All That Taken For Granted

"He dreamed a great deal all through this time, and they were always happy dreams. He was in the Golden Country, or he was sitting among enormous, glorious, sunlit ruins, with his mother, with Julia, with O'Brien--not doing anything, merely sitting in the sun, talking of peaceful things"(275).

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Thoughtcrime is the worst possible thing someone could even commit against the part. At least that is what is taught and accepted. The mind of the people of Oceania is the property of the party and you would be vaporized if you believed otherwise. This meant that if you thought of things that the party doesn't want you to think about, you are disobeying them and misusing their property usually ending is your demise though vaporization. It is understood by me and hopefully all my classmates that this idea of controlling someone's mind is awful. However, most people, if not all people, have thoughts they keep to themselves. These thoughts can be either within the guidelines allowed by the party or against them. Thinking of things like the Golden Country and the happiness that Winston wants is against the party. This means that you are committing thought crime for thinking about happiness. Absurd right? Well it is, but it is what it is.

Winston has always disliked that fact that he can not think for himself without being punished for it. So as we have read this novel, the whole of Oceania is portrayed as completely negative and the flames of hope and happiness that lie within it are quickly being extinguished. The reality is that this is true and Oceania sucks. Well it does, but that is when you are so caught up with all the negative, that you forget all the positive (although most positive thoughts are punishable by death). According to the quote, Winston has found happiness in his dreams and even when thinking about his dreams. He thinks about the good things like his mother and Julia. This small yet definitely positive things are completely disregarded by Winston and even the readers since they are so caught up in the negative.

In addition for Winston's freedom of thought in his dreams, at least in his cell, there have been so many other little sparks of positive throughout the book (excluding the factor of legality). For example, the fact that Winston and Julia had found a "secret sanctuary" that made them so happy for so long is a positive. Yes it wasn't really secret and yes it did come to a sudden and dramatic end but it did bring them happiness for some time. Another thing you can look at is all the stuff the Julia had snuggled into their "sanctuary". Those goods that they enjoyed were once in a lifetime thing and although didn't last long, certainly brought some joy into their live. All in all, using this quote, I was trying to point out the fact that in all of the darkness we have know to be Oceania, there have definitely been some sparks of light.

Room 101

"'Comrade! Officer!' he cried, 'You don't have to take me to that place! Haven't I told you everything already? What else is it you want to know? There's nothing I wouldn't confess, nothing! Just tell me wheat it is and ill confess it straight off. Write it down and ill sign it--anything! Not Room 101!.' 'Room 101,' said the officer.' The man's face, already very pale, turned a color Winston would not have believed possible. It was definitely, unmistakably, a shade of green.'"

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The party just gets scarier doesn't it. So Winston was caught and sent to detention and he is starting to see the other side of this rebellious phase he was going through. Until now, Winston can only imagine what the party does to people when they are caught committing thought crime. The horrors of the reality of all the people caught committing thought crime caught both Winston and I off guard. All we had really known was that they were most likely vaporized. But in truth, what they did to you was nothing short of torture, and an extreme level of torture at that.

So the party apparently doesn't like to simply kill these criminals. Especially those that are convicted of thought crime have to go through multiple measures as part of their torture process. One thing that is certain is that they will surely be killed after the whole process. Something that O'Brien mentions however is that the party does not just kill these defiant citizens. First, they make sure that they are once again loyal to the party and that the definitely LOVE Big Brother.

Winston although started to accept that he had lost didn't quite yet love Big Brother. In fact, he hated him. This is where Room 101 came in. The reaction of people to the simple mention of this place is extremely dramatic. All O'Brien had told Winston about Room 101 is that he already knows what is in there. In order to finally and completely subdue Winston's slightest thoughts of opposition, O'Brien decided to completely destroy Winston's will. Room 101 presents to each individual, their greatest fears. In Winston's case, that was rats as shown during his time with Julia in their 'safe place'. This fear finally broke him and although he had stayed loyal to and loved Julia until this point, he finally broke. He finally gave in. Room 101 is the highest form of torture. There is no one that can stand  face to face with the one thing they fear the most and walk away the same. What is your greatest fear? Do you think it is enough to completely break you?

