1. Winston Smith lives in London, Oceania (England), a country ruled by a totalitarian government (The Party), which is lead by “Big Brother”. Although Winston is a member of The Party, he is still watched all the time, everywhere he goes through devices such as the telescreen. Winston’s job is to rewrite the history of The Party, changing the records of past events so that it appears as though Big Brother and The Party have been involved everything good, and frees them from blame of all the negative events. The Party is now trying to bring about a new language that would make political rebellion nearly impossible. It’s called Newspeak and it erases any words that can be affiliated with rebellion. Winston is becoming fed up with the oppression of the party. His “thought crimes” against The Party include thinking about rebellion, sex, and being individual, and writing these thoughts in a diary. He wanders through the poor neighborhoods of London in order to escape the constant monitoring of The Party. Winston starts an affair with a dark-haired girl whom he works with at The Ministry of Truth named Julia. He is afraid that they will be caught, tortured, and killed by The Party for the affair, while she is driven by the danger of the affair. He begins to hate The Party even more and finally hears from O’Brien, a member of the party whom he suspects to be working against The Party, for the Brotherhood. O’Brien is a member of the Inner Party, which allows him many luxuries, yet works against The Party. Julia and Winston become members of The Brotherhood. As Winston reads Emmanuel Goldstein’s (the leader of the Brotherhood) book to Julia in their rented room, the police barge in and arrest them. When he is taken to the Ministry of Love, Winston finds that O’Brien was actually a spy who set a trap for Winston. O’Brien spends months trying to brainwash Winston and when it doesn’t work, the send him to the infamous Room 101. Here, Winston is forced to face a cage full of flesh eating rats on his head. He begs them to do it to Julia, not him. It was at that moment that Winston had snapped, accepting Big Brother and The Party completely. He is released back into the world to live as a submissive citizen.
2. The theme of this novel is that totalitarian governments can be dangerous. The purpose of the novel was to warn westerners of the dangers and issues that come along with a totalitarian government. This was Orwell’s response to the rise of Communism.
3. Orwell’s Tone in 1984 is dark and warning. His dismal and matter-of-fact telling of Winston’s story shows Orwell’s feelings towards totalitarianism.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth.”
“There was no knowing how much of this legend was true and how much invented. Winston could not even remember at what date the Party itself had come into existence.”
“Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.”
4. Symbolism- Orwell uses “The Party” to represent a totalitarian government and “Big Brother” to represent “The Party”.
“The black mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own. Down at street level another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single word INGSOC.”
“Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.”
“From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
Imagery- Orwell uses imagery to paint a picture of the effects of The Party on society.
“In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed.”
“A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy automatic pistol, while his small sister, about two years younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirts, and red neckerchiefs, which were the uniform of the Spies.”
“In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people's windows.”
Diction- the words Orwell uses to describe the actions of The Party, show his attitude towards a totalitarian government.
“People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, and your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word.”
“With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy.”
“The problem is the same for all three super-states. It is absolutely necessary to their structure that there should be no contact with foreigners, except, to a limited extent, with war prisoners and colored slaves.”
Foil- Orwell contrasts Julia and Winston. One is strong, independent, and rebellious, while the other is weak, negative, and pessimistic.
“He could be heard, of course, but so long as he stayed in his present position he could not be seen. It was partly the unusual geography of the room that had suggested to him the thing that he was now about to do.”
“And what he wanted, more even than to be loved, was to break down that wall of virtue, even if it were only once in his whole life. The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion. Desire was thoughtcrime.”
"’It was something in your face. I thought I'd take a chance. I'm good at spotting people who don't belong. As soon as I saw you I knew you were against them.’" –Julia
Setting- by being set in London, Oceania, a totalitarian state, Orwell is better able to show the readers the effects the totalitarian government has on society.
“In general you could not assume that you were much safer in the country than in London. There were no telescreens, of course, but there was always the danger of concealed microphones by which your voice might be picked up and recognized; besides, it was not easy to make a journey by yourself without attracting attention.”
“In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science'. The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc.”
“War prisoners apart, the average citizen of Oceania never sets eyes on a citizen of either Eurasia or Eastasia, and he is forbidden the knowledge of foreign languages. If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to him and that most of what he has been told about them is lies.”
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