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.