Even More Reasons Why The Party Sucks

"It was inconceivable that this was anything other than a reference to Syme. But Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an unperson. Any identifiable reference to him would have been mortally dangerous....By sharing a small act of thoughtcrime he had turned the two of them into accomplices....O'Brien felt two of his pockets and then produced a small lether-covered notebook and a gold ink pencil. Immediately beneath the telescreen, in such a position that anyone who was watching at the other end of the instrument could read wheat he was writing." (157)

This big quote is a combination of two smaller quotes that both talk about the quick interaction between Winston and O'Brien. I got two things out of this quote. The first things is just another reason why the party SUCKS. The second thing is just something that I personally felt like pointing out. At his work place, Winston runs into O'Brien who starts talking about one of Winston's Newspeak articles. In their conversation, O'Brien makes a reference to Syme. Syme, as Winston believes, had recently been evaporated by the party. Winston's heart "stirred painfully" since he realized that O'Brien had just committed thoughtcrime (157). This just straight out baffled me. To know that someone you used to know has died and not be able to outwardly mourn their passing is just creul. Although Winston and Syme were never presented as being extremely close, for the reader of this novel, this is troubling. Imagine yourself in Oceania and someone ever close to you has just been vaporized. Would you be comfortable just holding that pain inside or would you want to mourn their death and show them the respect that they deserved through a funeral? I personally would be devastated and it would be bad for my health personally if I kept such powerful emotions bottled up inside of me.

The second thing was the fact that this little interaction was like that point of an action movie when the action really starts to build up. When first reading this, it was like Winston was meeting an ally that would be hand in hand with him in his struggle against the party. For some reason, I imagined an all out war with O'Brien and Winston in the front leading the rebels against the party. Did anyone else have a weird first impression of this scene? My imagination goes a little wild sometimes and when O'Brien pulled out the piece of paper two write down his address for Winston, my imagination went even further. O'Brien put the piece of paper in front of the telescreen to get rid of any suspicion that party might come up with. In doing so, I O'Brien was being slick because there definitely seemed to be something more than just an invite to his house.

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Dystopia At Its Finest

My last two blogs both illustrate just how different the 1984 world is from our own. This one continues that pattern but looking at the things that this Dystopia lacks in comparison to our modern world. These following quotes all add up to one main point.

"Real sugar. Not that saccharine, sugar. And here's a loaf of bread--proper white bread, not our bloody stuff--and a little pot of jam. And here's a tin of milk--but look!...'Its coffee,' he murmured, 'real coffee.'" (140-141)

"What he had actually expected was to see her naked. But she was not naked. The transformation that had happened was much more surprising than that. She had painted her face." (142)

These two quotes represent the differences between our world now and this Dystopia that Winston has to endure. Both literally and symbolically, the lack of these simple day to day items illustrates the deep lack of freedom in Oceania. First off, when people normally here milk, or jam, or coffee, or tea, or makeup, or white bread, they don't have any unordinary reaction. These are very casual day to day things that our modern world is privileged to have. However, in Oceania, these objects are very rare and regarded as illegal. When talking a step back and taking everything into perspective, one can see that this is completely absurd. Take a second to imagine Winston reality in your mind. Imagine waking up in the morning and craving a fresh cup of coffee. Sadly, you can only have some bootleg coffee that doesn't fulfill your wants or needs to stay up through the day. Now imagine that you feel like eating a nice peanut butter jelly sandwich on some white bread sliced. Again, you cannot because that is a rarity. Finally, all you ladies and men that like makeup, imagine that tomorrow is Senior Portrait day but to your surprise there is no Makeup. What in the world would you do without you makeup. You can't take a picture for the yearbook without looking like a goddess (or a god) with all that paint of your face. This is a dystopia that no one in their right minds would wanna live in.

Now I was over exaggerating a bit about how serious these things can be. But that is the reality for Winston and his comrades. Although these things are there to make life better, you can live without them. However, they show that Oceania is in such a bad state that even simple things like coffee and makeup are rare. Would you or anyone wanna live in this dystopia? Which object if any do you think crosses the life for you?

