thought of language as something that could limit/does limit our thoughts.  The Party uses many techniques to control the people of Oceania.  They constantly monitor everyone through telescreens, they have the thought police who can read what people are thinking, and they can manipulate history in order to make the Party always be right.  Once they complete Newspeak, though, I believe that it would be the greatest form of control that they have.  It would be a way for them to eliminate 100% any chance of a rebellion.  There couldn't even be talk of a rebellion because no one would be able to say or think that the Party was in any way bad or not perfect.

The ending of 1984 is a disheartening one. Throughout the book, Orwell presents a hopeful case in which love and passion will have the ability to overcome the shackles of society. The relationship between Winston and Julie seems promising and their conviction against Big Brother is strong. When Winston is captured and tortured, however, he is quick to betray his love. Orwell's message seems clear. We must protect our rights. In a society where the government has total censorship over everything, public announcements, history, and even thoughts,the people suffer the most. While the protagonist, Winston, knows something is wrong with the way society is run, he fails to make succesful changes. As he says "the future is in the proles", the area of non party members who live with more freedoms. While their life is more dangerous and unregulated, the sense of liberty and independence they posses is greater than any party member and that is the society which we should model ourselves after. In the end, I enjoyed Orwell's novel. The one section where Winston reads Goldstein's book is extremely slow and difficult to read but that part aside I thought the book was engaging and enjoyable.

1984...DISSAPOINTING!

Although I was not surprised that 1984 ended in such an unremarkable way, the ending was still as disappointing.  The ending slightly reminded me of the ending to Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood because the reader never get's to see a rebellion come into fruition.  However, even though the ending to 1984 is not very entertaining, it realistically portrays the fact that extremely oppressive governments almost always stifle free thought and rebellion.  Overall, this book is no Animal Farm and I found it to be slow paced and mundane.

Controlling The Past

The concept I found the most intriguing in 1984 is that the government controls all information regarding past events.  Winston is a member of the department whose sole job is to destroy and rewrite history according to how the government wants it to be remembered.  They go as far as creating new people, deleting others, creating false wars, and changing who they are allied with.  They do all of this without society finding out bout what is going on and getting angry.  They have completely brainwashed the population into believing everything they say, even if it contradicts what they have been saying for years prior.  We know that Winston is conscious of what he is doing.  He realizes that society is being controlled and brainwashed by what he is helping to do, and we know that he thinks it is wrong.  What of his coworkers?  Do they understand what they are doing?
If there is one way to completely dominate and control a group of people, it is to control how they remember the past.  In 1984 it is accomplished, it seems, with ease.  Nobody ever realizes that they are being lied to other than isolated people like Winston and Julia.  The novel ends without anything changing.  In reality I do not think that this could ever be accomplished.  There are too many people who would realize what is happening, point it out and put a stop to it.  For anything like this to actually happen, there would have to be a tremendous force ready and willing to support and back up who ever was controlling the rewrite of the past.  I can't even imagine how one would go about creating a society like Oceania.  What was it like in the beginning as history was just starting to change?

What makes Winston different?

At the beginning of the novel I found myself wondering why Winston was different from other people.  Winston was rejecting Big Brother and society right in the first chapter by buying, and then writing in the diary.  He does these things, knowing that he will eventually be caught and most likely killed by the thought police, that there is no possibility of him getting away. 

We hear about how there are always people disappearing, being taken in the middle of the night by the thought police and never being seen again.  Winston predicts that his acquaintance from work, Syme, will eventually become a target of the thought police.  Syme’s only crime will have been that he was too intelligent, too aware of what was happening in the party for him to stay in favor.  If Syme is so intelligent why does he not see the flaws in Oceania.  Winston is the only person we see rejecting Big Brother, and having negative feelings toward the government.

How is Winston different?  Why is he the only one who notices the issues with the way things are being run?  And if there are in fact others who notice these problems, why has no one tried to do something?

I found the end of the novel to be very disappointing and depressing .  Over the course of the book, Winston seemed to be the last person who could distinguish between past and present.  He also was portrayed as one of the few who rejected Ingsoc and the Party.  I found myself hoping that Winston and Julia (and perhaps O'Brien) would do something more consequential.  I was frustrated that they didn't do more to bring on a change.  I would have been much more satisfied with the book if Winston had either achieved something noteworthy or at least died trying.  I was very surprised by his sudden love for Big Brother on the last page.  I expected the end to be more abrupt and less final, like The Handmaid's Tale and The Road.
The appendix also seemed strange and a bit out of place.  It felt weird to learn about the language after I had finished the book and when it would have no use to me.  The appendix reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale's last few pages.  The end of The Handmaid's Tale gave some insight into the book that was clarifying to the reader and offered some clues about what happened to Offred.  The appendix in 1984 seemed random, unhelpful, and boring.  If it had been at the beginning of the novel instead of the end, it may have perhaps allowed me to understand certain phrases better; yet, it still seemed superfluous.
Overall, I was dissatisfied by this book.  I had heard lots of praise for the novel and enjoyed Animal Farm, another of Orwell's novel; however, I found 1984 to be boring and dense.  I was especially annoyed by the finish of the novel.  I was frustrated by the way the novel turned out and the lack of closure.  I still feel confused about how this drastic change came about in Winston, especially after reading so many pages about him resisting the Party.  

