Monday, December 22, 2014
Ignorance is Strength
George Orwell has successfully sparked my interest.
The beginning of 1984 is full of setting and character development...
So far, three characters have been introduced that show potential for becoming major characters:
The obvious being, Winston Smith. The story follows Winston, as he is the protagonist. Winston lives in a totalitarian society that monitors his every move and thought. There are devices in his home that constantly record his movement and voice while simultaneously spitting out propaganda. There are also Thought Police, that can monitor what one is thinking. Despite the punishment for such actions, Winston shows acts of rebellion...After illegally obtaining a blank journal and pen (such objects are banned in this society, of course,) Winston works up the courage to write. His writing is spontaneous and arbitrary. He allows his hand to just write and the outcome? DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER (20.) Through his characterization and interactions with other characters, Winston shows a power of resistance. I predict Winston will struggle between rebelling and conforming.
The second character introduced is a "bold looking girl"(11.) Her character is not fully developed, but Winston's description of her denotes strong emotions. Whether they are emotions of lust or hatred is hard to tell. Nonetheless, the woman upholds some sort of power... "Still, he continued to feel a peculiar uneasiness, which had fear mixed in it as well as hostility, whenever she was anywhere near him." (12.)
Lastly, there is O'Brien. O'Brien is as a highly ranked government official, but Winston feels some sort of connection with him, "[Winston] was intrigued by the contrast between O'Brien's urbane manner and his prizefighter's physique." (13.) I believe there is potential in O'Brien's character to share Winston's rebellious actions, but it is too early to tell for sure.
On a different note...
My favorite part of the beginning of 1984 is the following...
"WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" (Orwell, 6)
Right off the back, I was immersed into a totalitarian society that was frightening to say the least: Oceania. Frightening because of the many parallels between Oceania, and governments that exist today. After only 20 pages I have made connections to many different current cultures and religious groups. For example, the character, Goldstein, is the enemy of Oceania because he believes in freedom of speech, press, assembly, and thought. Freedoms that countries like China and North Korea lack.
What I like so much about the motto of Oceania is the irony and bluntness of it. Yes, the idea of the motto being true is awful. And it mocks the very principles that America is built on. But...is it really that far from the truth? I can already see Orwell's repeated use of juxtaposition, irony, and contrasting ideas.
Even though I have only read a small amount of 1984, my mind is already feeding off of Orwell's social commentary. I look forward to continuing this book.
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Some nice character insights, and I particularly like your connections to current events. How do you see this relating to the other futuristic dystopias we've read, or the other characters who feel torn between rebellion and conformity?
ReplyDeleteYour post title caught my interest as I was intrigued by the irony.
ReplyDelete1984 has been on my reading list for a while, so I am eager to follow your blog. So far, it sounds very captivating and appears to have a good pace. Through your character development I was even able to see some similarities to the characters in my book, even though they are of completely different genres- futuristic dystopia and romantic realistic fiction. Your character, Winston Smith, uses writing as a way to rebel and gain strength. In a different but still similar way, my book integrates the use of writing to show how it gives control to the main characters in that they have the power to create their future and remember lost loved ones. This also reminds me of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried in how the main character used writing as a way to come to terms with the past. Through these various examples it can be seen how writing is a recurring element throughout many different genres and literary works. It will be interesting to see how your novel develops this elements later on.
It has taken me a long time to respond to your comment, but after finishing the book I can agree that Winston used the act of writing as an essential form of rebellion. Interestingly, it wasn't until the second half of the book that I realized the reason that writing was forbidden in the society. Contrary to how Offred viewed the act of writing in Handmaid's Tale, and possibly the main character in your book, writing for Winston was less about gaining power, and more about the ability to create an uncensored past. In 1984, the government of Oceania maintains its rule partly because it rewrites the past to appear that the government has never been wrong. The fear of allowing citizens to write was because the government could not rewrite something someone wrote in their personal journal. And therefore, one would have evidence of a moment where the government was indeed wrong, which could cause doubt in the system. So yes, writing does bring Winston power, but in a different way.
DeleteIt is interesting to see the similarities and differences in how the power of writing is used in different novels and genres. I think there always seems to be the idea that personal writing brings forth some sort of freedom and power but it is how the character benefits from that freedom and power, that changes from book to book.