PART THREE
18. Character, Irony/Paradox: How does Parsons feel about being imprisoned as a result of his own daughter reporting him for crime?
-) Normally, a father would be very upset and disappointed as their own daughter betrayed and got them arrested. Yet, Parsons is very committed to the party that he is proud of her daughter and believes his arrest is a good lesson for her. Before being taken away from the guards, he said: "She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway." In this respect, we can tell that the party had exerted great influence over the lives of many in Oceania as they had successfully controlled every aspect of a family.
19. Theme, Plot: Before Winston is interrogated, he sees many prisoners escorted off to Room 101. From their reactions, he gathers the room is extremely unpleasant. What is in Room 101?
-) Room 101 is a mysterious yet horrifying interrogation room in the Ministry of Love. A torture chamber where prisoners will be "reeducated" and are forced to confess to their crimes with their greatest fear. As stated in the novel, it has "The worst thing in the world... varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial things, not even fatal." Room 101 is the place where prisoners would pass the final stage of their Reintegration, "Acceptance".
20. Plot: When and in what way does Winston betray Julia?
-) There are three major stages of Winston's "Reintegration". They are "Learning", "Understanding" and "Acceptance". During the last stage of the Reintegration, he arrived at Room 101 and came face to face with his greatest fear (rats). According to the novel, he yelled to O'Brien, saying: "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" By doing so, he confessed and betrayed Julia. As Winston's love for Julia represent hope and happiness, Winston had given up hope and his will. Every thought, emotion and personalty were being sucked out of his living body. A puppet for the party.
21. Plot: Why does OΚΌBrien say prisoners are brought to the Ministry of Love?
-) Since the party don't permit anyone of the party to die as a martyr against Big Brother, the party create the Reintegration Program to make prisoners to believe that Big Brother, along with the party cannot be overthrown. Forcing prisoners to accept him through torture. As mentioned in the novel, O'Brien said: "Never again will you be capable of ordinary feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves." In doing so, the party can seek absolute power and loyalty over everyone. They can make people into believing anything they said without any hesitation.
22. Plot: What happens to Julia?
18. Character, Irony/Paradox: How does Parsons feel about being imprisoned as a result of his own daughter reporting him for crime?
-) Normally, a father would be very upset and disappointed as their own daughter betrayed and got them arrested. Yet, Parsons is very committed to the party that he is proud of her daughter and believes his arrest is a good lesson for her. Before being taken away from the guards, he said: "She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway." In this respect, we can tell that the party had exerted great influence over the lives of many in Oceania as they had successfully controlled every aspect of a family.
19. Theme, Plot: Before Winston is interrogated, he sees many prisoners escorted off to Room 101. From their reactions, he gathers the room is extremely unpleasant. What is in Room 101?
-) Room 101 is a mysterious yet horrifying interrogation room in the Ministry of Love. A torture chamber where prisoners will be "reeducated" and are forced to confess to their crimes with their greatest fear. As stated in the novel, it has "The worst thing in the world... varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial things, not even fatal." Room 101 is the place where prisoners would pass the final stage of their Reintegration, "Acceptance".
20. Plot: When and in what way does Winston betray Julia?
-) There are three major stages of Winston's "Reintegration". They are "Learning", "Understanding" and "Acceptance". During the last stage of the Reintegration, he arrived at Room 101 and came face to face with his greatest fear (rats). According to the novel, he yelled to O'Brien, saying: "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" By doing so, he confessed and betrayed Julia. As Winston's love for Julia represent hope and happiness, Winston had given up hope and his will. Every thought, emotion and personalty were being sucked out of his living body. A puppet for the party.
-) Since the party don't permit anyone of the party to die as a martyr against Big Brother, the party create the Reintegration Program to make prisoners to believe that Big Brother, along with the party cannot be overthrown. Forcing prisoners to accept him through torture. As mentioned in the novel, O'Brien said: "Never again will you be capable of ordinary feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves." In doing so, the party can seek absolute power and loyalty over everyone. They can make people into believing anything they said without any hesitation.
22. Plot: What happens to Julia?
-) In the very end of the novel, it follows that Winston and Julia had a meeting in the open. According to the description of Julia: "...her face was sallower, and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple...her waist had grown thicker, and, in a surprisingly way, had stiffened... her body felt like (a corpse)..." Base on the description above, we can easily conjure up an image of her current physical state. Instead being young and attractive, she now looks old and stiff. Similar to Winston, all their lives had been sucked out empty. We can assume that she had also been into a series of torture as she has a long scar across her forehead and temple.
23. Theme, Irony/Paradox: How does Winston ultimately feel about Big Brother? What is the overall theme of the book? Explain and give specific evidence to support your answer.
-) After forty years of torturing, Winston had completely surrendered to the party.The party had destroyed his mind. As stated in the last paragraph of the novel: "He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." This suggest that Winston accepted Big Brother and pledged his loyalty to the party. Now, he doesn't have any feeling for anybody (including Julia), except for Big Brother. As I have stated earlier, he had given up hope and his will. He is now a soulless tool of the party.
Furthermore, "1984" approaches the idea of power and societal control. Similar to Orwell's previous creation, "Animal Farm", both of them focus on corruption of power and the adoption of totalitarianism. After witnessing what the totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia, what they would commit in order to maintain or strengthen their power, George Orwell wrote "1984" in the late 1940s to warn people about the dangers of totalitarianism (Communism). He himself even stated the purpose of the novel is "to alter other people's idea of the kind of society they should strive after." With the perfect setting of a perfect dystopian society (Oceania), this expresses the two central themes in the novel, "Totalitarianism & Humanity" and "Class Privilege & Struggle".
