Choose a quote from the chapters we have read in 1984 this week and explain what the quote means or how it contributes to a major theme or idea developed in the book.
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." page 1
This quote is the very first sentence in the book and at first it seems odd because most of us don't think about clocks showing hours 13 to 24, or military time. My thoughts on this are that there is obviously a strong sense of military in Oceania, especially since they are always in a war, and because every day they are subject to two minutes of war propaganda. I don't know that Orwell making everyone use military time is significant or even having to do with the strong sense of military but I think it is a possibility.
"Since about that time, war had been literally continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. For several months during his childhood there had been confused street fighting in London itself, some of which he remembered vividly. But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention of any other alignment than the existing one." chapter 3, page 31
This quote describes how the past is either forgotten or rewritten. The idea that the past could be changed in a way that persuades the people of Oceania that it was always like that is very interesting and shows how the society of Oceania is deeply brain washed by the control of the government. The government keeps the people under its rule by making them believe that what is happening at this moment, has always been. An important message sent by this is that the government is always right and can never be wrong. Another key idea this quote touches on is the idea of war. Winston recalls that Oceania has always been in war with someone or another. This also shows the control of the government. In order to be in control, the government must conquer everyone. One way they do this is through war with different countries.
"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (26)
The three slogans of the Party represent the concept of doublethink. Doublethink is believing in two conflicting ideas, for example, "war is peace" or "freedom is slavery." Doublethink is the key to the Party's ability to control the people. Winston and all of the other people who work at the Ministry of Truth must use doublethink in order to believe in the true history and the history that they are creating, even though these two "histories" don't match up.
"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below." pg. 7
As redundant as the first sentence of this quote is, it is clear to me that these words are evidence of a "Brave New World" type motifs. The idea that war is peace suggests that we must conform and ever fight for what we want as opposed to earning it. Freedom is slavery indicates a world of limitations and rules. This reminds me of Brave New World.
"Day by day and almost minute by minute, the past was brought up to date." pg. 36
This quote describes the work done, Winston's work, at the ministry of Truth. They change records or news articles to make them match what is happening in the present. This is done to control the future and to make it seem as though Big Brother is always right. This was called 'doublethink' in Newspeak. It is an interesting idea, to be able to change the past based on what is happening in the present in order to control the people and society.
"Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed-- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your head." Page 26 This quote is important to the book as a whole in that it really encompasses the ability of Big Brother, and how he is always watching. I think that the way that he controls everything, and people have lost the ability to express themselves will continue to be a theme that carries out through the entire book.
"At nineteen he had designed a hang grenade which had been a adopted by the Ministry of Peace and which, at its first trial, had killed thirty-one Eurasian prisoners in one burst." pg. 42
This is when Winston is describing Comrade Ogilvy, who was made up. It represents how in the book the themes are opposites of each other. Like "war is peace" and things like that. Because when the Ministry of Peace kills 31 and if it was really peace than there would be no killing. It represents the total feeling of the book that is kinda gloomy and down.
"Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there was still privacy, love, and friendship, and when the members of a family stood by one another without needing to know the reason." Page 30
This quote is when Winston is thinking about his mother. In the world that Winston lives in there is no tie to others, everyone is working against each other and there is no trust between people because you never know who is spying on you. Also the book states over and over again how children are telling on their parents, that they are raised to be spies and that they put all faith in the government. This demonstrates the difference from the past because no longer is there is a sacred bond between families, or between anyone for that matter. The government has succeed in making everyone feel like they are alone so it is impossible to have friendship or privacy.
"Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated" (32).
This quote shows the theme of how he will soon be the same as everyone else and won't be able to think for himself. This quote is saying that he soon won't be able to make decisions for himself and will become almost like a robot like everyone else. This is also kind of like Brave New World where it is bad to be different or think for one's self. It should be interesting how the rest of the book shapes out and if the ending is similar to that of Brave New World's.
"And this hall, with its fifty workers or thereabouts, was only one sub-section, a single cell, as it were, in the huge complexity of the Records Department. Beyond, above, below, were other swarms of workers engaged in an unimaginable multitude of jobs" (38).
