Part 2: 1984

Before the NSA, we had this...

Is it me, or does Orwell have a personal vendetta against Communism/totalitarian governments? One-hundred and seventy pages in, and already, I've lost myself to this alternate world of constant surveillance, men and women who have been deprived of their simple pleasures in life (I shall refer to them as the “stiffs”, aka those who work in the various Ministries and Departments, aka Outer Party Members), and stiff rules/laws.

The main character/protagonist, Winston Smith, is a 39-year-old man working in the Ministry of Truth. His job is to change news articles, especially those in "The Times" (not a very creative name...I'm pretty sure it's trademarked...), in order to suit the Party’s (ring a bell? hint, hint...Communism) ulterior motives. For example, Winston may have to rewrite an article about someone who the Party vapored and omit references to the person as if they never existed in the first place. SPOILER ALERT: While he is walking in the halls of the Ministry, he is approached by a young girl working in the Fiction Department and she places him a mysterious note that says: “I LOVE YOU”. They begin to have a relationship while plotting to overthrow the Party at the same time.

So far, the plot has been slow up until Winston and Julia (the name of the young girl) began having a relationship. I really hope there will be more action later on...I’m more of an action person; I’d rather read a book where there are guns blazing and people fighting, than a book where everything is in slow motion. What’s even worse, is a book where there is supposed to be action but there is NONE (hint, hint 1984)! Almost every dystopian/futuristic novel I’ve read has had some sort of violence and I am somewhat disappointed. Also, I had a premonition (while Winston and Julia were together) that Winston or Julia would be caught by the ThoughtPolice and be vaporized. My money’s on Julia to die before the book is over, and Winston to die at the end.

As I mentioned in the first post, I have already read Animal Farm (also by Orwell). For Animal Farm, it was more allegorical and more fable-y, while 1984, was more of a dystopian world. 1984 and Animal Farm are similar, since they both shed a negative and dark light on totalitarian governments. Also, the “governments” (considering that animals had some form of a government/hierarchy) in both books had slogans/manifestos. Compare the Party’s slogan from 1984 to the animals’ manifesto from Animal Farm:

The other day in German class, we watched a video about Ka De We, the largest department store in Germany. It is very high-end, and the 2,000 employees work day-to-day, trying to create the perfect shopping experience for their customers. The video focused on the maintenance man, who fixed various problems, from cleaning a water tank in the seafood section to restoring water to the restroom in a restaurant, as quickly as possible. This way, the customers would not get angry from their experience and never come back. We also saw one of the designers checking the displays in the clothing section of the store. I noted that he was very critical about other designers’ works. He commented negatively on jeans that were not evenly spaced when hung and price tags that were showing on a display (my response was: “This is not design. This is OCD.”). While we were watching, I made an immediately connection to 1984. Just as high-end department stores, such as Ka De We, create a seemingly “perfect” world, there are many “behind-the-scenes” happenings in order to hide the many imperfections and flaws. The maintenance man reminded me of Winston. Both do the “dirty work” of the higher power at play (employer/the Party) and both wear blue overalls! (The maintenance man in the video wore blue overalls, which happens to be Winston’s uniform in the book. Our German teacher told us that the blue overalls were actually the uniform of maintenance men in Germany.) The designer, on the other hand, reminded me of the Party in the book. He inspected and checked all of the doings of his subordinates to make sure that all was perfect for the customers (in 1984, I imagine the customers in Ka De We to represent the people of Oceania).

While Winston lives in such a seemingly flawless, yet cruel world, he dreams of a safe haven:

“The inexhaustibly interesting thing was not the fragment of coral but the interior of the glass itself. There was such a depth of it, and yet it was almost as transparent as air. It was as though the surface of the glass had been the arch of the sky, enclosing a tiny world with its atmosphere complete. He had the feeling that he could get inside it, and that in fact he was inside it…The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.” (Orwell 184-185)

The paperweight (a piece of coral inside crystal) is an old artifact that Winston buys from a small shop. The true past of the world, not what the Party force-feeds the citizens of Oceania, constantly intrigues him. Within the paperweight, he is able to lose himself and imagine a world where there is free will and free love. I believe Winston's hope for the world to change will be the driving force that causes him to act rashly in some situation, which will, as I mention again, lead to his death. 

In the exposition of the story, Winston opens his newly-bought diary and begins to write in it. I was reminded immediately of the old and famous adage: "The pen is mightier than the sword". Even though Winston does not outwardly rebel the Party, he has committed “thoughtcrime” by being against the Party in his mind. He begins to keep a diary that outlines his inner and true thoughts about his current world. Winston wonders who he’s writing to in this quote:

“He wondered again for whom he was writing the diary. For the future, for the past—for an age that might be imaginary. And in front of him there lay not death but annihilation.” (Orwell 35)

Here, Winston realizes that no matter who is audience is, the path he is taking will ultimately lead to death. Deep down he knows that the Thought Police will eventually find that he has committed thoughtcrime and vaporize him and the diary altogether. The bird singing in the following quote, symbolizes Winston:

“The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as though the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuousity…Winston watched it with a sort of vague reverence. For whom, for what, was that bird singing?...What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness?” (Orwell 156)

Just as the bird's sweet music is being "poured into nothingness", Winston's efforts to somehow warn the future through his diary are in vain as well. As I said earlier, I had a premonition that Winston would be captured and killed at the end of the book. I see this metaphor, of the bird as Winston, as foreshadowing for something horrible that may occur later. 

While I was talking to my Language Arts teacher, he mentioned that George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, the author of A Brave New World, had exchanged letters and argued about which world they created would eventually become the future of the world. Orwell argued for the world of 1984, where the government kept the people in control by taking away all of man’s pleasures away. On the other hand, Huxley argued for the world of A Brave New World, where the government kept the people in control by giving them everything they desired. Both standpoints are interesting and I believe they have both integrated themselves into today’s modern society. In light of Orwell’s argument, governments all over the world have spy agencies that evaluate and scrutinize the actions of the people (supposedly to sift out terrorists from society). The United States have the NSA, Britain has CCTV and etcetera and etcetera. But in light of Huxley’s argument, many countries provide free health care for their citizens. Who knows? In the future can be either one of these fantastic and dystopian worlds, or a combination of the two, or neither!

Picture Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/1984-Big-Brother.jpg