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1984 by George Orwell (Characters (Julia, Parsons, Winston Smith, Mrs.…
1984 by George Orwell
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Plot
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Book I (Winston)
Ch. 1
- Winston indicates that his behavior is changed because he knows he is being watched all the time
- Winston commits a capital crime in ch. 1 by beginning to write in a diary
- Winston describes London as old and decade except for the Gov't buildings
- In his diary, he describes going to the movies where the films are about blowing up refugees and immigrants while the audience laughs and enjoys the show
- There is a tv with a camera in his apt that watches him all the time while at the same time spewing propaganda about how great the gov't is
- Winston begins thinking about the two min hate from that morning: everyday around 11 they get together where ever they are (like the pledge) and spend 2 min watching, screaming, and shouting at a commercial about the countries enemies (Eurasia) and the terrorist Goldstein. The commercial ends with Big Brother who calms the crowd.
- Winston's lunch break at his apt.
- Winston catches O'Brien's eye during the Hate and feels that O'Brien feels the same way about the Party: he hates BB.
The chapter ends with a knock at Winston's door and he thinks the Thought Police has already caught him.
Ch. 2
- Winston meets the Parsons' children: very ignorant, highly intrigued by BB, excited for the hanging, out of control
- Winston notices that Mrs. Parsons' has something in the lines in her face: she is so tired, dusty, not in control- her children are driving her to a point
- Winston describes the Parsons' apt.:
- Winston thinks about how terrified Mrs. Parsons is one of her children, why? because the children can turn on her and turn her in at any point- believing they are "hero child(ren)". putting her on her death row
- Winston describes her: (Physical and demeanor)
- Winston considers again where O'Brien is a friend or an enemy; what does he conclude?- He wants to believe that he is on his side, from a dream maybe? but is it worth the risk
- Winston's neighbor comes over to ask for help with the sink drain
- Winston goes over the Party slogans
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- Winston finally writes a message to the future in his diary (perhaps showing what his true intention in keeping the diary is--he hasn't even said it to himself)--read what he writes and consider what his world is like by thinking of the opposites of what he wrote. (5 points)
to the present, where we are slaves to our thoughts
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truth doesn't exist, what's done can be undone (they can say war never happened, there's no proof to say otherwise)
Ch. 3
- When Winston wakes we find that he is forced every morning to do exercises by and authoritarian woman over the telescreen.
- Again, we are shown that Winston is in poor health as he coughs his way into the routine. As he works out, he lets his mind wander about the past.
- The girl with the dark hair appears in the Golden Country and throws her uniform aside. She is naked but Winston doesn't think of it as sexual and we are led to believe that she is free by not wearing the party uniform and that it could be that easy to sweep away the party ideology. She is natural and pure in his mind like the Golden Country.
- The Party maintains complete control over the past. The Party also demands complete submission to it's authority. If the party says black is white then you'd better believe it. This means doublethink.
- Winston's dream changes to the Golden Country, an idyllic pastoral scene that is the opposite of the gritty, dirty city in which he lives. It is clean, beautiful, and natural.
- Doublethink is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in your head and believe them both to be true, usually as an act of self-preservation.
- Winston is dreaming of his mother and sister. We are beginning to get the idea that dreams are important and wonder what significance they hold?
Ch. 4
- Winston works in an office where everyone feels as though they are in competition with each other. Thus, everyone is suspicious of each other and slightly dislikes each other.
- The Chocolate ration changes 35 grams to 25 grams after the Party had promised that there would be no reduction.
- Winston works at the Ministry of Truth where he changes the old news stories to make the Party and BB look as if they are ALWAYS correct--and therefore completely in control.
- Were introduced to various coworkers
- Winston imagines that everyone is looking for an opportunity to stab each other in the back--think about the culture that must create!
- We learn that Winston loves doing his job. It is lying for a living but at the least he gets to challenge his mind and be creative.
- We get our first examples of Newspeak. A shortened, simplified language designed to limit the thoughts people can have.