Here when he describes the 'single cell' as just a part of the 'complexity of the Records Department'. Basically this reminds me of the idea that each individual is just a part of the whole. Each individual is not important, only the party is and what the individuals each work for. Just like in Brave New World, no one should have any personality, any characteristics that define them and make them unique from anyone else because they themselves aren't important. In a way, the second part of the quote made me think of a metaphor. The idea that their society is like a hive and they are all workers, but the only important thing that they all live for is the queen and the well-being of the hive. Molly Riegel
"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp." Pg 9
The different ministries set up in Oceania control different actions which take place in the community. Every system sets up boundaries for the people in the area, and they are punished for breaking the laws. This quote is interesting because it seems like it contradicts itself. Winston decides to open a diary. Orwell writes that it wasn't illegal, and that nothing was illegal, but if he got caught he could be killed or severely punished. This quote made me laugh thinking of everything that goes on with high school kids; drinking and illegal drugs, speeding and stealing. All of these actions take place on a day to day basis. No one gets in trouble if authority doesn't find out. Its almost like a don't ask don't tell thing. The discipline set in place seems to range from nothing to lives being taken. This is an interesting idea that will keep reoccurring throughout the book.
This is talking about how big brother is in charge of everything and that Winston is rebelling from big brother by writing his diary. This quote represents the tone of the book because the whole part that we have read so far explains how Big Brother controls everything and how the past controls the future and how the present controls the past.
"It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children." pg. 25
This quote relates to the play because we learn that sex is undesirable and against the law so part of me reads this quote that people are scared of their own children because they do not like to have sex and it is a bad thing to do so there for they think of their child as a mistake. Also this quote also relates because we learn that the children are spies on the parents and many of the people are often scared of them because the children are spiing on their parents and could be telling the Party about things that they do.
"The aim of the party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act." page 57
People live and act daily solely for the purpose of the party. Therefore all acts even those considered intimate and private are supposed to be for the benefit of the party and only to have children which will eventually become spies. The purpose of this act was supposed to be thought of as disgusting by the people. This is implanted in the minds of each person living in Oceania from birth similar to the way children in Brave New World learn the slogans about life. It seems that the females in 1984 take this idea of sex for the purpose of a party benefit more seriously, and the males (Winston) try to get around it. Many of the females join anti-sex leagues and use the artsem as a way to have children to avoid the "natural way."
"Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?" Page 52
This quote shows the effectiveness of the newspeak and double think that is enforced on the general populous. It is scary to think that lie upon lie can easily change someone's memory. This quote also represents the free spirit of Winston and how he has the opportunity to change the world for a the better. This quote is important to the book because this is just another form of propaganda that controls the people. If it wasn't for propaganda, the party would be powerless and pitiful.
"It was absurd, since the writing of those particular words was not more dangerous than the initial act of opening the diary; but for a moment he was tempted to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether"(19).
This quote was significant because it shows the extent to which the government controls or watches it's citizens. Winston is so scared that he contemplates stopping the diary altogether but realizes that it won't matter because he was destined to be vaporized the second he even thought about opening a diary.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death" (27).
Winston writes this in his diary right after he says that he is already dead because he knows that he has committed thoughtcrime himself. In this society, thoughtcrime is anything bad about the leaders that is written down or spoken. Winston believes that his diary will be found by the thought police, but to him this is better than keeping his thoughts to himself. So far I have found that there are very strict consequences for anyone that steps out of line. Unlike our society, there is no way to avoid punishment.
"And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested." -Chapter VIII
Winston realizes that the party has set out to weaken people's minds so they don't have the power to go against what they say (revolution). If no one remembers life before the revolution then they can't possibly say that the party did anything wrong. The party writes the history books and controls civilians lives. They make the party out to be the best, telling civilians that without it, there lives would be even worse.
"whatever it was, you could be certain that every word of it was pure orthodoxy, pure Ingsoc. As he watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man's brain that was speaking; it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense." p. 48
This quote is significant because it is showing how the Party is attempting to brainwash its members and make it impossible for them to have any actual thoughts. Without thoughts, members cannot question the Party's leadership, motives, or their changing of the past. They are attempting to control the very brains of their subjects, ensuring that the Party can never be overthrown.
"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (32). This is the Party's slogan and very similar to what the theme of brainwash and control over society in "1984". Winston works in the Ministry of Truth and works by eliminating or rewriting any past documents that contradict with what is spoken or written in current day society.
"But the face of Big Brother seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen, as thought the impact that it had made on everyone's eyeballs were too vivid to wear off immediately (17)." This quote explains how Big Brother watches everyone, but at the same time everyone is mesmerized and hypnotized by Big Brother. The sense of constant watch, and lack of privacy pervades the lives of the Party members so much that they don't even realize it, and just grow to accept it in fear of their lives. This quote is also very ironic because people tend to forget a social or political event, or a person very easily once records and data are virtually erased, just as the image of Big Brother's face is erased from their memories only a few seconds after the screen shuts off.
