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1984 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - "The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives" (381).
        
        The Party claims power purely for power's sake and in this way they think that other regimes were cowardly because they hid behind the idea of peace and prosperity as an end goal.
  - - - Not only Winston, but the audience comes to trust O'Brien as a potential figure of rebellion within the Party because of Winston's dreams and gut instincts in their encounters.
  - - - The Brotherhood, Julia, and O'Brien are Winston's 3 pillars of hope for any sort of rebellion against the Party. Beyond these 3 he is feels completely alone in his thoughtcrime, leading the audience to understand him as a sort of survivor that might be able to save the day in some way. However, one by one, all of these pillars will come crashing to the ground until the protagonist is left crushed under the weight of his own faith.
        
        Julia did agree with him in that they should rebel against the Party, however disagreed in the power of organized rebellion. She believes that any actual change is impossible, it is simply their responsibility as consious human beings to conduct personal rebellions. She will be the next to topple when she betrays him under the first round of torture in the Ministry of Love
        
        O'Brien comes to be the most unfortunate pillar to trust in. As one of the Party's most trusted members, the glimmer of resistance that Winston's thought he perceived was an affect put on at most. He is the one that will use all of Winston's trust and belief and willpower to break him down beyond the capacity to feel or recognize that 2+2 does not equal 5.
        
        The Brotherhood, so elusive that its existence is still unknown, failed to bring Winston the support he needed to protect himself and Julia before being arrested. It is the first pillar to topple by never existing to him in the first place.
- - - - "For whom, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder, was he writing this diary? For the future, for the unborn." (20)
        
        Winston's first thoughtcrime which was monitered by O'Brien the entire time. Which would further influence the course of his torture in the Ministry of Love.
  - - - Until his encounters with this dark-haired woman, his greatest crime was writing his thoughts. Afterward, he would indulge in sexual intercourse as a pleasure and commit adultery on numerous occasions.
        
        "'Do you remember,' he went on, 'writing in yur diary, 'Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four?'" (363)
        
        O'Brien knew of Winston's writings all along, but allowed him to continue. This was likely to make Winston's ultimate transformation more absolute. He would have ended up tortured regardless, yet it is his relationship with Julia that drives much of his stubborness in resisting O'Brien's "lessons". In the end, his only emotional attachment remaining was Julia which would doom him to Room 101.
        
        "'Julia! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!'" (403)
    - - "I love you." (155)
        
        This encounter between Julia and Winston leads to full love affair, which was nearly inconceivable to Winston prior. Their love would grow and they would try to find new meeting places until ending up in Mr. Charrington's shop where they could live as a couple. This love would lead to the pair's imprisonment and toruture, breaking their character beyond recognition.
  - - - Winston confesses his thoughtcrimes and asks to join the Brotherhood with O'Brien. O'Brien feeds into his delusions, encouraging him further until he will later arrest and torture him.
        
        More than Julia, O'Brien is Winston's beacon of hope of rebellion against the Party. As such, much of the plot is driven by his misguided trust in O'Brien until his world ultimately comes crashing down.
- - - - From the start of the story, the audience is thrown into a world that seems entirely devoid of joy or life. Everything is described as old, crumbling, disgusting, or some other combination of unpleasantries.
    - - The most significant contrast to this grey world lies in the mind of the central protagonist, Winston Smith, who dreams of a place with golden fields and blue skies which he thusly dubs the "Golden Country"
        
        His growing relationship with Julia leads him to find a hidden grove that immediately draws him back to his dreams.
        
        It is his relationship with Julia that gives him a taste of life. He has been living under the Party's thumb for years with no escape but his dreams. Julia brings his dreams to life.
    - - "Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there was still privacy, love, and friendship" (51).
        
        One can only feel the highs of life when they truly understand its lows. In destroying one, you also get rid of the latter.
  - - - "Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed--no escape." (58)
        
        The two instruments of Party control leave no room for expression, privacy, or comfort. Contentment beyond the Party's gift is considered treason and punishable by death.
        
        Power is the prize that Party holds so dearly to. Any threat to it must be destroyed beyond even the memory of it.
        
        "the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought" (81)
      - "WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (47)
        
        Freedom is slavery refers to the mentality that O'Brien later beats into Winston through the example of "2+2=5". O'Brien teaches him that by disagreeing with the Party in that 2+2 does not equal 4, you are enslaving yourself. The Party offers freedom in giving the truth for you as they control it.
        
        War is peace refers to the seemingly immortal war between Oceania and Eurasia or Eastasia. The Party switches between which it is at war with, leading the audience to wonder if there even is a war. The atmosphere of society is controlled by the concept of them being at war. The Party may keep Oceania in wartime so as to maintain the peace that they have found.
        
        Ignorance is strength is a play on the common phrase "knowledge is power". In reversing it, Orwell creates a backwards world for the reader to explore, signaling that this world he is showing you is wrong.
    - - "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any given individual wire was guesswork. It was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time" (2).
  - - - 2+2=5
    - - It is quite literally Winston's job to help his department change newspapers and media so as to rewrite it in the Party's favor. In esablishing that facts only exist in Winston's mind, Orwell further develops his colorless, monitored world into one which has lost all hope of correction.
        
