George Orwell - 1984

Section 1

• Introduced to London Oceania
• Telescreen where you can watch tv, and tv watches you.
• Illegal to open a diary. Not any extra illegal to write down words, just opening the diary is illegal. This is ThoughtCrime.
• Two Minutes Hate
• The party controls everything and reality
• Oldthink is when you think about life before the revolution
• Reality Control
• Newspeak
  • Makes it harder to think about revolutionary thoughts.
  • Restricts people to their own vocabulary, no extra vocab needed, no extra thoughts or questioning can then happen.
• Doublethink
  • War is peace
  • Two opposite ideas
  • The citizens of london and oceania are so restricted, that they have no real idea of war or peace. Just what the party and the telescreen tells them.
• Telescreen talks to winston himself when he was doing exercise
  • I do however like this idea of everyone being forced to do some form of exercise. Winston clearly didn't like it. But it makes for a strong society, where the weakest might be stronger than the weakest in other countries or regions. This is likely what they're doing, making their whole society stronger against the infinite war on eurasia and eastasia.
• History is rewritten since Oceania was allies with Eurasia, now they have to rewrite the books, to make them seem like evil. Since they can't have it look like that they've had ties before.
• PG 27: He accidentally spills some ink on his fingers and tries his best to remove it, so that people wouldn't think to suspect him of thoughtcrime.

Section 2

• Winston changes old texts to align with big brothers' prediction and what actually happens.
• Proletariats or proles are fed entertainment.
  • Probably to keep them from thinking rebellious thoughts. Keep them comfortable enough to not make a fuss.
• New character Syme
  • working on next newspeak dictionary
  • Syme might think too much about what the party tells him. He might be vapourized.
• Duckspeak
  • Parroting what you've heard without any thought about it.
• FaceCrime
  • Facial expressions can also be a sign of ThoughtCrime or rebellious thoughts.
• PG 67: If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.
  • The working class needs to know about what the party is actually doing. What life used to be like. If there is enough force, then a rebellion could happen. The tough part is showing them.
• Cold War
  • He saw in a children's history book that there were passages talking about how bad capitalism is.
  • There's also major themes of totalitarianism. Similar to how it was in concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
• Women's Liberation
  • Seems like both genders have it bad. But it definitely seems like women might have it a little worse. The dark hair girl doesn't have a name yet at least in this section. We don't see women working traditional male role jobs. We've seen Mrs Parson the woman who asked winston for help with the plumbing just being a housewife.
• Post War Tech
  • Telescreens
  • Higher blast radius grenades
  • More surveillance on people with better tech.
  • Orwell probably couldn't have predicted that in the modern age, there'd be a surveillance tool that people are glad to use, like social media, search engines, etc.

Section 3

• This section shows exactly where the power resides. The party has utter power. The inner party seems to be the people next to ‘big brother’. The outer party where Winston is at, is where the bulk of the menial work of controlling the proletariats is executed. The proles have more freedom, but less power and money. The outer party has more money, a little more power, but almost no freedom.
• Winston is the outer party. Which means he has a little more power, however he is watched like a hawk. Evidenced by his behaviours. Things that he says in the book like ‘FaceCrime’, how he cannot have ink on his fingers, or he’ll be suspected of ThoughtCrime, how he can’t be close to the dark haired girl because she might be ThoughtPolice.
• Winston in the book seeks to overcome oppression with Ownlife. He purchases two things from the shop. First a diary, then a paperweight. This shows signs of rebellion, not to us, since buying things to express yourself is a very common thing, like hair dye, different clothes, mods for a car, jewellery, etc. But in the eyes of Big Brother, this is definitely rebellion.
• I think this tries to act as a warning for the status quo. Where Orwell tries to warn us about what an abuse of power could look like, how a totalitarian state could look. This book was written after WW2, so there was likely a lot of Propaganda bashing on Communism, Fascism, etc. This is like a warning of what it could look like at an extreme, where in the west ideas and experiences of these ideologies are not first hand experiences.
• Everything in the book values the collective of the party. Nothing is for the person, everything is for the party. Everything from Ownlife being bad, to limited speech to give them more power through Newspeak to Memory Holes just values the power of the party.

Section 5

1. Is it sufficient to just cast black faces in white roles (Color-blind casting) without speaking to how that changes the meaning of the text once we recognize that the experience of minorities and their relationship to mainstream western society has been very different?

