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Book beginning: page 3

Orwell’s book

• The book in itself reflects the system it describes. The lector is left with no doubts and no questions.
• Every concept explained.
• Every question answered.
• Every dream completed.
• No loose ends left for characters or ideas.
• Points of distinction between the three classes are described.
• The efficiency of the system is explained.
• How and why it exists.
• How Big Brother learnt from the flaws of past systems to create this one.

The system

• The fact that there were no laws (p8, 220), simply rules (p8, 68) but everyone fell into order showed not only the most efficient mind control techniques, but that Big Brother was extremely talented in picking out pliable Party members (p217/8). Although it would seem that most did end up at the Ministry of Love (part III, chapter I), each worker had given years of loyal work before they became a danger to the system.
• The system is run on contradictions, hypocrisy and lies to keep Party members and proles in line. However, every contradiction and hypocrisy is made logical.
• As part of their mind control “nothing exists except an endless present” (p162).
• There is a very short glimpse into the good life that Inner Party members live when Winston and Julia go to O’Brien’s home (p175).
• There is never a detail missing, Big Brother has perfected the art of lying by always knowing a person's next move, even when O’Brien was asking Winston and Julia what they would do for the Brotherhood (p179/80), he knew it was to later play back the recording (p283).
• O’Brien said the system was founded solely for pure power (p275), but by extension, if you have all the power, you have all the wealth, luxuries, longer and healthier life, and happiness too.
• It would seem that although any evidence that comes into any Party members’ hands is destroyed, an archive of all past events does exist somewhere which is perhaps how Big Brother is able to go back and forth between them so easily. This is seen when O’Brien shows Winston the copy of the photo of Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford (p259).
• Even the doubt of whether the Brotherhood exists or not is pretty much non existent by the end, as O’Brien admits to helping write the book (p274), and Big Brother has such control on all quarters that the reader can assume it impossible. The system was made to sniff out Thoughtcrime (p21).

The mechanics of the system

• Bit by bit, Winston pieces together the past but to no avail as it was blasted from his memory all the same and any remains were considered “false memories” (p309). Originally though, he had managed to find little bits of information from several people to create the whole picture (Julia, O’Brien, the old man at the pub (p92-96), Mr Charrington), as no one person can build the whole alone.
• Disappearances were normal (p168) and when someone became an “unperson” everyone had to just carry on.
• Winston knew in detail what awaited him when he was finally to be captured and taken to the Ministry of Love (p174). However, his firm belief that Big Brother could not change your heart was a grave mistake, as he later learned upon seeing Julia again (p305/6).
• Parsons, according to Winston, would never be vaporized (p64) but through his own flaw of having children, he suffered the terrors contained within the Ministry of Love all the same (p244-6).
• It is a time when no one dare trust a family member or friend (p280), and the whole system is made up of complete individuals, where no one individual could survive alone, but if they hand themselves over, could survive as part of the whole (p277). An individual faces capture, as did Winston, but merging yourself into the Party, you face immortality.
• Every bit of information will be tortured out of you and the people you know, to later be used against you.
• As O’Brien said, there is a cycle, both for and of people who do not conform (p267, 281). We do not understand why Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford, reacted as they did when hearing “Under the spreading chestnut tree” (p80), until Winston has been released from the system and hears the song himself (p307).
• By modifying modifications already made of past events, it means that no past really exists, so there can be no sense of belonging to or longing for times gone by.

Newspeak

• The complex workings of the new language that are given in detail, help understand the overall ideals of the Big Brother system.
• Eventually, all of Oceania will speak an artificial language (p56) which is as artificial as their governing system.
• On some occasions, only Newspeak contains the exact word that is needed for what somebody wants to say (p138). This also shows that this system requires additional vocabulary to express their brand new political ideas.

Time

• There is a lot of confusion as to what time or even date it is, this can be seen when: Winston starts his diary and does not know what date to put in (p9); between the old 12 hour clock in Mr Charrington’s shop which shows the incorrect time and the new 24 hour clocks; and when Winston is imprisoned, he does not know how much time has passed, or even if it is day or night (book III).
  
