William Boyajian
I thought that the last 100 pages of this book were brilliant, especially the long and complex conversations between Winston and O'Brien. They show in detail Winston's transformation from a rebel to a perfect party member. There are times after O'Brien decreases the pain that Winston wonders how the Party could not be right. He even thinks "It must be he, Winston, who was mad" after O'Brien talks about how everyone eventually comes to love the Party (256). At points, he sees O'Brien as a fatherly figure who is actually caring for him, though moments earlier he was torturing him. By the end, he betrays Julia, the one thing he swore not to do before they were arrested. This transformation, along with O'Brien's explanations of what the future of Oceania will be like, show that the Party actually does have absolute power. The proles will never rise up and overthrow the government, as Winston once thought. Any party member who commits thoughtcrime will be taken to the Ministry of Truth, where they will come to love Big Brother before being killed or released as a completely different person. Winston thinks throughout the novel that it is impossible to completely control the past and people's memories of it. However, the party can force people to accept two contradicting facts at the same time. They can alter facts so quickly that it is impossible to find evidence against it. Even a change as big as which superpower they were fighting only took a few days of hard work. The Party is immortal, Big Brother is immortal, and Winston, the representation of humanity, is beaten into submission. In the end, he sees his past self as something to be ashamed of, mentioning that "he had won the victory over himself" (298). He accepts that 2+2=5, and that Oceania had always been fighting the same country. The Party has smashed Winston's mind, just like they smashed the glass paperweight.
"Where such nonsense exists, you know that 1984 was one hectic year" - James Bloomfield
I thought that the last 100 pages of this book were brilliant, especially the long and complex conversations between Winston and O'Brien. They show in detail Winston's transformation from a rebel to a perfect party member. There are times after O'Brien decreases the pain that Winston wonders how the Party could not be right. He even thinks "It must be he, Winston, who was mad" after O'Brien talks about how everyone eventually comes to love the Party (256). At points, he sees O'Brien as a fatherly figure who is actually caring for him, though moments earlier he was torturing him. By the end, he betrays Julia, the one thing he swore not to do before they were arrested. This transformation, along with O'Brien's explanations of what the future of Oceania will be like, show that the Party actually does have absolute power. The proles will never rise up and overthrow the government, as Winston once thought. Any party member who commits thoughtcrime will be taken to the Ministry of Truth, where they will come to love Big Brother before being killed or released as a completely different person. Winston thinks throughout the novel that it is impossible to completely control the past and people's memories of it. However, the party can force people to accept two contradicting facts at the same time. They can alter facts so quickly that it is impossible to find evidence against it. Even a change as big as which superpower they were fighting only took a few days of hard work. The Party is immortal, Big Brother is immortal, and Winston, the representation of humanity, is beaten into submission. In the end, he sees his past self as something to be ashamed of, mentioning that "he had won the victory over himself" (298). He accepts that 2+2=5, and that Oceania had always been fighting the same country. The Party has smashed Winston's mind, just like they smashed the glass paperweight.
"Where such nonsense exists, you know that 1984 was one hectic year" - James Bloomfield
I find it particularly concerning that Winston begins to doubt himself. I see that as a significant first step toward being dominated by the government, as his resolve weakens and he accepts the potential for his own fallibility.
ReplyDeleteThat sound very unlikely. How can a government change the truth that fast? I think one reason this would never happen in real life is that the people at the top would doubt themselves, and would not allow such a full oppression of its citizens. The government would collapse eventually. Though maybe with enough technology... Is this book a criticism of technology? Is it saying that technology will allow absolute control like this? It seems to me that George Orwell is also criticizing stalinism or maoism or totalitarian socialism. That makes sense as I know that George Orwell was an anarchist socialist and fought in the Spanish Civil War. I found it interesting that he uses the word proles. Is that a reference to the proletariat? Well, it sounds like a fascinating book, and it also has similar theme about State control, though I think this government is worse.
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