The Party Life Sucks

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows." (81)

I found this to be a very important quote since it indirectly pinpoints the biggest conflict in this world of Oceania. Winston wrote this because he unlike almost everyone has started to realize the reality of the world he lives in. A world where one group has the power to do as they wish. This sort of absolute power is defined indirectly by this quote. Since freedom is defined by ones ability to say that two plus two equals four, the oppression of the party as Winston believes can be seen by how they could tell you that "two plus two made five, and you would have to believe it." (80)

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"And yet, just for a moment, what almost frightening power had sounded in that cry from only a few hundred throats! Why was it that they could never shout like that about anything that mattered?" (70)

Winston believes that the power to overthrow the party lies in the hands of the proles. I agree with him in that if eighty-five percent of the population are proles like he states, then they can easily overthrow the government. The issue here is that the do not realize that they have this power. The quote I chose is an example of their incompetence when it comes to this topic. Although they, in reality, are being imprisoned by the system the party has set for them, they are instead fighting amongst themselves over simple things like cooking pots. It seemed as if the crowd of a few hundred women frightened Winston. If the whole of the prole population understood the circumstances they are in, the party would have no chance. They party seems to have taken measures against this issue. People have been so brainwashed to see their distorted government system as proper and accepted it as their reality. You can see this for example when looking at my first quote and how if the party told you that two plus two made five, you would believe it.

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"On it was written, in a large unformed handwriting: I Love You." (108)

Winston has been killing himself stressing about this person that had been stalking him for a while now. He was almost sure he was dead but to his surprise, his interaction with the girl left him speechless. This note she left him brings up another issue with the party that really irks me. It might not be significant to others but that fact that love is sort lost in history doesn't sit well with me. It is another negative quality of life for the citizens that sex is only a method of reproduction. Does anyone else feel the same way or is this issue an insignificant one?

Book 1: Disturbing Moments

"'Up with your hands!' Yelled a savage voice...Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an d uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy's demeanor, that it was not altogether a game." (22)

Junior spies are youth that act as spies for the party monitoring adults for any disloyalty towards the part. The kind of power they hold is just crazy. I was quite surprised by this. I understood that there were junior spies but the fact that they are so outwardly opinionated, especially at their young age, is crazy. When you normally think of spies, you would think of some man in a suit with glasses sneaking around collecting info. However, these kids are a whole other story. When realizing just how much power these kids hold, the power that the party has over the people seems that much more dangerous. Is it right to use kids in this manner?

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"'They're disappointed because they couldn't go see the hanging, that's what it is'...'Why can't we go and see the hanging?' roared the boy in his huge voice." (23)

Kids seem to be a powerful tool of the party. This quote really shines a light on just how chaotic and dystopia-like the world had become in 1984. A world where kids enjoy seeing hangings is another level of intense. First there was the fact that they openly spy of adults for the party which was disturbing enough. But the fact that kids see public executions as a sort of entertainment is sad. This system is worsened even more by the fact that the adult, the children's parents even, aren't seeing the issue here. The way Mrs. Parsons talks about her kids not being able to go to see a public hanging makes it sound like she is telling there teenage kids they can't go to a party. The reality of it sadly, is that adults have adopted this sort of life for their kids and themselves. Even if they live in a dystopian world, is it right for parents to leave their kids at the hands of such a seemingly corrupt system?

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 "Withers, however, was already an unperson. He did not exist: he had never existed." (46)

The last disturbing quote that I came across in these chapters had to do with Winston's work. The word "unperson" is used to signify that someone is dead. And during his job, he was trying to figure out why Withers had been disgraces. The only clues he found were the words "refs unpersons". He believes that this means the Withers is dead.

When looking at the paragraphs covering this topic, I am starting to see more and more that Oceania and the whole of this 1984 world is a true dystopia. The system has developed to a point where people who oppose it can be made to disappear. This classifies them as "unpersons" implying that they are most likely dead. When you see the letters "un" before a word, you can predict that the whole world is a negative to something. This is demonstrated by the word "unperson" because once a person is labeled this, they are nothing. They "did not exist" and "had never existed".