4/24/13
While
reading 1984 by George Orwell, I found Winston Smith’s job very unusual. Winston works for the Ministry of Truth, one of the
four ministries in their country of Oceania. Each day, Winston has to change
the forecast, previous newspapers, or speeches given by Big Brother. His job is
described on page 38 – “the messages he had received referred to articles or
news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter,
or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify” (38). Winston discusses how he
has to change the prediction of the number of boots that will be sold in a
given year to make it closer to the actual number reported. At first, this job
shocked me. I found it very strange that citizens would be changing documents
or broadcasts that had been presented years in the past to make the leaders of
Oceania seem smarter. At the same time, I was not that surprised. This country
is involved in war and also has a group of enemies living within their country.
I believe Big Brother wants to make his citizens trust him by changing his past
statements to more accurate predictions of the future. Along with changing past
broadcasts, books have been rewritten to eliminate “Old English.” I found their
new way of talking very confusing. The country has been creating new words and
hopes by 2050 that there will be less than ten words used throughout the
country. I understand that this would eliminate their issue of thoughtcrime,
but I do not understand how a country can run successfully with so few
words. These changes the society
is making seem to be oppressing the citizens and creating a youth with a much
different look on the world. I am interested to see how these changes effect
the younger generation throughout the book.
I also found it strange that the society was trying to eliminate all real thought, thus making Thoughtcrime impossible; however, it doesn't surprise me that the Party is doing this. Big Brother's idea of a functional society involves the compliance of all individuals. The Party's three slogans are "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength" (4). People who show any defiance to the Party are constantly "vaporized," so it's clear that in this society, success does not mean having clear thinkers, but instead having overwhelming control over every member of the society. I'm not sure if the Party's goal is to make the citizens trust Big Brother. Based on what we've seen of the Party's deceiving behavior, it seems as if the Party is simply trying to represent Big Brother as the perfect leader who doesn't make any mistakes, even on the most trivial matters.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to in The Handmaid's Tale, the society of Oceania is still transitioning to a different set of beliefs and rules. In both societies, those that oppose the change are punished by death to ease the transition. Although we didn't see much of the younger generation in Gilead, it's very apparent in Oceania that the children eagerly accept the beliefs of the society. Winston says that the society's organizations turned the children into "ungovernable little savages...with no tendency to rebel against the discipline of the Party" (24). He notes that most parents are terrified of their own children because children frequently report their own parents for defying the Party's ideas. I am also interested to see the society as it progresses further into the future, especially whether members of the younger generation will continue to comply with the society's rules or recognize that they are not actually free and rebel against these beliefs.
I agree, Shirley, that this is a period of transition in which citizens are part of the process to create this society and eliminate history. Atwood also acknowledges the idea that, if history can be altered, we will lose our sense of humanity.
ReplyDeleteI find it very unsettling that people could be so willing to embrace the future and thereby sacrifice the past. Although these novels show an extreme version of this idea, I don't know if it's an impossible idea - we already see how we're transitioning away from paper texts to electronic versions. Those new versions could very easily be changed, even slightly, to modify them based on the desires of the leadership.