About to be some turmoil?

With O'briens luxurious flat and ability to turn of the telescreen we see that it is possible for many other high-ranking officials to be supporters of Goldstein and not be found out. Prior to this we had thought that no one could turn telescreens off and that everyone was subject to them 24/7, but this is not the case. This also made me more willing to believe that there is a Brotherhood and possibly a big rebellion in the works. I recognize that it is a small percentage of the people as of right now, but it does seem fairly promising. This is also very similar to the Handmaids Tail with Ofglen telling everything to Offred about "Mayday". We are unsure as to how many there are, but we do know that there is an organized group of citizens that want a change. I can't wait to see how the rest of the book turns out, especially because this last scene has set it up to be really interesting.

The book 1984 explores the role of technology in a future society. In the most recent readings, technology is starting to play a more minor role in Winston's life. This starts with his discovery of the room in the attic of the antique shop. This room is one of the few places it seems in all of Oceania without a telescreen. Julie and Winston spend there time in the attic, away from technology, forming a close relationship, talking, and making love. Furthermore, we see technology cut out when Winston and Julie meet with O'Brien and O'Brien is able to turn of the telescreen completely. Without Big Brother constantly monitoring them, they are able to converse about the Brotherhood and their plot to defeat the system. In both cases, without the presence of technology, people are able to form a powerful connection. Orwell seems to be commenting on how technology separates people and can affect the social climate. This is true today. People are constantly on the phones, on the computer, watching T.V. It seems rare for people to be completely removed from technology at any point in their life. I think technology is having an extremely negative impact on the way people interact with one another and people are no longer concerned with how meaningful their true friendships are but how many Facebook friends they have.

Rebellion in 1984 vs. Rebellion in Handmaid's Tale

While reading 1984, I have found many similarities between said novel and Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.  In both novels, the main protagonists have thoughts of rebellion which grow and grow like a seed into a beautiful tree!  Winston is definitely unsatisfied with his society as Offred was with her society, and helps spread the thoughts of rebellion to his associates.  For instance, both he and Julia have thoughts of rebellion, but Julia likes to rebel in more subtle ways.  Also, in both novels, the main protagonists have dreams and visions from the past, before their society was so corrupted.  While Offred dreams of a time when the Republic of Gilead was not in power and she could spend time with her beloved friend, Moira, Winston dreams of a time when Great Britain was not a part of Oceania, an autocracy maybe even more oppressive than Gilead.

Winston's Dreams

Winston's subconscious thoughts which the reader sees through his dreams, like his daytime thoughts, are always about the past or the future.  I find this especially interesting because Julia's thoughts are always on the present moment.  While Winston spends hours reflecting on and pondering the past, both at work and in his own free time, and wondering about his death, Julia couldn't care less.
In his dreams, Winston explores many memories and premonitions.  It seems like he has forgotten the majority of his past, especially his childhood.  Yet, once he dreams about his mother, "the cluster of small events surrounding it had all come back" (160).  It is strange how dreaming of a single place or person can bring back so much of what has been lost or buried, intentionally or not.  I was taken aback by how cruel he had been as a child; his mild manner throughout the book would have led me to believe he would have behaved in the exact opposite way.  His mother reminded me of Mrs. Parsons because she too seemed to be scared of our children and helpless in taking care of or controlling them.
Julia's reaction to Winston's dream also struck me.  I am constantly surprised by how little she cares about so many of the things Winston find important.  She is sort of an enigma to me; I can never predict how she will act or get a good sense of her personality.  I can understand her desire to focus on the here and now; however, I can't see how she really doesn't care about anything but the present, especially when it is deeply personal and concerns someone she is close to.  
I'm curious if we will learn more about life before and during the Revolution in the rest of the book.  I also wonder what will become of him and Julia because it is clear that this secretive relationship and lack of shared interests can continue.  I hope that we will because one of the thing that frustrates me the most in books is when my questions aren't answered and that seems to be a pattern in dystopian books.

198four

The beginning to 1984, as Seamus previously wrote, has been fairly slow albeit very interesting and peculiar. Essentially George Orwell has, through the actions of the main character Winston and the descriptions of his environment, painted the picture for the dystopian society that the book will occur in. As we have discussed in our classes, the authors of dystopian novels usually extenuate and input certain characteristics of their own modern day society whether social, political or economic. George Orwell creates a setting where the government is all-seeing and extremely powerful, limiting many of the basic liberties that we take for granted in our lives. The government is lead by propaganda that decrees "Big Brother Is Watching", which is supposed to deter anyone from defecting or rebelling from Oceania. The powerful nature of the government is shown through the sequence of events of when Winston writes in a journal; something that had previously been banned by the government and would be considered as a major offense to the ideals of the society. He is initially extremely frightened by the idea, but at the same time is exhilarated by an act that seems so mundane and simple to us. I find it extremely interesting that George Orwell wrote this book so long ago, but that it reflects some of the issues that have manifested in our society today. With the emerging importance of technology in the lives of so many, the government is able to monitor and track people without their consent or knowledge. Personally, this sounds a lot like the what Oceania experiences in this novel, although it's citizens know they are being watch at all times because things have gotten so out of control. I am looking forward to reading more and connecting parallels to the U.S. today.