• It doesn’t point out any Systemic Racism or racial inequalities. All it does is just add a person of colour for no reason. There aren’t any examples of that happening in 1984, but it doesn’t represent the reality of London when George Orwell wrote the book. But there also does not need to be over representation just because. Like how Netflix will add an LGBTQ person to almost all Netflix originals for the sake of it, even if it doesn’t fit. If it does fit, in most cases it seems just like it’s been tacked on. It’s easier to spot that in TV shows that have gone on a long time. How someone who was straight randomly realizes they’re gay just to add a ‘woke’ factor to a show.

2. Does having a minority in the role of Winston Smith fundamentally change how we might perceive the events of the text (40-84)?

• It can change the whole underlying theme of the book. From everyone is being oppressed by big brother, to just one race or one class with a certain race being the majority.

3. The erasing of people from history.

• Erasing people from history, making them an unperson is something that happens a lot in 1984. But we don’t exactly hear about every circumstance, just the ones that are close to Winston. It can even be an allusion to Hitler. As he tried his absolute best to erase Jewish people from history. But he started with the present. He didn’t have full control over people as big brother in 1984 does, but he certainly tried his best to kill as many and to remove as much culture and jewish elements from life as he knew it.

6. The concept of people being followed if they appear to not fit into the neighborhood.

• The concept of people being followed if they appear to not fit into the neighborhood. This can be linked to something like racial profiling. Like if a person of colour is in an affluent neighbourhood, police may be more suspicious about that one person because of racial profiling.

Section 6

Id/Ego/Super Ego:

• Winston struggles between his Id and Super Ego. His Id represents his desire for freedom and individuality, against everything the party stands for. His Super Ego holds him back, and keeps him from being vapourized. Adhering to societal rules and to what big brother wants him to do. The Id wins however, his desire to rebel against the party is more than his Super Ego, explained by his actions.

Defense mechanisms:

• Winston represses his rebellious thoughts as much as possible as not to be vapourized instantly. Winston also may have some hints of denial as a defence mechanism. As O’Brian says that big brother got him a long time ago. Almost like doublethink or how the truth has changed as he’s narrating.

Oedipal/Elektra Complex:

• Julia could be seen as a way to rebel against big brother. Where big brother could be the father and Julia could be the mother if we talk about it with the Oedipal/Elektra complex. He uses this as a way to overthrow big brother by the end of book 2. He also gets tortured and alternates between his identity and beliefs about big brother in book 2 vs believing the lies he’s told in book 3. That could also be a way to portray the Oedipal/Elektra complex, where he struggles between what he wants, and what his ‘father’ big brother wants.

Psychoanalysis and freud:

• Winston has a subconcious desire for freedom. His ID. But if we look at it from a psychoanalytic standpoint, that probably comes from him being free as a child, just wanting to be in a similar position of freedom again.
• The party definitely uses a lot of subconcious brainwashing on the kids, as they grow up, they’re perfectly shaping them into little robots for big brother. Like the kids earlier in the book who wanted to see the hanging. As well as newspeak to limit the concepts they even know of.

Section 7

• What archetypal symbols, figures, situations, or images are present in literary works?
  In 1984 there are a couple of archetypes. Such as the plot follows the ‘Overcoming the Monster’ and ‘Tragedy’ plot lines. Where the monster is big brother and all Winston wants to do is overthrow and rebel against Big Brother. There is also the trickster archetype with o’brien. Where he had this big play with Mr. Charrington to catch Winston and Julia.

• What common tropes or storytelling tools are used in 1984, and for what purpose?
  There are a couple of tropes that Orwell uses in the book. He uses the trope of the dystopia used in a lot of movies, books, etc to display the context under which Big Brother operated in. He did this well with victory mansions, as it described both doublethink and the situation where he and people around him lived in. There’s also the trope of the trickster and a little bit of the ‘good king’, this is apparent after Winston gets brainwashed, as he ends up thinking of Big Brother as a normal leader.

• Are there basic narrative structures that the literary text follows?
  There’s a narrative structure of Overcoming the Monster (also hero’s quest) and Tragedy.

• How should the text be classified in terms of its genre?
  The genre would be dystopian for sure. The way victory mansions is described, the way everyone is manipulated by big brother, how all this new vocabulary is introduced to describe concepts we wouldn’t come across day to day, etc. The genre is used to describe what would happen if the rate of technological advancement continued as well as if England turned into a totalitarian society.

