I agree with dramasnot6 about the Newspeak thing. It's scary to compare it with the latest text-messaging "language" and see the similarity. I wonder if anyone here ever wonders what else of 1984's going to come true...
I agree with dramasnot6 about the Newspeak thing. It's scary to compare it with the latest text-messaging "language" and see the similarity. I wonder if anyone here ever wonders what else of 1984's going to come true...
1) The existence of the Brotherhood is irrelevant. As O'Brien demonstrated, the party is everlasting because everyone, quite literally, thinks the same. As for the rare exception such as Winston, Goldstien, Jordenson and others, they are destroyed, not physically, mentally and emotionally. Also, they are destroyed from history, see Parsons and the other nameless victims. The removal from history is the essence of the Party's longevity.
2) The paperweight is a link to history and its destruction is further evidence of the Party's ever encompassing reach. With its destruction Winston loses his final link to any society before his own contemporary time.
3) The diary is simply a diary and evidence to use against Winston when he is taken. Remember, O'Brien had been watching him for seven years.
4) Julia's and Winston's love affair is an expression of humanity and the need for people to be close. Again, it is an illusion to the reach of the Party. In room 101 Winston finally betrays Julia. Their love was real, heart-felt, sincere emotion that was used to destroy Winston.
5) Newspeak is a warning to future generations to not allow the establishment destroy their thought. The Party used it as a mind control device. It is, I believe, prophetic of the Political Correctness that took root, oddly enough, in the late sixties and continues to 2011.
6) Ingsoc is the corruption of all governments. It is the final realization of Marxism, Bolchevism, and yes, democracy. In other words, Ingsoc is the perfect government for it thinks only of the government.
One real connection I can think of between 1984 and Nazism is the persecution of intellectuals and "unbelievers" to use Newspeak. In Nazi Germany not only Jews, Gypsies, Soviets, and Eastern Europeans sent to the death camps, but also political non-believers. The clearest, and most overt, act of purging was the Night of the Long Knives. The Brown Shirts were all, ALL, killed in one night. But more than that, the Brown Shirts were corrupted and their purpose was absorbed by the SS.
Also, the victims of the Final Solution were not martyrs until AFTER the war and their plight was revealed by the Allies. If the Nazis had won the war, then the Final Solution would not have existed in the sense we know it as. The men, women, and children sent to Dauchau, Auschwitz, and other camps would have been nameless, forgotten, and erased from history. Basically, the Minilove was Auschwitz and Auschwitz was Minilove.
I know that is near heresy to say, but it is historical fact. The German people, except for those in the Inner Party, had no idea what was happening within their own nation. It is indeed frightening to realize how close to reality 1984 truly is.
One question, what is the essential lesson from 1984? I gather that what Orwell is trying to tell us is that nothing is safe, especially the gray matter between our ears. The final chapter stumped me for a while, I could not understand what was going on in the Chestnut Cafe. My one idea is that Winston was NOT broken my the torture, humiliation, and deprivation in the Minilove. He was broken by predicting, and formulating, the simple message from the telescrene. Thus, the ideas of the Party did not break him, but he broke himself threw his own ideas.
Is that accurate, or did I miss everything?
Welcome along!Quote:
Originally Posted by kowalskil
You should post that link in General literature - I'm sure it would have a wide audience among readers here.
I'd like to share some thoughts I had on the coral paperweight. The interpretations here are all very interesting and completely plausible, but I was struck with a different idea after reading the scene where it is smashed.
To me the coral paperweight is simply and object that symbolizes beauty. Remember, when Winston is first attracted to it in the shop he doesn't immediately know what it is, it is only after he has bought the object that he assumes it is intented for use as a paperweight. He decides to buy it becuase, in Orwell's words "the thing was doubly attractive because of its apparent uselessness". I think Orwell chooses his words carefully here, and holds the paperweight as an embodiment of 'form over function' and beauty for it's own sake. The deliberate smashing of paperweight later on is the powerful device he uses to show that the beauty absolutely cannot survive under Big Brother, that the prevalence of ugliness in everyday life as described earlier in the book is not a coincidence, but the result of a conscious purge.
I was under the impression that restricting people from leading luxurious lives was a means of promoting inequality for it's own sake, not necessarily a means of preventing revolt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silve
The conflict concerns Winston's effort to maintain unorthodox ideas and the Party's effort to thwart him. Winston thinks about this a lot and makes monologues about how while the Party can control every physical aspect of his life, they can never breach his mind. In the end the party breaches his mind and the closing sentence reflects that. So it seems to me that the strongest message was a warning against thought control.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kant
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Regarding the book's relation to Nazis, I think most of it is easily recognisable. Winston describes propaganda posters featuring tanned, blonde haired, blue eyed athletic types; Goldstein, the subject of society's hate, is a Jewish surname; the rockets periodically bombarding London are a reference to V2 rockets. There are quite a few other references as well. It seems to me that Orwell probably lived through WW2 and used his experiences during those times as inspiration for his books imagery.
The books relation to communism is deeper. I won't trouble with specific examples, but I'll mention that many ideas presented in the book are actually implemented in North Korea today. Specific example (I lied...): in many Pyongyang homes there are radios installed which play propaganda 24/7 and cannot be turned off, only turned down. Quite similar to the television sets in 1984, right?