“They were all impregnable, as the Party intended that they should be. And what he wanted more even than to be loved, was to break down that wall of virtue, even if it were only once in his whole life. The sexual act, successfully performed was rebellion.” (pg. 59) This quote is important to the book 1984 because it describes how the people who are loyal to the party act. The government in this community tries to control the actions and emotions of everyone by scaring them using degrading words and different forms of punishment. As of the sexual aspect of this quote the government also tries to control its people by controlling their emotions and what makes them happy. In normal societies sex would be a natural pleasure that people would enjoy having while in this community the people are taught that sex is bad and that it is only men for having kids.
This quote is said by Winston to himself when Big Brother had lowered the ration of chocolate to 20 grams and then the next minute said they raised it to 20 grams. This is important because it shows the power of double think. Where they can make life blatantly worse and tell them it is better and people believe it. IT seems impossible to brainwash people to that degree but also scary because it is happening where people are being brainwashed to the extreme of the book. Maybe even to some extent in the US.
"The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050" (V)
If you can destroy language then you can destroy thought. When you can't articulate how you feel then you can't raise your voice against the party. By making it impossible for people rise up against the party and organize, the party can maintain control over the populace.
"It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hari and a small goatee beard - a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched." (pg 14)
The government in the novel uses a common enemy of the Jewish man to keep the people united toward a common hatred, which is one of the many different ways they are able to use fear and hatred to manipulate the citizens into following their commands without thought. The idea of control is a key idea that seems to be important to the events that occur throughout the novel.
"Just once in his life he had possessed - after the event: that was what counted - concrete, unmistakable evidence of an act of falsification... it was a half-page torn out of the Times of about ten years ealier... There was only one possible conclusion: the confessions were lies."
This quote explains that the government is definatly changing the past and it is not all in Winston's head. And it is not just small events like facts and figures, which as we have seen is Winston's main job. Also when the loudspeaker came on while they were in the cafeteria announcing that there were processions thanking the ministry for raising the chocolate ration when the day before they had lowered it shows how fast and easily the party members accept changes to history.
"A twinge of fear went through him. It had been a significantly rash act to buy the book in the beginning, and he had sworn never to come near the place again. And yet he instant he had allowed his thoughts to wander, his feet had brought them back there of their own accord"(81).
The above quote is significant to the reading we have completed this last week and the book in general because it regards the concept of thinking and how it is discouraged so in this time in London. Although Winston wants to rebel against the party and Big Brother in general, he is still aware of how dangerous thinking can be, and almost scolds himself for doing so and coming back to this shop aimlessly. But this act shows that Winston does really want to rebel against the party, as this was the place where he first purchased the diary, a forbidden act against the party. I think that it will be interesting to learn more of the ways that Winston hides his face emotions, but slips up every now and then with an act like this.
"It was a bright cold day in april, and the clocks were striking thirteen." p. 1
This is the bery first quote in the book and by saying the clock strikes 13 it means that they use military time which is already different then what we use. This is just the first of many things that are very different from what we do in todays world.
"WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE OS STRENGTH" I think that this slogan is really really important because the entire thought process of the State is based on this agenda. When a people are at war they are usually unified against the common enemy creating peace within the people group. Convincing the people that freedom is really slavery is yet a different kind of control over the people. The people then are not envious of others destroying the feeling of needing to change or in this case progress as individuals. And if the state could convince the people that stupidity (or ignorance) is strength then they could have free rang control over everything without being challenged. All three of these statements are a different type of control or power being dedicated to the state.
"But if there was any hope it lay with the proles. You had to cling on to that." pg 73
This quote portrays Winton's path that is falling away from the party. He is starting to think outside of the box. He is writing in a diary that is completely against the law. He is traveling to places that are off limits and he is scaring himself thinking that he has people spying on him.
"There were also whispered stories of a terrible book, a compendium of all the heresies, of which Goldstein was the author and which circulated clandestinely here and there." pg. 15.
This is when the book mentions a book that was written by Goldstein (the enemy of the Party) that contains all his political views/ideology etc. I found this interesting because there are so many examples like this one throughout the book so far that relate to Nazi Germany and its totalitarian rule etc., and in this case the reference would be to Mein Kampf written by Hitler.
"a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting--three hundred million people all with the same face" (VII) This quote shows the theme that is repeating throughout the book which suggests that nobody is able to think for themselves, but rather they do the same as others. As individuals, they have been conquered, and they are unable to have minds of their own.
"WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." These words are the mantra of the party. They are often seen in big bold letters, ingrande in the public's head. The words are interesting because they seem to contradict eachother. Most people would say that you cannot have war and peace at the same time, freedom and slavery and ignorance and strength. These words are examples of how the party wants to keep all the power and keep the public out of the loop. They way they try to do that is by keeping them confused and without knowledge of what is really going on. This is the central theme of the book.
