Reading
Response:
1984
by George Orwell
The
story of 1984,
by George Orwell, takes place after the second World War, as a vision
of a nightmarish “negative utopia”. Winston Smith, the weak and
inept protagonist, struggles through the orderly pace and routine of
his life, scraping through on the measly portions that the Party
gives out. The Party is the government in this time, which has
complete control over its people. Winston finally has a chance to
defy the Party when he meets a woman named Julia and says to her that
“the more men you've had, the more I love you.” (pg.125) Although
Winston believes that he is making a change by defying the Party's
“Anti-Sex” belief, he does not realize that just being with Julia
is useless and selfish – inevitably, he would be caught by the
Thought Police and sucked back into the illusional safety of the
embrace of the Inner Party and Big Brother. Through this, we see
that, no matter what, the ones with complete power over the life of
the people come out the victors.
The
main object of power in the text is Big Brother, the supposed leader
of Oceania. It is unknown whether Big Brother is an actual being or
just an image on a poster. He represents the “safety and hope”
for the people of London. This symbol is supported by the fact that
an older brother would protect and look out for his younger
sibling(s). This would give the people a false sense of security, as
they are forced to believe and think that Big Brother would take care
of them. One of the slogans for the Big Brother posters is “BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (pg. 2). This could possibly mean that Big
Brother is watching to make sure his people are't harmed, but the
more likely situation is that he is watching them for a wrong
movement, a slip of expression, anything that could alert the Thought
Police of a rebellion. This gives Winston a feeling of forced
submission, as he feels trapped inside of himself during the Two
Minutes Hate. If I were Winston, not being able to express my
thoughts or emotions makes me feel frustrated, as if I were being
strangled by a boa constrictor, with no way out, until the pressure
and lack of room to breathe finally killed me. Early in the text,
Winston “...had set his features into the expression of quiet
optimism...”(pg. 5) in front of the telescreen. This goes to show
that even one tiny twitch of the eye or mouth, any expression other
than the one stated above, would result in an arrest or worse.
Arresting
is another way that the people are kept under the control of the
Party and Big Brother. The low-class commoners, known rudely as
“proles”, and the members of the Outer Party do not know much
about what lies beyond their little world, and no one who had been
arrested was ever the same or appeared again. They would have been
“vaporized”. For example, one of Winston's friends, Syme, was
“...too intelligent. He [saw] too clearly and [spoke] too plainly.
The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear.”(pg
53) Inevitably, Syme did vanish. All records of him were erased.
Everyone forgot about him. Everyone except Winston, who was aware
this would happen. In order for the Party to retain complete control
over its people, it had to crush all threats under its foot like a
bug, no matter how big or small. One way the Party did this was to
capture the suspects and mentally break them. The Party needed proof
of even a minor suspect, first.
No
matter what, the citizens of Oceania were always being observed,
watched, and listened to. Not even in one's home were they alone or
had privacy. This was due to all the telescreens and microphones set
everywhere, even in the least suspicious place. Winston and Julia
were lured into a trap the same way, suspecting nothing of the
strange little shop where Winston bought his diary. At the end,
Winston and Julia were arrested by the store owner, Mr. Charrington,
who was actually a member of the Thought Police. After Winston was
captured, he was constantly watched by telescreens everywhere, and
tortured to no ed. He found out that the man he thought was his ally,
O'Brien, worked for the Ministry of Love – which actually tortured
the captives inside – and was the ultimate factor in Winston's
demise. Through the telescreens everywhere, O'Brien knew how to wear
Winston down and break his will, even knowing what was in his dreams.
“ 'Do you remember,' said O'Brien, 'the moment of panic that used
to occur in your dreams? There was a wall of blackness in front of
you, and a roaring sound in your ears. There was something terrible
on the other side of the wall. You knew that you knew what it was,
but you dared not drag it into the open. It was the rats on the other
side of the wall.' ” (pg. 284) There was no escape for Winston or
Julia, because the selfish instinct to survive made them betray each
other. This urge to survive was indeed what broke Winston's promise
promise to the “Brotherhood”. Winston wasn't selfless, and
O'Brien knew that. O'Brien used this to his advantage and
manipulated Winston by extracting his weakness.
Through all these forms of threats, the Party exercised
its power over the people, robbing them of their intellectuality and
emotions. People with minds have choices, can make decisions. People
without minds blindly follow whatever takes command and rules them,
becoming solely dependent on that one authority, no matter what they
do. The term “doublethink” in Newspeak is used by the Party to
manipulate the floundering people and make them believe that their
economy is flourishing. The Party maintains their grasp on the people
like so, crushing anything in their path. Thus, if they rule the
mind, they rule the lives, they rule forever more.