- Winston creates Comrade Olgevy to replace Comrade Withers (who has become an UNPERSON)
- Winston notes that when he is done forging history and the job of forgery is forgotten, Ogivy will be just as real as Julius Caesar or Charlemagne and will exist based on the same evidence.
Ch. 5
- Winston is eating lunch with Syme and eventually Parsons
- Syme is working on Newspeak and explains that Newspeak is the national language
- He says that the point of Newspeak is to limit the range go language so that it limits the range of thought--since humans think in language, if you can't say it you can't think it.
- Windton listens and thinks about how Syme will be vaporized. That he is too smart and speaks too plainly about things--things that other people are trying to ignore.
- Parsons shows up and begins to hound Winston about collecting money for the decorations for the APT building during hate week later in the summer.
- Mr. Duckspeak (some guy from the fiction dept.) is rattling on and on about the principles of the party. Winston thinks he sounds like a duck and that it is not the man's brain that produces the words, but his throat. (i.e. he is unconsciously sporting out party propaganda)
- Winston looks around him and thinks about who gets vaporized and who doesn't. He decides that being dumb helps but that it's difficult to really say what type of person is sage in this society
- Parsons brags again about how horrible his children are, that they burned a woman alive for not showing enough respect to BB. The kids are being trained as amateur spies. This is scary because it is all a game to them, but can have adult consequences.
Ch. 6
- We find out that the party has to approve all marriages and will do so only if the couple isn't attracted to each other. The party doesn't allow divorce.
- We can infer from Winston's diary that every couple of years he visits a prostitute as a way of rebelling against the party but also for his own personal gratification, although he is ashamed and disgusted by the visits.
- Winston relays his history with his wife Katherine who was a tall, pretty blond, but who is exceedingly stupid. She feels that it is "her duty to the party" to bear a child. Beyond that, she seems only capable of repeating the party propaganda.
- Winston had hoped to get rid of his guilty conscience by writing about it but by the end of the chapter he still feels horrible.
- We find out that the party sees real love affairs as threats to the party because you might end up caring about that person more than BB
- Winston hates their physical relationship because they simply go through the motions. There is no spark between them
- Winston writes in his diary as a way of confession and therapy to try and feel better about something he is ashamed of.
Ch. 7
- Winston realizes that this history is a lie because he remembers differently; he thinks. the past for him is unclear since he was only little after the war and shortly before the revolution.
- He then goes through the recent history that he is fairly certain of and the claims of the party since then. The party claims to have made life better in almost every way since the 1960's--but there is no way to prove any of it
- Winston reads from a children's history text book the story of capitalism in the early 20th century but seems a bit mixed up with the feudal system complete with a "king of the capitalist"
- Just once, shortly after his wife left, he found solid documentary evidence that the party was changing the past.
- The Thought police move about them and get rid of anyone who may become dangerous, otherwise they are left alone. "they are beneath suspicion". The party slogan is "proles and animals are free.
- 3 party members, who were part of the early revolution, Jones, Arronson, and Rutherford had been accused of flying to Russia and trading secrets. There were arrested, tried and imprisoned.
- Winston describes the way in which the proles live. They are simple, work hard, and they live in dilapidated buildings. They aren't political, just patriotic. beer, football, and above all, gambling filled up the horizons of their minds.
- After several years, those men were set free and then a short time after that re-arrested. Then they confessed to doing all sorts of terrorism and anti-party activity. There were tried and then put to death.
- He remembers how, once walking down a street there was a huge commotion over some sauce pans for sale. It is so loud that he thinks a riot started, but it is just about 300ish people fussing with each other.
- Problem is, Winston found a picture from a news paper that proved that the original charges against them were false. He destroyed the picture but the memory of that info has lived on and continues to bother him.
- Winston is writing in his diary again. He muses that the Proles are the only hope of overthrowing the party since they are 85% of the population
- Winston concludes the chapter with the statement "I understand HOW, I do not understand why."
Setting
Winston lives in London, UK
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Theme
independence, control, the power of peer pressure