"If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles." "If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated."(pg. VII 72--in a different version)
This quote means that the Hope to change their Newspeak society can only happen through the help of the proles, or that the 85 percent of the Oceania's population come together to rebell against the Big Brother in order to fight for their old freedom. It is as similar to that, "If there is time, there will be hope." However, if you know there is time and take no action to act upon it, the hope can die out, or that the opportunity will be lost. Grab the opportunity when it is given to you, because if not, who knows when you will get this kind of opportunity, again.
This quote is important because it is right after Winston had found the paperweight and was led up into a hidden bedroom. He realized that there was not a telescreen which meant that there really wasn't a way anybody could tell what he was doing. He thinks about renting the room from the old man, and if he ends up doing that it could led to a way for him to rebel against big brother.
Winston has said this several times throughout the novel. I think it brings up the importance that someone in control or a higher authority has power over all. He also says the proles count for 85% of the population. But it is still rare to see such people born that will test their power and everyone is afarid to anyways. This idea is common in society in our time now and in other books. There is one evil person in power and it takes the determination of one rebel to band together all the masses.
"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (page 26)
This phrase is used by the party as their slogan by which they live. Freedom is slavery meaning that if you dont belong to the party you would be a slave to everyone else as long as you follow the parties rules you are free once they are broken you become a slave.
IF there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles."69"
in this single lign in his diary, he specificly states that he is in favor of taking down big brother. The proles are just the opposite of the establishment and if anyone could unite a large enough mass, it would be the proles because they are 89% of the population. Winston calls the prospect of a demolished Big Brother, "Hope" so this implies that he disrespects what Big Big brother is doing.
The instant thaqt she caught his eye she looked away again. The Sweat started out on Winston's backbone. A horrible pang of terror went through him. It was gone almost at once, but it left a sort of nagging uneasiness behind. Why was she watchign him?...but yesterday, at any rate, during the Two Minutes of Hate, she had sat immediatley behind him when there was no apparent need to do so. Quite likely her real objective had been to listen to him and make sure whether he was shouting loudly enough." My hands kinda hurt afetr that, but I think that this quote "says a lot" about the world that Winston lives in, something such as a woman sitting too close or a fleeting glance in our world would not at all be something to inspire intense fear, how anyone gets to adulthood in this world at all is beyond me with all the constant backstabbing and betrayal, where neighbors cruelly destory neighbors.
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows"
Winston wonders if the State might declare "two plus two makes five" as a fact; he wonders that if everybody believes in it, does that make it true? The Ministry of Truth has shattered the truth; they lie, cover up and force everyone to cover up the lie so that the lie can never be caught. If everyone believes and there is no evidence against it, then it "becomes the truth". Except that it isn't the truth. It's a lie designed to increase the power of the central government of Oceania. So Winston is saying is that freedom can only occur when truth (the real truth) is known and everyone's eyes are open. Then people can stand up for what for themselves for what is right.
"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (page 26)
This is the slogan of the party. These words give the party a really interesting type of control over the public. By using contradicting statements they are able to control the public. If people believe that ignorance is strength then they will act that way, not realizing that the party is actually controlling them, which is also the theme of the book.
"Don't you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." page 46
This quote is important because it shows the level of control the Party is going to. They are planning to use Newspeak to dumb everyone down until nobody can speak words of rebellion. Soon they will control all forms of human communication and a revolt could never be organized. The Party is slowly taking control of even their thoughts.
My attention was caught by the middle of page 29. This is part of a dream sequence that Winston is having and the "dark haired girl" from the Department of Fiction. With a single movement she "tore off her clothes and flund them distainfully aside...but [her body] aroused no desire in him...what overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the geture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought." With these words Orwell has taken the sexual part of humanity and, just like the party, changed it. He uses it not for the purpose of pleasure, or even reproduction. It is used to destroy something that goes against human nature. It takes a powerful writer to transform a part of the inherent human condition.
"Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidary meanings rubbed out and forgotten." (p.46)
This shows how strict big brother is and how they are trying to ban any freedoms of thought, creativity and personal opinion. This refers to all things being (or meaning) exactly the same thing so that no "thoughtcrimes" will be committed. This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the book and it allows the reader into the mindset of the person who is speaking.
"But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention of any other alignment than the existing one." pp31
This quote is similar to the speech that Syme made about the old language vanishing and the new one coming about. The idea is that the past will only be rewritten if it follows the narrow ideas of the future. This is a very scary thought for someone living in a world that focuses on freedom of speech and thought. Oceania will turn their society into a single minded army of people who are meant to think and act alike.
