Daniel Ayotte & Ralffi Salas

6th hour 2/9/2008

Title of novel: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Setting: 1984 London, England in Oceania (book name of nation).
Themes: The danger that comes with totalitarianism.
The powers of psychological manipulation example: The theme of 1984 is that
with psychological manipulation any one can be controlled.
Through physical control, anything can be possible/believable.
Technology is a two sided sword. Example: The theme of 1984 is that technology
is only really beneficial in terms of who is in control of it, and even then it can be used
against us, making it a two-sided sword.
Main Characters:
Winston Smith Protagonist; Julia’s lover
Julia Winston’s lover
O’Brien Powerful member of the inner party; torturer
of Winston, and Julia
Plot Summary:
Winston Smith, is middle aged man with a ulcer on his ankle, living in victory
mansions (which are apartments that are old and falling apart). He works at the Ministry
of Truth, and later on in the story, starts to stay in a room above a second hand store. Big
Brother is the leader of the party, which is the controlling party of Oceania (or London if
you’d prefer). There are 3 different groups in Oceania; there are the proles, which are the
lowest class in Oceania. Proles are the labor workers, who have little to no education, and
also have very little cash. Lastly, the Proles are the only really “free” contingent of the
four groups in Oceania.
The second and third group is known as the party. There is the outer party, which
is people who have some education and money, but are dedicated to Big Brother. Each
work for the Inner Party and have some loyalty towards them. The children of the Outer
Party are trained and taught to love only Big Brother, destroying the relationship of
parents and their children. The Inner Party has the fewest members, and is the most
educated and loyal members of Oceania. They have some privileges that others do not
and have the most power of the rest. Big Brother’s character is not one that is really
known, though the picture of him is found everywhere with his eyes following you on
each of the images, with a location of where he is not known by even those of the Inner
Party.
Winston’s job is to edit text of different written documents such as Times, a
newspaper or magazine that tells of most update information of the Party. This text is
edited so that the Party may always be correct and right in everything they say. That is
one of the main jobs that the Ministry of Truth has. The Ministry of Love is one of
military and torture situations. It is used in the story as the place where Winston is
tortured and transformed to become a perfect party member. Lastly, the Ministry of
Plenty is that of Oceania’s economy. One notable thing of the Ministry of Plenty is their
reports on supplies which state that an item (such as boots) might have been mass
produced and is being distributed through out Oceania, when in reality the item might of
actually been lessened in distribution or not have been distributed at all.
Winston is quite the rebellious man for a member of the Outer Party. He starts the
novel with coming home, meeting the neighbors the Parsons, and has some Victory Gin.
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He sits in a little corner and writes stuff in his diary (act against the Party). During a
program called “Two Minutes of Hate” the reader is introduced to the dark haired girl
(Julia), a sandy blonde haired girl (not important), and O’Brien. During this time O’Brien
and Winston share a “moment” in which they share a slight glance at each other. This is
when Winston believes that O’Brien is in a secret society that is against the party known
as the Brotherhood, led by Emmanuel Goldstein, (the people on the telesceen during the
two minutes of hate usually).
As the story progresses we learn of Winston’s first love with a 50 year old,
toothless women, whom was a prostitute (prostitution is illegal but allowed for the
moment). Later on we ounce again meet Julia, whom seems to have a broken arm, during
these moments Winston day dreams and thinks of Julia and him in the “golden country”
which is a grassy area, with a big tree and a small river where the two can lust over each
other all they want. Winston goes back to the second hand store where he bought the note
book, and this time purchases a paper weight, which has a small piece of coral in it. As
Winston leaves he notices that the dark haired girl (Julia) was following him, and quickly
attempts to lose her. As Winston passes by Julia, Julia “trips” and puts a piece of paper
into his hand, after that the two walk away from each other. When Winston finally reads
the note that was given it says the words, “I love you.”
In the days that past as Winston tries to get alone with Julia they share a brief
lunch together. They decided they would meet at Victory Square where they would share
a few words, Winston learns her name, and they decide to meet in a grass grove. After
they finish “doing their duty” (as the book would refer to it), they decide where they meet
next, and this is also the time where Winston realizes that this place was the Golden
Country that he thought of before. This then continues, Julia and Winston meet at certain
times, and each continues to comply with the rules of the Party as they secretly disobey
them. As these continue they soon start to use the place above the second hand store that
Winston received the notebook and paperweight from. In the room there is a bed, a chair
and a picture of a church/building. This is when Winston realizes that the paperweight is
sort of like Winston’s and Julia’s world, and those they are the coral inside, totally
secluded from everything else.
At the same time as this hidden relationship is occurring, Winston finally is talks
to O’Brien. Using the cover up of offering Winston a new version of Newspeak (official
language of Oceania) and says for him to come to his house. When both Julia and
Winston arrive, they are met with a grim look, by O’Brien, who then states that it would
be best if Julia left a half hour before Winston left. During this time, the two are
interviewed by O’Brien about rather or not they would be committed to the Brotherhood,
whom the two believe O’Brien is in. Before O’Brien orders a copy of “the book”
(legendary book explaining the logic of Emmanuel Goldstein and his reasoning/goals) to
be given to both of them, he asks them a series of questions on what they would do to
bring down Big Brother, each of them being quite under handed.