Until next time my fellow peers, fans and others,
  Ben 

1984

The start to George Orwell's novel 1984 has been very slow. Thus far, the book outlines the life of Winston Smith in the dystopian society of Oceania where everything and everyone is controlled by "Big Brother". The book is interesting to read in the 21st century because the book represents Orwell's projection of the world 34 years in the future, yet we are reading it as if it is 30 years in the past. Orwell has made eerily accurate predictions of what the world would be like although he is thirty years off. To start with, our world, like that of Oceania is dominated by screens. Winston's life is constantly monitored by a telescreen in his home which constantly watches him while feeding him information. In a similar sense, life today is dominated by screens whether it is a computer, cell phone, or a television screen it seems as though people are continuously connected to technology. Additionally, Orwell predicts the language of Newspeak which appears to be full of conjunctions and combining words. Today, we text and even speak in an entirely different language to make things shorter and simpler. Several interesting more philosophical topics have arisen in 1984 such as what is history. In the book, Winston's job is to correct how history is written so that his Party is always correct. This makes you question how we ever really know what true history really is because works from the past could be edited and rewritten or portrayed in a different light. Furthermore 1984 addresses the power of language and how theoretically you could adjust the language to control peoples thoughts. I think a real life example of this would be the fact that there was not a word for privacy in the Chinese language until recently because privacy was not a cultural phenomenon.

George Orwell the Prophet: The harrowing Reality that Mr. Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948...

I am going to be honest, I did not love the first twenty pages of 1984...I found it to be slightly dry and found myself speculating about how great it would be to read The Hunger Games!  However, after reading past the first twenty pages, I realize just how impressive this book really is.  I am a firm believer that it is important to shape your perspective with the knowledge that Orwell wrote this nearly prophetic novel three years after World War II.  Televisions were hardly a concept, computers and the idea of "memory" were in their infantile stages, and the idea of digital music and government surveillance was decades away.  Thus, how does such an author muster such an ability to foreshadow and create a creative, authentic dystopian society? Ask Orwell because I have not the slightest notion.  Clearly some form of distinctive and unique ingenuity is at play here because predicting the future of a nation four decades later so accurately after a technological revolution is a daunting and near-impossible test.  I think it would be interesting to see an author try to write a novel entitled 2053 to see if such a performance can be replicated?

Additionally, I see many subtle similarities between 1984 and Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, but feel that 1984 is a more impressive piece of literature because of its prophetic nature.  That being said, both  1984 and Handmaid's Tale have an equivalent of the "Thought Police", a government-implemented form of an oppressive police force which seeks out any form of dissent and swiftly crushed freedom of expression.  If I was to guess, I would wager that the "Thought Police" which Orwell invents in 1984 were inspired by the oppressive and brutal police forces in Russia and Germany: The SS and Gestapo respectively.  I am excited to see the progression of this novel and see just how much fight Winston has in him!

God Bless America and its Inhabitants,
         Kevin Michael Wholihan

1984 - Hannah Ryde

Initially, I was confused by the references to Newspeak in the first chapter.  Orwell first brings up Newspeak when introducing the reader to the Ministry of Truth  by giving the Newspeak abbreviation, "Minitrue,"in addition to the Oldspeak name.  In a footnote on that same page, Newspeak is defined as Oceania's official language and the reader is directed to the appendix for more information.  Further down the page, Orwell offers the Newspeak versions of the three other ministries, without any further explanation of the language.  These references to this unfamiliar language struck me as strange; they seemed to be added as a side note.  Although they gave me more details about the society, they seemed somewhat irrelevant.  Why would Orwell include these made-up words when they are in a language that I don't know and that the characters don't use frequently?  It seemed contrary to everything I had been taught about novels; everything was supposed to be relevant to the plot and every detail that wasn't necessary shouldn't be included.
It wasn't until many pages later, in the fifth chapter, when Winston sits down to lunch with Syme, who is writing the eleventh edition of the Newspeak dictionary that Newspeak seemed significant.  As Syme excitedly explains to Winston that he and his colleagues are "getting the language into it's final shape," it became clear that Newspeak is destined to become more common, and perhaps the sole language spoken in Oceania (50).  Syme believes that the destruction of words is "beautiful" and that "narrow[ing] the range of thought" will eliminate thoughtcrime (51, 52).  Although Syme certainly can't see it, and perhaps even Winston is not yet aware of the impending danger, it is evident to the modern day reader that these restrictions on language will bring about a serious threat to the already limited personal freedom of Oceania's citizens.  Especially coming from a society where we take freedom of speech for granted, the thought of not having the vocabulary to express myself is alarming.  Winston already feels alienated from nearly everyone because of his lack of support for The Party and the elimination of the words necessary to voice his opinions promises to further isolate and dissuade him.