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1984 - Coggle Diagram
1984
Oppression/control/totalitarianism
--> control over reality, surveillance, destruction of independent thought, and emotional manipulation are all key tactics of oppression within 1984
--> Orwell presents a terrifying vision of totalitarianism when even emotions and the mind are not safe
''If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face''
--> captures the endless, brutal nature of the party's oppression
''Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past''
--> the control over reality by rewriting history
''There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment''
--> constant surveillance is a method of oppression that forces people into self-censorship and obedience
''Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death''
--> independent thinking is seen as a direct threat to the party's totalitarian control
''Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows'
--> even basic truths are under seige
--> the ability to state a reality not provided by the party is an act of rebellion
''We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves''
--> the party seeks to eradicate loyalties and love
--> replaces them with loyalty to Big Brother alone
''BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU''
--> slogan embodies the omnipresent surveillance and psychological domination the party exerts over citizens
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Surveillance
--> surveillance is the party's most powerful tool for maintaining absolute control over it's citizens
--> constant, inescapable, and designed not just to monitor behaviour, but also the mind
''Big Brother is watching you''
--> epitomizes the constant, oppressive surveillance by the Party
--> personal + unavoidale
''There was of course now way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment''
--> surveillance becomes internalised
--> living in a state of constant uncertainty
--> passive observation
''Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death''
--> even thinking in a way which doesn't suit the party is criminal
--> true privacy becomes impossible
''Nearly all children nowadays were horrible... they adored the Party and everything connected to it.''
--> surveillance infultrates family life
--> indoctrination at such a young age
---> removes trust within the home, and to each individual
''he had the sensation of stepping into the dampness of a grave... he had always known the grave was there waiting for him''
--> belief of privacy within Charrington's shop
--> no such thing as refuge in totalitarian regimes
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''He loved Big Brother''
--> intense torture
--> Winston's made became an extension of the party
--> policed his own thoughts voluntarily
Hope
--> hope flickers in the proles, love, memory, and human instinct
--> Orwell shows that without consciousness, unity, and truth, these hopes are easily crushed under totalitarian power
''If there is hope it lies in the proles''
--> humanities hope for overthrowing the party
-->left unmonitored + still retain their instincts and emotions
''Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious''
--> paradox shows the faint, but complicated hope
--> potential exists, but is deeply buried
''Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a political act''
--> Winston + Julia's love affair offers a brief glimpse of personal rebellion
--> hope in their love becomes an act of resistance
''the past was hidden in the tombstone of memory''
--> Winston struggles to remember the true past representing his hope that truth + reality still exist somewhere beyond the party's control
''We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness''
--> false hope
--> belief that liberation + understanding will come
--> part of Winston's downfall
''We are enemies of the party. We disbelieve in the principle of INGSOC. We are thought-criminals. We are also adulturers''
--> declare themselves to join he Brotherhood
--> hope for organised rebellion
''He had won victory over himself. he loved Big Brother''
--> final destruction of hope
--> love, memory and independent thought had been obliterated, replaced with total submission
Rebellion/resistance
--> begins with small acts of thought, love, memory, and truth
--> Orwell shows how the Party systematically crushes all resistance
--> physically + mentally
--> aims to maintain all loyalty to Big Brother
''If there is hope, it lies in the proles''
--> Winston believes the proles, who are somewhat free from the party's control, hold the key to overthrowing the regime
''To mark the paper was a decisive act''
--> Winston's diary
--> symbolises the beginning of his conscious, personal rebellion
''The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion''
--> the physical relationship is a political act against the party's attempt to suppress human instinct
''There embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a political act.''
--> love is an act of rebellion against the party's ban on genuine human connection + loyalty outside of Big Brother
''You are prepared to commit suicide, if and when we order you to?
''Yes''
--> the willingness to die for the Brotherhood represents their full commitment to resisting the party
''Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull''
--> the acknowledgement that under totalitarian rule, even rebellion in thought is dangerous + nearly impossible
''He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother''
--> spirit of rebellion was destroyed completely
--> showing that the party doesn't just punish rebellion, it eradicates it
Memory
--> Winston's memories are often fragmented, emotionally charged and marked by guilt or nostalgia
--> Orwell uses memory to emphasise the loss of humanity, family bonds, and emotional truths under the regime
''Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past''
--> memory + historical truths are manipulated to maintain power
''All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary''
--> past is constantly rewritten
--> both personal + collective memory is unreliable
''The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth''
--> the party also alters people's ability to remember what is true, making memory itself unstable
''He remembered better the rackety, uneasy circumstances of the later war years''
--> blurry + uncertain
--> knows the party's version of the past is false
--> constantly struggles to find the alternative
''To keep your face expressionless was not hard... but to control your memories was not possible at all
--> Orwell hints that memories can be preserved
--> personal rebellion against the party
''He did not remember what had happened, but he knew in his heart that his mother had died loving him''
--> Winston's recollection is incomplete
--> clings to emotional truth, real human love, which the party aims to iradicate
Love/relationships
--> Love begins as a natural human rebellion against oppression, but the party's goal is to corrupt, control, and destroy all private loyalties, leaving all loyalty left to the party
''The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion. Desire was thoughtcrime''
--> an act of rebellion against the party's control over personal + physical instincts
''I love you.''
--> the simple handwritten note to Winston is an explosive act of intimacy in a society where genuine emotional expression is forbidden
''Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a political act''
--> love and sexuality are portrayed as defiant acts against the party
--> the relationship was more personal
--> a form of political resistance
''It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children''
--> the party has corrupted family relationships, replacing natural love with fear
''Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia!''
--> even under extreme repression, love can be broken
''He loved Big Brother''
--> Winston's love for Julia is replaced by a forced, hollow love for Big Brother, showing the party's victory over the human heart
Religion/orthodoxy
''It is not enough to obey him; you must love him''
--> more than just fear-driven obedience
--> must be heartfelt devotion, mirroring faith + love traditionally demanded by religious institutions
''It was impossible to avoid joining in...a hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill..''
--> two minute hate functions like a forced religious ritual
''Orthodoxy means not thinking, not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness''
--> true 'faith' in the party requires complete mindlessness, similar to religious dogmatism at its most extreme, where questioning is forbidden
''He was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the party's purity''
--> Goldstein serves as the satanic figure, the embodiment of evil in the party's mythos, necessary to maintain a constant 'enemy' for the faithful to hate
''Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter''
--> purification + confession in Room 101 is reminiscent of religious confession
--> yet the goal is not redemption, but complete surrender
''Syme was venemously orthodox''
--> even those who seem the most loyal to the party are fearful + vunerable
--> no one is safe from the party's power