48 comments:
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." page 1
This quote is the very first sentence in the book and at first it seems odd because most of us don't think about clocks showing hours 13 to 24, or military time. My thoughts on this are that there is obviously a strong sense of military in Oceania, especially since they are always in a war, and because every day they are subject to two minutes of war propaganda. I don't know that Orwell making everyone use military time is significant or even having to do with the strong sense of military but I think it is a possibility.
"Since about that time, war had been literally continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. For several months during his childhood there had been confused street fighting in London itself, some of which he remembered vividly. But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention of any other alignment than the existing one." chapter 3, page 31
This quote describes how the past is either forgotten or rewritten. The idea that the past could be changed in a way that persuades the people of Oceania that it was always like that is very interesting and shows how the society of Oceania is deeply brain washed by the control of the government. The government keeps the people under its rule by making them believe that what is happening at this moment, has always been. An important message sent by this is that the government is always right and can never be wrong. Another key idea this quote touches on is the idea of war. Winston recalls that Oceania has always been in war with someone or another. This also shows the control of the government. In order to be in control, the government must conquer everyone. One way they do this is through war with different countries.
"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (26)
The three slogans of the Party represent the concept of doublethink. Doublethink is believing in two conflicting ideas, for example, "war is peace" or "freedom is slavery." Doublethink is the key to the Party's ability to control the people. Winston and all of the other people who work at the Ministry of Truth must use doublethink in order to believe in the true history and the history that they are creating, even though these two "histories" don't match up.
"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below." pg. 7
As redundant as the first sentence of this quote is, it is clear to me that these words are evidence of a "Brave New World" type motifs. The idea that war is peace suggests that we must conform and ever fight for what we want as opposed to earning it. Freedom is slavery indicates a world of limitations and rules. This reminds me of Brave New World.
"Day by day and almost minute by minute, the past was brought up to date." pg. 36
This quote describes the work done, Winston's work, at the ministry of Truth. They change records or news articles to make them match what is happening in the present. This is done to control the future and to make it seem as though Big Brother is always right. This was called 'doublethink' in Newspeak. It is an interesting idea, to be able to change the past based on what is happening in the present in order to control the people and society.
"Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed-- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your head." Page 26
This quote is important to the book as a whole in that it really encompasses the ability of Big Brother, and how he is always watching. I think that the way that he controls everything, and people have lost the ability to express themselves will continue to be a theme that carries out through the entire book.
"At nineteen he had designed a hang grenade which had been a adopted by the Ministry of Peace and which, at its first trial, had killed thirty-one Eurasian prisoners in one burst." pg. 42
This is when Winston is describing Comrade Ogilvy, who was made up. It represents how in the book the themes are opposites of each other. Like "war is peace" and things like that. Because when the Ministry of Peace kills 31 and if it was really peace than there would be no killing. It represents the total feeling of the book that is kinda gloomy and down.
"Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there was still privacy, love, and friendship, and when the members of a family stood by one another without needing to know the reason."
Page 30
This quote is when Winston is thinking about his mother. In the world that Winston lives in there is no tie to others, everyone is working against each other and there is no trust between people because you never know who is spying on you. Also the book states over and over again how children are telling on their parents, that they are raised to be spies and that they put all faith in the government. This demonstrates the difference from the past because no longer is there is a sacred bond between families, or between anyone for that matter. The government has succeed in making everyone feel like they are alone so it is impossible to have friendship or privacy.
"Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated" (32).
This quote shows the theme of how he will soon be the same as everyone else and won't be able to think for himself. This quote is saying that he soon won't be able to make decisions for himself and will become almost like a robot like everyone else. This is also kind of like Brave New World where it is bad to be different or think for one's self. It should be interesting how the rest of the book shapes out and if the ending is similar to that of Brave New World's.
"And this hall, with its fifty workers or thereabouts, was only one sub-section, a single cell, as it were, in the huge complexity of the Records Department. Beyond, above, below, were other swarms of workers engaged in an unimaginable multitude of jobs" (38).
Here when he describes the 'single cell' as just a part of the 'complexity of the Records Department'. Basically this reminds me of the idea that each individual is just a part of the whole. Each individual is not important, only the party is and what the individuals each work for. Just like in Brave New World, no one should have any personality, any characteristics that define them and make them unique from anyone else because they themselves aren't important.
In a way, the second part of the quote made me think of a metaphor. The idea that their society is like a hive and they are all workers, but the only important thing that they all live for is the queen and the well-being of the hive.