• Can you speculate about the relationship between the text and the culture from which the text emerged?
  1984 was written after WW2. This was the start of the cold war, as well as a bunch of propaganda against totalitarian regimes, there was also the iron curtain or whatever that was with the soviet union and communism. This was a warning to everyone about what could happen if power and technology continued to advance at the rate it did, and didn’t stop. INGSOC even means English Socialism, which was warning England and the UK against becoming totalitarianism.

Section 8

• How does the text examine human nature, what it means to be human, and/or existence?

  • It examines how human nature and our ID wants to have freedom. That we value our freedom the most as Jean-Paul Sartre says. In 1984, you’re born, and you don’t get to find out your purpose. The party tells you what your purpose, that works for some, but for some who question what they’re being told they don’t believe that their purpose is what the party tells them.
  • I think it’s dehumanizing because of this exact reason, the only reason someone could call what the party is doing to them as dehumanizing is because they’ve been stripped of something that made them human. What Jean-Paul Sartre says makes someone human is their freedom, which is why once they’ve been stripped of the human quality of finding their purpose in life it is called dehumanizing.

• How do characters deal with their existence or purpose? Values? Freedom?

  • The characters in the book are stripped of their purpose, and given purpose by the party, giving the party more control. Someone who couldn’t care less about the truth or entertainment could be put into the ministry of truth and have to deal with something they don’t care about, dealing with entertainment and the truth. Ultimately removing them of the purpose they were really on earth to begin with. The characters don’t really deal with it directly. They cover it up with Victory branded cigs, alcohol, pornosec. They don’t have their own beliefs or values either, all just what the party tells them. If they had their own beliefs they could deal with a better and even get closer to finding their purpose. Winston was in progress on accomplishing his purpose, until he got caught and his purpose of showing the people of Oceania what free thought and privacy could be.

• Do characters make responsible decisions? How do they exercise free will?

  • In the book the characters don’t really make responsible decisions. The only ‘responsible’ decisions were Mr. Charrington’s and O’Brien’s idea to turn Winston and Julia in. Winston technically doesn’t make responsible decisions, because his decisions got him to being caught as a thought criminal. Winston acted driven by emotion and to survive while also rebelling as much as he could. Free will is only acted in the acts of rebellion by Winston and Julia.

• Do texts/characters capture the meaningless and absurdity of life?

  • The book captures well the meaninglessness of life in London. As they do the same things everyday, minimal real connection, guards always up against every little thing. There’s no real meaning of books in London either, as anything could be rewritten and updated either way. The party can contradict themselves any moment either.

• What does Big Brother and the Party value? What does Winston?

  • Big Brother and the Party care about absolute power and control over the people of London. Winston values the truth, his freedom and the ability to say what you want. There was the moment when he said something along the lines that real courage is the ability to say 2+2=4.

• Is there value in Winston's rebellion, or is it meaningless if it changes nothing?

  • Winston’s rebellion holds value as it allows him to resist the purpose that the party tells him, and to take on the purpose that he wants. If there was any record of this or it influenced anyone at all to take his footsteps that would be a win. But it's still technically meaningless, because if no one else takes his steps, then he wasted all that energy for nothing.

• If you can make everyone believe something is true, does it matter that it isn't?

  • In the book, the party matters more than the objective truth, what they say, goes. If the truth was a value held by the general public in the book, it would matter. In our world, false information is corrected to something more objectively true, it still oscillates a little before closing in on the objective truth, but with time it still gets there. In 1984, there is no value that the objective truth should be known, so no-one makes a fuss, which means it doesn’t matter.

• Is power real if it is not exercised?

  • The power of the party is real, since it can be exercised. Similar to North Korea’s massive nuclear arsenal. It is still real power, if any country slips up, that country’s capital is going bye-bye. Same with the party. They have so many ways of finding thought criminals, it doesn’t matter if they don’t actively search for them, what matters is that they will get caught eventually. That power is still being exercised, not in the way of actively changing their populace, but by making sure the populace stays as it is, and doesn’t advance.

• If you die for your cause, did you win?

  • If you die for a cause it could be a personal win, but this is local. This isn’t a global win, no one else benefits, unless others step in the same path you left.

• Are you who you are at your darkest moment?

  • This could represent the subconcious drive you have, but it might not be the exact thing you’d do always, only in circumstances where your survival is of a higher priority than anything else