"Totalitarianism & Humanity"
In order to further emphasis the dangers of totalitarianism, George Orwell purposely set the novel in Britain (Airstrip One). By doing so, readers can acknowledge the fact that totalitarianism could succeed anywhere if it were not fought against. Yet, if it succeeded, Orwell addressed that the future and the fate of humanity will be crushed in the eradication of privacy, individuality and freedom. As stated in the novel, he illustrates the future of a world with totalitarianism as "a boot stamping on a human face - forever." The boot represent the strong military oppression as the face represent the future, the fate of humanity and the people. In other words, Orwell strongly suggests that the future will be dominated by a autocrat. Only one voice will be accepted while the others are forced to follow.
"Class Privilege & Struggle"
Apart from totalitarianism and humanity, Orwell, also addresses class privilege and struggle through the relationships of each social class in Oceania. To do so, Orwell uses Goldstein's book (The Theory and Practise of Oligarchical Collectivism) to explain the influence of class privilege and struggle to human societies. The book itself holds an important message. It follows that humanity has always been a series of struggle between each social groups. The "High", the "Middle" and the "Low". The "High" are the ones who rule, the "Middle" obey and follow the "High" and the 'Low" who are the poorest of all and comprises the majority of the population. Similar to Marxism, the book explain how human society is divided and reconstructed. Initially, the "Middle" would overthrow the "High" by promoting the "Low". In deposing the old rulers, the "Middle" becomes the new rulers as the "Low" become the new middle class. As time pass, the cycle continues and repeats. Comparable to the following ideal, Oceania is made out of three major classes. They are the ultimate Inner Party (2%), the industrious Outer Party (13%) and the underprivileged proles (85% of the population). With the same setting, Winston believes that the proles will overthrow the Inner Party with their enormous manpower as soon as they realise they are capable to revolt against the Inner Party. This is stated in the novel: "Until they (the proles) become conscious they will never rebel, and until they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."
Overall, 1984 approaches the idea of power and social disorder from a socialist perspective. Orwell has successfully presents the dangers of totalitarianism. Even to this day, it is still a direct warning against totalitarianism.
-) After forty years of torturing, Winston had completely surrendered to the party.The party had destroyed his mind. As stated in the last paragraph of the novel: "He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving beast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." This suggest that Winston accepted Big Brother and pledged his loyalty to the party. Now, he doesn't have any feeling for anybody (including Julia), except for Big Brother. As I have stated earlier, he had given up hope and his will. He is now a soulless tool of the party.
Furthermore, "1984" approaches the idea of power and societal control. Similar to Orwell's previous creation, "Animal Farm", both of them focus on corruption of power and the adoption of totalitarianism. After witnessing what the totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia, what they would commit in order to maintain or strengthen their power, George Orwell wrote "1984" in the late 1940s to warn people about the dangers of totalitarianism (Communism). He himself even stated the purpose of the novel is "to alter other people's idea of the kind of society they should strive after." With the perfect setting of a perfect dystopian society (Oceania), this expresses the two central themes in the novel, "Totalitarianism & Humanity" and "Class Privilege & Struggle".
"Totalitarianism & Humanity"
In order to further emphasis the dangers of totalitarianism, George Orwell purposely set the novel in Britain (Airstrip One). By doing so, readers can acknowledge the fact that totalitarianism could succeed anywhere if it were not fought against. Yet, if it succeeded, Orwell addressed that the future and the fate of humanity will be crushed in the eradication of privacy, individuality and freedom. As stated in the novel, he illustrates the future of a world with totalitarianism as "a boot stamping on a human face - forever." The boot represent the strong military oppression as the face represent the future, the fate of humanity and the people. In other words, Orwell strongly suggests that the future will be dominated by a autocrat. Only one voice will be accepted while the others are forced to follow.
"Class Privilege & Struggle"
Apart from totalitarianism and humanity, Orwell, also addresses class privilege and struggle through the relationships of each social class in Oceania. To do so, Orwell uses Goldstein's book (The Theory and Practise of Oligarchical Collectivism) to explain the influence of class privilege and struggle to human societies. The book itself holds an important message. It follows that humanity has always been a series of struggle between each social groups. The "High", the "Middle" and the "Low". The "High" are the ones who rule, the "Middle" obey and follow the "High" and the 'Low" who are the poorest of all and comprises the majority of the population. Similar to Marxism, the book explain how human society is divided and reconstructed. Initially, the "Middle" would overthrow the "High" by promoting the "Low". In deposing the old rulers, the "Middle" becomes the new rulers as the "Low" become the new middle class. As time pass, the cycle continues and repeats. Comparable to the following ideal, Oceania is made out of three major classes. They are the ultimate Inner Party (2%), the industrious Outer Party (13%) and the underprivileged proles (85% of the population). With the same setting, Winston believes that the proles will overthrow the Inner Party with their enormous manpower as soon as they realise they are capable to revolt against the Inner Party. This is stated in the novel: "Until they (the proles) become conscious they will never rebel, and until they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."
Overall, 1984 approaches the idea of power and social disorder from a socialist perspective. Orwell has successfully presents the dangers of totalitarianism. Even to this day, it is still a direct warning against totalitarianism.
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