"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?
I agree with you it is pretty absurd how they have all these things considered illegal, but yet to us, these are everyday things that most people use. I don't think that anyone would want to live in that type of world because of the limited "freedom" that is given to the people. Personally I enjoy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so, I know I wouldn't want to live in that type of world.
ReplyDeleteWe really do take things for granted sometimes. We get to seehere that everyday commodities are deemed illegal in Winston's society. It's cool how you linked the lack of freedom in Oceania and the shortage and illegalness of some items. The people in that society can not experience the luxuries of simple items, because Big Brother deemed it not suitable for the people of its country.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely not want to live in Oceania because so many things are not allowed over there. It would be strange to live in a dystopia where makeup and especially a lot of food is a rare find. I like the quotes you chose because it makes me realize how much stuff we take for granted. We have so many luxuries while the people of Oceania are shocked to just see actual coffee and white bread because it is considered illegal over there.
ReplyDeleteHey Bemi! I enjoyed reading your blog. I believe that this blog was very interesting due to the fact that you explained the quotes thoroughly, and you also tied connections to our daily lives in our modern world. Also, I like how you gave a little background context paragraph before you gave to quotes since it is true that Oceania is a horrendous place to live and examples were already presented before representing this abnormality. However, you were able to find 2 more examples that show that living in Oceania is a place that nobody in today's world would survive in.
ReplyDeleteI like how you explained the first quote and related it to a common breakfast meal for many. It is quite saddening that the citizens of Oceania don't get the common luxury that I see that we take advantage of since we have a numerous amount of it. Sugar is our common luxury to make our taste buds become satisfied, but unfortunately the people of Oceania don't get this luxury of making their food sweeter and more tasty. Also, it is quite frustrating that the people of Oceania can't even have a peanut butter jelly sandwich, in which some see it as their staple food to have each and everyday.
For the makeup, I loved how you tied it into a commonality that women in our society always need. Honestly, even though this makeup is like painting their faces, it makes then content for them to look beautiful. However, even though makeup can be seen to be a commonality in our world today, it is okay for a bare face just like the people in Oceania, since in reality a bare face shows your true inner beauty outside of all the "paint." For you to tie it into Senior Portraits was a smart move since it is true that a lot of people need makeup to have their pictures come out good.
All in all, your blog was very good and interesting to read since you tied the common luxuries to what citizens of Oceania can't take advantage of, but in today's world we certainly take advantage of these luxuries that we see to not be luxuries. Even I wouldn't want to live in this society since sugar is a aspect that I need in my life, and makeup makes people happy. I hope to read your blog next week.
I agree with you Bemi because I wouldn't want to live somewhere where I don't have a lot of freedom rather than living somewhere where I have all the freedom. I also like how you used early life examples on how Oceania finds our daily things rare for them.
ReplyDeleteWow! That was a really dramatic post. It was really entertaining and interesting to read, but the examples you used seem a little over-dramatic. It's great that you acknowledge the over-dramatic severity of these mundane commodities, but its seems to me that these examples are often true in many developing countries. By just going off of the lack of coffee, bread, and makeup, many places in the world doesn't have or is restricted by the country to use these items. While i can agree i would not want to live in Oceania, the severity of these examples seem like a first-world problem rather than a big ordeal that needs to be fix right now. Overall i think it's a great post, but the examples seem to be too exaggerated for where you're going.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to imagine to be in a place like Oceania but some people in our world don't have these items even though it is normal for us to have access to them. This really reminds us that we do have a lot of nice things that are taken for granted and Winston would risk his life to have these things.
ReplyDelete