  The point of this could be to show that it does not greatly matter when something happens, just that you believe it is happening, because ultimately it can always be changed at a later date if Big Brother so wishes. Even in matters that are due to take place at a certain hour, they are arbitrarily given to the members, so it would not matter what the time actually was, so long as Big Brother stated that it was then. Examples of this are: in the final pages, Party members are warned to be attentive of the telescreens at “fifteen-thirty” (p302), and given that there are screens everywhere, even the people walking in the street could not avoid the news at this supposed time (p310); and with the morning wake up call, the telescreen alarm went off and you had to get up (p33), it would not have mattered what the actual time was.

The old days vs. post-Revolution

• In the transition from the old system into the new, some aspects had not become fully clear yet. Julia works in manual labour, in the same overalls as all the other men and women (p4) and is even seen to carry a tool bag (p147). However, in the second chapter Winston gets a knock at his door when Mrs Parsons needs help unclogging a drain because her husband is not at home (p22). In the novel, a woman can work on equal terms with a man or be a stereotypical housewife who does not possess the capability to unblock a drain.
• Usually new things are all clean and shiny, and the old all dusty and dirty. But in the new system many people had dust and dirt in their wrinkles (p25).
• There is a definite divide between the old and new generations (p91) which shows how long it takes for old ways to die out even under such a rigid system.
• Winston shows that all of the old world values are obsolete when he says to Julia “I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don’t want any virtue to exist anywhere” (p132). Making a good start for Big Brother to “found a civilisation on fear and hatred and cruelty” (p281) that was previously unthinkable.
• No one really remembers if things were better before the Revolution. All Winston can remember is hunger due to war (p168), and the old man in the pub is incapable of properly answering the question (p95).
• The reader can partially tell what was real and what was not, and what was the same about the pre-Revolution as the current system, from Winston’s questions to the old man. When something was true it jogged the old man’s memory and he interrupted, when it wasn’t, he let Winston continue talking (p92).
• It was clear for everyone to see, from Big Brother to Outer Party members, the importance of the past if they were brave enough to think about it (p37, 184).

Rebellion

• Although Winston was not right on every account, he could tell everyone’s fate by the way their mind worked (p64), and knowing that no one had actually done anything against the system but still perished, it raises the question why not live recklessly? Syme was vaporized because he was too cleaver (p56); Parsons because his daughter turned him in (p245); and Ampleforth for an indiscretion in the translation of a poem (p242).
• With the abolishment of sexualisation came the blurring of genders. Julia longed to be a real woman when she was with Winston (p149).
• Winston did say that Julia was only a rebel from the waist down (p163).
• Julia knew Big Brother could not be defeated (p160), and showed little enthusiasm for the book (p208). Should Winston have paid attention to her instead of going to O’Brien with thoughts of the Brotherhood? Even though they knew the Thought Police would have caught them in the end either way.
• Neither Winston nor Julia were above the purchase of black market items, Winston mainly of old world paraphernalia and Julia of Inner Party products. But it is interesting to see how enthusiastically Julia shares her hard to come by treasures with Winston (p147).

Acting with caution in Big Brother’s system

• Never discuss memories or dreams.
• Never tell anyone your fears (p151).
• Be careful with the deceit of appearances: O’Brien who was out to catch Thoughtcrime; Julia keeping up appearances of the perfect Party member; and Winston falling in love with a girl he had wanted to kill because of her convincing but not genuine purity (p105).

The high, the middle, and the low

• Julia reveals the corruption that exists within the Inner Party, who are not as law abiding as it would seem (p131).
• For the lowly class (proles), the "‘opeless fancy" song far outlasted the "Hate Song" (p227).
• There is a use of capital letters for Big Brother, Inner Party, Outer Party and the Party, but a use of lower case letters for proletariat / proles.

Questions

• Would it be better to be a proletariat and relatively free of mind but have nothing, or have a slightly higher standard of life and be controlled? It is spontaneous singing vs. somewhat economic stability. Baby eating rats vs. telescreens.
• Overall, did the different classes just conform and enjoy however little they could get?

Orwell, George. 1984. Penguin Books, 2008.