1/24/2019 3 Comments George Orwell 2Author’s Name: George Orwell
Dates Alive: 1903-1950 Location: Primarily London, England Major Works: 1984, Animal Farm, Homage to Catalonia, Burmese Days Major Themes: Civilians vs tyranny (totalianarism), war, love in the face of tyranny, the average man Novel Choice Plot Summary: The book is set in a future dystopian world taking place in London, England or, in the book, London, Oceania. The main character of the book is Winston Smith. He lives a drab and boring life consisting of nothing but going to work and partaking in community events such as hikes or lynchings of prisoners of war. However, he is not totally brainwashed by the government. He is convinced that certain things don’t line up, one thing being that he remembers the country being at war with Eurasia, but the government specifically claims that they were never at war with Eurasia, only Eastasia. He began to write his thoughts down in a diary, which is a crime punishable by death. He continued to live his day to day life until he has a strange encounter with a women at his work named Julia. Discreetly, she slipped him a note saying “I love you.” They arranged for a place to meet and began to have a love affair, another crime. Winston soon becomes convinced that an inner party member named O’Brien is part of an organization against Big Brother, the government leader. He and Julia meet with him and discus wanting to join the rebellion. O'brien gives Winston a book on the rebellion and they part ways. However, as soon as Winston began reading the book, the thought police raided into his room. They arrested both him and Julia for the several crimes they had been committing. It turns out O'brian was a member of the thought police, not the rebellion. O'brien tortured Winston until Winston no longer had any emotion and was completely malleable to the government. The book ends with Winston telling Big Brother “I love you.” Analysis of Main Characters: Winston - Winston is the main character of the book. He is an average man with basic looks and a boring personality. Yet, even though he is written as nothing extraordinary, he commits several acts of rebellion, such as writing, having an affair, remembering, and ultimately going against Big Brother. Even after Winston is caught by the thought police, it takes a very long time for them to break him to the point where he no longer loves or remembers anything. He has enough willpower to endure long days of torture without breaking his love for Julia. I think he was supposed to embody the typical person, nothing extraordinary, yet he has the natural urge for freedom. Julia - Julia is the pure embodiment of rebellion. She is the main love interest of the book and instigated the affair herself. She is very intelligent. In order to keep her cover, she would act very involved in the party from things such as extra praising for Big Brother during two minutes hate to filling almost her entire schedule with community activities. She has strong opinions against the party, especially the innerparty, but also carries around a hopelessness with her about it. Though later in the book she attempts to join the rebellion, she was always adamant that things were the way they were and that would never change. She doesn’t carry the freedom belief that Winston has. Theme: The theme of the book is the dangers of a tyrannical government or totalitarianism. In the book, the government has perfect control. Citizens are force fed propaganda, history is modified, emotions are non existent, there is no free time to think, and the government even went as far to turn the children into spies who report any and all thought crime they witness, even if it’s their own parents. There are no flaws in the system. If a thought crime is discovered, the perpetrator is tortured until their loyalties lie within the government again. This is what happens to our main character, Winston. We witness in horror as he is turned into a shell of his old self after days upon days of torture. The book was meant to be a wake up call on what may happen to us, and that we must do everything in our power to not have the same fate as Oceania. How did the author’s life influence his writing in this novel? (2-3 paragraphs) George Orwell was born into an upper middle class family in the early 1900s. He attended boarding school from a young age and was constantly surrounded by those of his social class. This starvation of ordinary life is what later drove him to leave England and move to France and become a poor writer. During this time, he held menial jobs and studied the lives of the people around him. He saw how the average person lived from day to day and was fascinated. This later drove average people to become the forefront of his writing in almost all of his books. Orwell was also born during the threat of World War II. He himself fought in the republican army against the Nazis and worked in the imperial police force in Burma. During his time of service and working as a police officer, Orwell developed several opinions on the ideal government. Most noticeably, he developed a strong hatred of totalianarism. At the time, British people were looking at a quick fix to all of their problems and some leaned toward the idea of authoritarianism, just like several neighboring European countries. The thought of this disgusted Orwell, and drove him to write 1984, an example of extreme totalianarism. It was meant to be a wake up call to those around him and to expose them to what he witnessed and gathered throughout his life. Works Cited: Orwell, George. 1984. Propyläen-Verl., 1984 Crick, Bernard R., et al. George Orwell. Flammarion, 2008. “George Orwell.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell. By: Kylie L.
3 Comments
Isabella Luis
1/31/2019 09:59:58 am
Do you think that our own government is starting to become this “Big Brother” type government, or that it may in the future?
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Minto
1/31/2019 10:04:20 am
TOTALLY. Well, in some ways. In the novel, characters have screens on their walls that they watch and that watch them back. When I first read the book in high school (like 18 years ago) I could never imagine that weird futuristic thing happening. NOW all of you sit in my classroom with screens that watch and listen to us. so creepy. Also, remember the McCarthy trials? That was like the thought police- they started locking up artists and musicians and writers for their ideas. Crazy stuff. I think George Orwell was on to something. Also- we are always at war with someone/ the country is just always changing. I just wish people would stop using 1984 as a blueprint for society. It was meant to be a warning...
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Kylie Logan
1/31/2019 10:16:54 am
Yeah I definitely think it's possible. We have had so many technological advances in society and it's easy for the government to use it for control. Think of basic things like security cameras or surveillance over the internet. Up until this point, they have been used in a responsible way, but I think it's only a matter of time before it gets used for the wrong purpose.
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