There is a certain time in Oceania that is called Hate Week. It is basically a whole
week in protest to their enemy. At the current moment Winston hasn’t even looked inside
the book, and then something happens. During one of the rallies an old man comes up
and makes an announcement that the enemy has changed. Oceania is not at war with
Eurasia, but is in fact at war with East Asia! The crowd accepts this fact, and tears down
all the posters that say the Eurasia was an enemy, claiming that the Brotherhood was the
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cause of the posters. Winston and his peers return to work and begin editing history, so it
would seem that Oceania was always at war with East Asia and always an ally of Eurasia.
When hate week finally settles down Winston finally starts to read the book and
learns things that he already knows only to become more enticed on why the Party would
do this. One day as Winston and Julia are upstairs in Mr. Charrington’ s room, they hear a
voice coming from the painting. Only to realize that there was a telescreen there! The two
are then arrested, and find out that Mr. Charrington was actually a member of the
Thought Police!
Winston awakes inside the Ministry of Love, a place that has no windows, and
has no darkness. He then meets some other prisoners of the Party including his neighbor,
Mr. Parsons. When Winston is finally escorted by the guards he is beaten by them and
many others. This beating happens extremely often, until it starts to slow down, finally to
Winston’s delight. He starts to be given drugs that relieve him of the pain from the
beatings, only to be beaten again. Soon he finally is met by the mastermind who is
O’Brien! He there beings his “rehabilitation/treatment” and we see him as a different
person then what he ounce was, making him become even more mysterious then what he
was before. Using a mixture of psychological tricks, and electric torture, Winston soon
becomes healthy and treated. An important part of this sequence is when Winston decides
to himself that he had not betrayed Julia, and when O’Brien hears of this he is sent to
room 101, a place where he is confronted by his greatest fear (for Winston this fear is of
rats). Carefully a metal box containing rats is placed over Winston’s head, and just as
O’Brien is about to open the box on him, Winston screams that he wishes for this to be
done to Julia and not him thus betraying Julia.
At the end of the novel, we find Winston at the Chestnut Tree Café, drinking
Victory Gin and listening carefully to the telescreen for news on the war. He has a
flashback of when he did go and meet Julia again, and realizes that she also has been
treated, and each of them have no more interest in each other as they ounce did. Soon the
telescreen tells of a victory over the enemy and it is at this point that Winston finally
admits his love for Big Brother.
Symbolism: The Rhymes (just my opinion): Another thing to add to this is a
rhyme mentioned in the book, about the Chestnut Tree Café that goes as follows, “Under
the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me, there lie they and here lie we,
under the spreading chestnut tree.” This is what Winston said when he was thinking of
three men that were traitors, and when they mysteriously came back they would be at the
Chestnut Tree Café, and this is used again for Winston and Julia as they both betrayed
each other. The other rhyme referring to the bells of the churches was (this is my opinion)
reference in which the rhyme is first said by Winston, then by Mr. Charrington then by
Julia and the last line, that was needed was given to us by O’Brien. There can be some
evidence that Winston started the rhyme, just like many other things that happened from
Winston, Mr. Charrington adds in the second rhyme, and Julia adds the third. These two
are both the connectors, just like in the main plot, both connected Winston and O’Brien,
whom by the way added the last line, which is also the symbol of his knowledge over
everything, for he recited the whole poem. The rhymes that are sung by the Prole woman
says of someone who had dreams that were just a hopeless fancy which is actually
alluding to the hopefulness of what Julia and Winston are doing. The second contingent
to the first song is that refers to Winston, and of his memory of the past furthermore of
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what people would be like in Oceania without doublethink (when you can believe
something that is not true and at the same time still believe that something is true such as
2+2=5). The last line which was actually the last line to the church bells poem (shows the
dominance and knowledge of everything the Party has) has the main meaning of when
they get caught just simply the part when the Party finds Winston and Julia and is the end
of their relationship. (The songs can be found on page 180, and the last part can be found
on page 181. The rhyme of the bells can be found on page 147 which is the complete
rhyme. The Chestnut tree rhyme is found on page 66).
As already said, the paperweight resembles the world or relationship that Julia
and Winston had, and when it broke so did that relationship. One thing that can be
noticed in the book is that Winston has a memory of O’Brien saying that they would meet
in the place where there is no darkness. Winston took this as in the place he called the
golden country, but ironically they would meet in the Ministry of Love.
A big symbol in 1984 was the telescreens that were mentioned through out the
book. This is a major example on how technology can be controlling and powerful in the
power of tolerations or in any situation. Another big symbol is O’Brien. In the book,
O’Brien can basically represent Winston’s view of the party. When O’Brien is first
introduced, Winston notices much of his features, mentioning how strong of a man he is,
and how he was very powerful both physically and mentally. But when they meet again
in the Ministry of Love, O’Brien’s whole appearance seems to change. He turns sickly
and weak yet he still possesses the mental ability and takes up the role of a teacher. This
shows of the elusiveness of the party and how there is so much that is unknown about the
Party.