Molly Riegel
"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp." Pg 9
The different ministries set up in Oceania control different actions which take place in the community. Every system sets up boundaries for the people in the area, and they are punished for breaking the laws. This quote is interesting because it seems like it contradicts itself. Winston decides to open a diary. Orwell writes that it wasn't illegal, and that nothing was illegal, but if he got caught he could be killed or severely punished. This quote made me laugh thinking of everything that goes on with high school kids; drinking and illegal drugs, speeding and stealing. All of these actions take place on a day to day basis. No one gets in trouble if authority doesn't find out. Its almost like a don't ask don't tell thing. The discipline set in place seems to range from nothing to lives being taken. This is an interesting idea that will keep reoccurring throughout the book.
"Down with big brother" pg. 20
This is talking about how big brother is in charge of everything and that Winston is rebelling from big brother by writing his diary. This quote represents the tone of the book because the whole part that we have read so far explains how Big Brother controls everything and how the past controls the future and how the present controls the past.
"It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children." pg. 25
This quote relates to the play because we learn that sex is undesirable and against the law so part of me reads this quote that people are scared of their own children because they do not like to have sex and it is a bad thing to do so there for they think of their child as a mistake. Also this quote also relates because we learn that the children are spies on the parents and many of the people are often scared of them because the children are spiing on their parents and could be telling the Party about things that they do.
"The aim of the party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act." page 57
People live and act daily solely for the purpose of the party. Therefore all acts even those considered intimate and private are supposed to be for the benefit of the party and only to have children which will eventually become spies. The purpose of this act was supposed to be thought of as disgusting by the people. This is implanted in the minds of each person living in Oceania from birth similar to the way children in Brave New World learn the slogans about life. It seems that the females in 1984 take this idea of sex for the purpose of a party benefit more seriously, and the males (Winston) try to get around it. Many of the females join anti-sex leagues and use the artsem as a way to have children to avoid the "natural way."
"Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?" Page 52
This quote shows the effectiveness of the newspeak and double think that is enforced on the general populous. It is scary to think that lie upon lie can easily change someone's memory. This quote also represents the free spirit of Winston and how he has the opportunity to change the world for a the better. This quote is important to the book because this is just another form of propaganda that controls the people. If it wasn't for propaganda, the party would be powerless and pitiful.
"It was absurd, since the writing of those particular words was not more dangerous than the initial act of opening the diary; but for a moment he was tempted to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether"(19).
This quote was significant because it shows the extent to which the government controls or watches it's citizens. Winston is so scared that he contemplates stopping the diary altogether but realizes that it won't matter because he was destined to be vaporized the second he even thought about opening a diary.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death" (27).
Winston writes this in his diary right after he says that he is already dead because he knows that he has committed thoughtcrime himself. In this society, thoughtcrime is anything bad about the leaders that is written down or spoken. Winston believes that his diary will be found by the thought police, but to him this is better than keeping his thoughts to himself. So far I have found that there are very strict consequences for anyone that steps out of line. Unlike our society, there is no way to avoid punishment.
"And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested."
-Chapter VIII
Winston realizes that the party has set out to weaken people's minds so they don't have the power to go against what they say (revolution). If no one remembers life before the revolution then they can't possibly say that the party did anything wrong. The party writes the history books and controls civilians lives. They make the party out to be the best, telling civilians that without it, there lives would be even worse.
"whatever it was, you could be certain that every word of it was pure orthodoxy, pure Ingsoc. As he watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man's brain that was speaking; it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense." p. 48
This quote is significant because it is showing how the Party is attempting to brainwash its members and make it impossible for them to have any actual thoughts. Without thoughts, members cannot question the Party's leadership, motives, or their changing of the past. They are attempting to control the very brains of their subjects, ensuring that the Party can never be overthrown.
"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (32). This is the Party's slogan and very similar to what the theme of brainwash and control over society in "1984". Winston works in the Ministry of Truth and works by eliminating or rewriting any past documents that contradict with what is spoken or written in current day society.
"But the face of Big Brother seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen, as thought the impact that it had made on everyone's eyeballs were too vivid to wear off immediately (17)." This quote explains how Big Brother watches everyone, but at the same time everyone is mesmerized and hypnotized by Big Brother. The sense of constant watch, and lack of privacy pervades the lives of the Party members so much that they don't even realize it, and just grow to accept it in fear of their lives. This quote is also very ironic because people tend to forget a social or political event, or a person very easily once records and data are virtually erased, just as the image of Big Brother's face is erased from their memories only a few seconds after the screen shuts off.
“They were all impregnable, as the Party intended that they should be. And what he wanted more even than to be loved, was to break down that wall of virtue, even if it were only once in his whole life. The sexual act, successfully performed was rebellion.” (pg. 59)
This quote is important to the book 1984 because it describes how the people who are loyal to the party act. The government in this community tries to control the actions and emotions of everyone by scaring them using degrading words and different forms of punishment. As of the sexual aspect of this quote the government also tries to control its people by controlling their emotions and what makes them happy. In normal societies sex would be a natural pleasure that people would enjoy having while in this community the people are taught that sex is bad and that it is only men for having kids.
