Thursday, March 10, 2011

“But it was alright, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”


In the final portion of 1984 everything really takes a turn for the worst. O'Brian turns out to be a spy (what!?) and the Brotherhood unravel itself as another sham organization of the government. After Julia and Winston wake up one morning in his flat the Party surrounds him and takes him in to be brainwashed. They preform brain washings on him until his brain his turned into mindless, conformist-mush; every thought of rebellion and a world he once believed he could escape to disappeared and he begins his post-brainwashed life of victory gin and dull work. But when I was reading I began to think, what if the the governments involvement traces further back than his involvement with O'Brian? What if it was the government that had planted the journal way-back-when in the Proles section of the country? George Orwell clearly conveys that the government is largely in control, but could they have predicted actions of Winston so perfectly? Or maybe they just planted a journal in the first place, not caring who ended up owning it and tracked the usage? Was it sheer coincidence that Winston went down this rare path of rebellion or was it the governments plan from the beginning? George Orwell teaches his readers one main message in this book, trust no one. Every single person gets betrayed in this book, from the beginning with his neighbors and their child spies, O'Brian betraying Winston, and even in the end Winston betrays his own beloved Julia. George Orwell was either extremely paranoid or on point with the patterns of humans. We like to believe that in the end we sacrifice it all for love but in the end our own self-worth concurs all feelings towards others, and that is exactly what Winston does in the end, he is brain-washed and gives up everything, all so that he can live in a black and white society with a few too many eyes watching your every move. Was it all worth it though?

Thursday, March 3, 2011

PART 2


In the second portion of George Orwell's novel, "1984", Winston begins to fulfill his rebellious fantasies towards Big Brother. He begins to see the dark-haired beauty, Julia on a regular basis, meeting above Mr. Charrington's shop. The affair begins with a note from Julia simply stating, "I love you" and from there their romance begins. Him and Julia both believe the same ideals of independence and as his relationship with Julia begins to move forward, so does his relationship with his coworker, O'Brian. O'Brian invites him to his flat for the newest edition of Newspeak; this is where Winston and Julia learn of the secret brotherhood that O'Brian is a part of and as hey both join, they begin to learn all about the mysterious Goldstein and the secret world that Big Brother has not discovered yet. Throughout this portion Winston's relationships are really forming. Before, Winston was simply a man sitting in his flat scheming and obsessing about thoughts of rebellion from conformity. In modern day times we call those types of people mental. But once Winston unties with Julia and O'Brian, his entire world changes from being some guy who was a bit mad to a real threat to society. It is not people alone who change the world and shake it to its very core, but the relationships people form in the process of changing the world. To succeed at something you must create a basis of people on which you can rely and trust and that is exactly what Winston is experiencing. The relationships he is forming during this portion of the book make him into something viable towards the government and nothing is more threatening to a totalitarian dictatorship than a group of free-thinkers.