        "There was a whole chain of separate departments dealing with proletarian literature, music, drama, and entertainment generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime, and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs" (69)
    - - Foreshadowing O'Brien's speech of power, Orwell writes the Party slogan which encapsulates the Party's motives. Control is everything.
- - - - Early in the story, the Brotherhood is nothing more than a myth connected to the infamous "Goldstein".
    - - In truth, Julia thinks the idea that the Brotherhood exists is absurd and childish as organized resistance is impossible. She believes that it is only through small, personal rebellion that one can really live in resistance.
        
        Orwell continually ties and unties the loose end of the Brotherhood to keep the audience in the same place as Winston in a state of confusion. This leaves a painfully unsatisfying conclusion to the mystery, so as to allow for speculation.
    - - Before O'Brien is revealed to be the central antagonist of the story, Winston's intuition tells him that he is someone who can be trusted, and reveals his and Julia's crimes to him. They are relieved that O'Brien appears to be on their side, however his betrayal will doom their fates.
    - - In the final chapters of the book as Winston is brutalized and tortured beyond recognition, he asks his torturer and twisted savior, if the Brotherhood exists. O'Brien's answer satisfies neither Winston nor the reader.
  - - - Once again, O'Brien uses a tactic, modernly known as "gas lighting" to confuse the thoughts of Winston in trying to understand the true nature of the world around him. This loose end is never solidly tied up and as such leaves the reader unsure of Big Brother's existence.
    - - As Winston descends into madness from pain and suffering, he comes to view O'Brien as someone to love for he holds the key to take away his agony. With this twisted relationship, the argument could be made that the idea of Big Brother can be equated to figures in the world of 1984, like O'Brien. Those who appear to be looking out for your best interest and act as a false protector until they are trusted as a brotherly figure so that they may control you easier.
  - - - When Winston is arrested and locked up in the Ministry of Love, he encounters multiple fellow prisoners who are taken away to the fearful "Room 101". After crying out for Julia in a dream, it is finally Winston's turn to go to the mysterious room. He will be broken by his greatest fear in the world: rats. They will kill him with a mask of rats unless he finally breaks and give up his last emotional connection in his former lover, Julia.
      - The third step in O'Brien's steps to reintigration. Winston has to learn to "love Big Brother"
- - - - "Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema" (99).
        
        In this world, prostitutes exist but engaging with them is illegal. Sex is to be conducted with your married partner and is dealt with as a necessity, not a pleasure. Winston's wife, Katharine, would force Winston into the act multiple times to produce a desired result, not out of love for him.
        
        When Winston's relationship with Julia begins, the bottled up desires that they both have hid, explode and lead to a new found desire for another individual that neither quite understood.
    - - "The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect" (82)
        
        The goal of Newspeak and the purpose of Winston's department's work is to diminish the size of the dictionary so as to further eliminate even the notion of rebellion. They control thought through the existence of specific language.
        
        In the modern world, the language is constantly changing, but often in different directions. New slang is introduced and old words fall out of favor.
        
        One popular example of language changes that anger scholars is the retelling of old Shakespearian tales. Many believe that in these numerous modern retellings with less of the original language in tact the original source material is being attacked.
  - - - The use of propaganda in the developmental periods of childhood has been a common wartime tactic across the globe to encourage support for their cause. In this case it is to root out potential criminals guilty of thought crime, not unlike the Taliban's use of child soldiers.
  - - - "'The proles are not human beings,'" (82)
        
        The perception of the proles parallel that of the impoverished and minorities throughout history. In referencing ideologies held against blacks in the Jim Crow South, the proles are established as the bottom class who are subject to entirely unjust treatment.
      - "If there was hope, it must lie with the proles" (104)
        
        Keeping in line with the theme of lower class and minority persecution, the idea that the lower class will revolt against the upper class is common throughout history. In American history, labor unions, marches, protests, and many more demonstrations occur to use the power of the weak and many to upset that of the few and powerful.
      - "the Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals" (106)
    - - "Below the Inner Party comes the Outer Party, which, if the Inner Party is described as the brain of the State, may be justly likened to the hands" (303)
        
        Similar to the working class, the Outer Party does the brunt work of society. They work in the factories under the orders of the Inner Party
        
        Like the elites of society, the Inner Party are the richest and most priveleged. They are the politicians, executives, and bosses.
      - "ambitious members of the Outer Party are made harmless by allowing them to rise" (304)
    - - Can turn off telescreens and microphones
- - - - "He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage" (59)
      - writing to O'Brien
        
        "He was writing the diary for O'Brien--to O'Brien; it was like an interminable letter which no one would ever read" (118).
  - - - The idea of pleasure or joy coming from somewhere other than the Party is an idea they deem dangerous. As they wish to hold power for power's sake, they wish to capture one's joy of life so that nothing can make someone want to act out against the Party's ways.
    - - His point-blank statement to Julia on his thoughts of her are a direct result of the distorted view on sex that the Party has instilled in every member of society.
    - - As an individual who was no longer trapped inside the mindset of the Party, Winston's sexual urges make him lash out violently. He does not know how to explore these feelings as people in the modern world do, or even as the proles would.