"Was he then alone in the possession of memory?"
This quote is said by Winston to himself when Big Brother had lowered the ration of chocolate to 20 grams and then the next minute said they raised it to 20 grams. This is important because it shows the power of double think. Where they can make life blatantly worse and tell them it is better and people believe it. IT seems impossible to brainwash people to that degree but also scary because it is happening where people are being brainwashed to the extreme of the book. Maybe even to some extent in the US.
"The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050" (V)
If you can destroy language then you can destroy thought. When you can't articulate how you feel then you can't raise your voice against the party. By making it impossible for people rise up against the party and organize, the party can maintain control over the populace.
"It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hari and a small goatee beard - a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched." (pg 14)
The government in the novel uses a common enemy of the Jewish man to keep the people united toward a common hatred, which is one of the many different ways they are able to use fear and hatred to manipulate the citizens into following their commands without thought. The idea of control is a key idea that seems to be important to the events that occur throughout the novel.
"Just once in his life he had possessed - after the event: that was what counted - concrete, unmistakable evidence of an act of falsification... it was a half-page torn out of the Times of about ten years ealier... There was only one possible conclusion: the confessions were lies."
This quote explains that the government is definatly changing the past and it is not all in Winston's head. And it is not just small events like facts and figures, which as we have seen is Winston's main job. Also when the loudspeaker came on while they were in the cafeteria announcing that there were processions thanking the ministry for raising the chocolate ration when the day before they had lowered it shows how fast and easily the party members accept changes to history.
"A twinge of fear went through him. It had been a significantly rash act to buy the book in the beginning, and he had sworn never to come near the place again. And yet he instant he had allowed his thoughts to wander, his feet had brought them back there of their own accord"(81).
The above quote is significant to the reading we have completed this last week and the book in general because it regards the concept of thinking and how it is discouraged so in this time in London. Although Winston wants to rebel against the party and Big Brother in general, he is still aware of how dangerous thinking can be, and almost scolds himself for doing so and coming back to this shop aimlessly. But this act shows that Winston does really want to rebel against the party, as this was the place where he first purchased the diary, a forbidden act against the party. I think that it will be interesting to learn more of the ways that Winston hides his face emotions, but slips up every now and then with an act like this.
"It was a bright cold day in april, and the clocks were striking thirteen." p. 1
This is the bery first quote in the book and by saying the clock strikes 13 it means that they use military time which is already different then what we use. This is just the first of many things that are very different from what we do in todays world.
"WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE OS STRENGTH"
I think that this slogan is really really important because the entire thought process of the State is based on this agenda. When a people are at war they are usually unified against the common enemy creating peace within the people group. Convincing the people that freedom is really slavery is yet a different kind of control over the people. The people then are not envious of others destroying the feeling of needing to change or in this case progress as individuals. And if the state could convince the people that stupidity (or ignorance) is strength then they could have free rang control over everything without being challenged. All three of these statements are a different type of control or power being dedicated to the state.
"But if there was any hope it lay with the proles. You had to cling on to that." pg 73
This quote portrays Winton's path that is falling away from the party. He is starting to think outside of the box. He is writing in a diary that is completely against the law. He is traveling to places that are off limits and he is scaring himself thinking that he has people spying on him.
"There were also whispered stories of a terrible book, a compendium of all the heresies, of which Goldstein was the author and which circulated clandestinely here and there." pg. 15.
This is when the book mentions a book that was written by Goldstein (the enemy of the Party) that contains all his political views/ideology etc. I found this interesting because there are so many examples like this one throughout the book so far that relate to Nazi Germany and its totalitarian rule etc., and in this case the reference would be to Mein Kampf written by Hitler.
"a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting--three hundred million people all with the same face" (VII)
This quote shows the theme that is repeating throughout the book which suggests that nobody is able to think for themselves, but rather they do the same as others. As individuals, they have been conquered, and they are unable to have minds of their own.
"WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."
These words are the mantra of the party. They are often seen in big bold letters, ingrande in the public's head. The words are interesting because they seem to contradict eachother. Most people would say that you cannot have war and peace at the same time, freedom and slavery and ignorance and strength. These words are examples of how the party wants to keep all the power and keep the public out of the loop. They way they try to do that is by keeping them confused and without knowledge of what is really going on. This is the central theme of the book.
