O' Brien and his telescreen

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12-21-2005, 10:32 PM
Comrade Amiee

O' Brien and his telescreen

So Winston finial meets with O'Brien at his house and talks to him about the secret Brotherhood. The thing that gets me though is that since O'Brien is in the inner Party he is able to turn his telescreen on and off when he wants but is it really turned off? I think he might just say it's turned off when the screen goes black but really there are people listening to Winston and Julie saying that they are rebelling against the Thought police and do not like Big Brother. I think that O'Brien is just using them and is going to turn them in to Big Brother and they will end up never seeing each other again or something like that. O'Brien just doesn't seem safe to me.
01-05-2006, 09:24 PM
Iluvicecream

Trap?

Winston only visits O'Brian because he had hope that O'Brian thought the same way about the government as himself. Winston had even gone over the possibility in his head that the invitation could be a trap but he thought it was worth the risk.
01-07-2006, 06:14 PM
gilthas

Bingo, you've hit the mark perfectly. Winston and Julia should have probably tuned into the fact that Winston is able to turn off his telescreen. Only inner party members can do that, but they were so willing to trust OBrien that they refused to believe what their eyes and ears were telling them.
01-11-2006, 10:22 PM
Neziar

"...into the fact that Winston is able to turn off his telescreen."

You mean O'Brien, right?

Yes, being able to turn off one's telescreen is an inner party priviledge. But I wondered, if the government doesn't trust the Outer party members enough that they are to be monitored 24/7, what about the Inner party people? Isn't there also the possibility that -one- of the Inner party people would rebel? The government seems to be putting alot of faith in these people... too fishy for me.
01-12-2006, 12:02 AM
gilthas

no, because the inner party is so corrupted, and so dominated by Big Brother that they have it in their heads that Big Brother is all powerful. the only one ever to revolt was Goldstein, and they made darn sure he didn't do that again anytime soon.
01-12-2006, 11:48 AM
Stanislaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comrade Amiee

So Winston finial meets with O'Brien at his house and talks to him about the secret Brotherhood. The thing that gets me though is that since O'Brien is in the inner Party he is able to turn his telescreen on and off when he wants but is it really turned off? I think he might just say it's turned off when the screen goes black but really there are people listening to Winston and Julie saying that they are rebelling against the Thought police and do not like Big Brother. I think that O'Brien is just using them and is going to turn them in to Big Brother and they will end up never seeing each other again or something like that. O'Brien just doesn't seem safe to me.

I think that he was actually able to completely turn off his screen. I think orwell was making a comparison to the favours that upper party members of the communist party, a theme he also developed in animal farm with the statement all animals are equal, some are more equal... It is just a statement of hypocracy that the party of 1984 exhibbeted that is omni present in dictatorships of our world.
01-22-2006, 12:05 AM
mangamagna

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neziar

Yes, being able to turn off one's telescreen is an inner party priviledge. But I wondered, if the government doesn't trust the Outer party members enough that they are to be monitored 24/7, what about the Inner party people? Isn't there also the possibility that -one- of the Inner party people would rebel? The government seems to be putting alot of faith in these people... too fishy for me.

well neziar, inner party members were chosen or hand-picked by other inner-party members and tested on if they used newspeak and doublethink well. so i doubt there would be rebellion. on top of that the inner party members had the good life. most rebellion would probabbly only come from outer party and they were being constantly monitored so rebellion really was impossible.