"If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles." "If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated."(pg. VII 72--in a different version)
This quote means that the Hope to change their Newspeak society can only happen through the help of the proles, or that the 85 percent of the Oceania's population come together to rebell against the Big Brother in order to fight for their old freedom. It is as similar to that, "If there is time, there will be hope." However, if you know there is time and take no action to act upon it, the hope can die out, or that the opportunity will be lost. Grab the opportunity when it is given to you, because if not, who knows when you will get this kind of opportunity, again.
~~Mea Pen~~
"There's no telescreen!" Pg 82
This quote is important because it is right after Winston had found the paperweight and was led up into a hidden bedroom. He realized that there was not a telescreen which meant that there really wasn't a way anybody could tell what he was doing. He thinks about renting the room from the old man, and if he ends up doing that it could led to a way for him to rebel against big brother.
"If there is hope it lies in the proles." (60)
Winston has said this several times throughout the novel. I think it brings up the importance that someone in control or a higher authority has power over all. He also says the proles count for 85% of the population. But it is still rare to see such people born that will test their power and everyone is afarid to anyways. This idea is common in society in our time now and in other books. There is one evil person in power and it takes the determination of one rebel to band together all the masses.
"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"
(page 26)
This phrase is used by the party as their slogan by which they live. Freedom is slavery meaning that if you dont belong to the party you would be a slave to everyone else as long as you follow the parties rules you are free once they are broken you become a slave.
IF there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles."69"
in this single lign in his diary, he specificly states that he is in favor of taking down big brother. The proles are just the opposite of the establishment and if anyone could unite a large enough mass, it would be the proles because they are 89% of the population. Winston calls the prospect of a demolished Big Brother, "Hope" so this implies that he disrespects what Big Big brother is doing.
The instant thaqt she caught his eye she looked away again. The Sweat started out on Winston's backbone. A horrible pang of terror went through him. It was gone almost at once, but it left a sort of nagging uneasiness behind. Why was she watchign him?...but yesterday, at any rate, during the Two Minutes of Hate, she had sat immediatley behind him when there was no apparent need to do so. Quite likely her real objective had been to listen to him and make sure whether he was shouting loudly enough."
My hands kinda hurt afetr that, but I think that this quote "says a lot" about the world that Winston lives in, something such as a woman sitting too close or a fleeting glance in our world would not at all be something to inspire intense fear, how anyone gets to adulthood in this world at all is beyond me with all the constant backstabbing and betrayal, where neighbors cruelly destory neighbors.
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows"
Winston wonders if the State might declare "two plus two makes five" as a fact; he wonders that if everybody believes in it, does that make it true? The Ministry of Truth has shattered the truth; they lie, cover up and force everyone to cover up the lie so that the lie can never be caught. If everyone believes and there is no evidence against it, then it "becomes the truth". Except that it isn't the truth. It's a lie designed to increase the power of the central government of Oceania. So Winston is saying is that freedom can only occur when truth (the real truth) is known and everyone's eyes are open. Then people can stand up for what for themselves for what is right.
"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"
(page 26)
This is the slogan of the party. These words give the party a really interesting type of control over the public. By using contradicting statements they are able to control the public. If people believe that ignorance is strength then they will act that way, not realizing that the party is actually controlling them, which is also the theme of the book.
"Don't you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." page 46
This quote is important because it shows the level of control the Party is going to. They are planning to use Newspeak to dumb everyone down until nobody can speak words of rebellion. Soon they will control all forms of human communication and a revolt could never be organized. The Party is slowly taking control of even their thoughts.
My attention was caught by the middle of page 29. This is part of a dream sequence that Winston is having and the "dark haired girl" from the Department of Fiction. With a single movement she "tore off her clothes and flund them distainfully aside...but [her body] aroused no desire in him...what overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the geture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought." With these words Orwell has taken the sexual part of humanity and, just like the party, changed it. He uses it not for the purpose of pleasure, or even reproduction. It is used to destroy something that goes against human nature. It takes a powerful writer to transform a part of the inherent human condition.
"Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidary meanings rubbed out and forgotten." (p.46)
This shows how strict big brother is and how they are trying to ban any freedoms of thought, creativity and personal opinion. This refers to all things being (or meaning) exactly the same thing so that no "thoughtcrimes" will be committed. This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the book and it allows the reader into the mindset of the person who is speaking.
"But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention of any other alignment than the existing one." pp31
This quote is similar to the speech that Syme made about the old language vanishing and the new one coming about. The idea is that the past will only be rewritten if it follows the narrow ideas of the future. This is a very scary thought for someone living in a world that focuses on freedom of speech and thought. Oceania will turn their society into a single minded army of people who are meant to think and act alike.
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