Jeana's+Blog

element analysis #1:

=== Doublethink is very paradoxical. "to know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them..." (pg. 35). The concept of knowing and not knowing something helps to establish the motif of memories, erasing any truth left in Oceania. It strips the people of free thought, even confusing Winston to think of how to understand what "doublethink" means. To doublethink in itself is a paradox, since you should not be able to contradict your own thoughts. Believeing two things you know are equally wrong is outrageous, but is normal with the propaganda brainwashing people.===

This makes me think of a movie i saw called The Forgotten. The whole time, the main character who was "once" a mother had her child suddenly dissapear, like the people who are vanished in 1984. She "doublethinks" throughout the whole movie, believing she once had a son but at the same time believing she couldn't possibly have had one who didn't exist. The higher power in this movie also rewrote history, completely wiping out any record of him to test the power of the human memory. It's surprisingly exactly like this concept, with a chilling comparison to erasing a person completely. It's eerie to think that the human memory can completely create or uncreate a person who was once so prominent in your life.

@ jeana: I really like this movie, and the comparison, I would have never thought of it but the situations are both extremely similar - Jim



IQ #1:
= "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" =

Ignorance is bliss; once you become a robot you can't turn back. To be programmed and rewritten, to be a product of what they want you to be. To be a uniform army fighting for whatever they tell you, to look just like everyone else. To be everyone else. You no longer have control, but you are just a product of their needs. You are completely rewired to think like them, like everyone else... to not even think at all.

I choose the metaphor of a robot because i've always been fascinated with them, and now I think of them in a whole new light. The government in Oceania is doing exactly that- creating a mass army of robots and destroying consciousness through rewriting history and dictionaries to limit free thought. At the rate society is going, pretty soon everyone will be a photocopy of what the government wants them to be, conforming completely to their ideals of a "perfect" society. Everyone will be completely orthodox, unable to see the digression of society and unable to even think that what is being done is wrong.

element analysis #2:

==="It was a half-page torn out of the Times of about ten years earlier- the top half of the page, so that it included the date- and it contained a photograph of the delegates at some Party function in New York" (pg. 78).===

The photograph Winston finds of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford is a symbol of hope. Hope to Winston that maybe at some point the government will not have complete control and times won't be like they are now. "But this was concrete evidence: it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory." (pg. 78). Winston dreams and yearns a piece of evidence like this to destroy the Party, and to ground him on his altering environment. The symbol helps to create the motif of the power of language and control the government creates over the citizens. Orwell implements it not only to give Winston hope, but the reader as well.

Now that I think of it, this photograph reminds me of the rose in The Scarlet Letter. At the end of the first chapter, a rose is offered as a symbol of hope and alluded to throughout the novel to give the reader hope that times will get better. Winston, Hester, and the reader in both cases all get a sense of hope from these symbols that juxtapose with the harsh conditions they live in.



IQ #2: == "what was happening was only the working out of a process that had started years ago. The first step had been a secret, involuntary thought; the second had been the opening of a diary. He had moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions. The last step was something that would happen in the Ministry of Love. He had accepted it. The end was contained in the beginning. " (pg 159). ==

=
At first it was just a seed- a mere abstract object that was unborn and new. It needed to be planted. Had to be planted to grow into a flower that would start with nurturing water. It was just a bud, then a stem, then it blossomed completely. It was beautiful and full but hidden by the shade, with a cloud hanging over the petals. Soon, with its deprived roots and dry, washed up sieves it would end up wilted and dead; exactly where it was before. In the earth. =====

I choose the metaphor of a seed growing into a flower to demonstrate how Winston's idea of a process that derived from his hate for the Party. His life is turning into a cycle of appearances, the planting of ideas, taking action against the party, then meeting his own fate. In life, any process is worked out in the same way. You face a problem, plant an idea, take action, and revisit the root of the cause. People are born, grow older, return to needing affection and nurture, then leave the earth in the same sense they came. Life is full of never ending cycles, with no stop or finish.

element analysis #3: =="He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain. Concealed lamps flooded it with cold light, and there was a low, steady humming sound which he supposed had something to do with the air supply. A bench, only by the door and, at the end opposite the door, a lavatory pan with no wooden seat. There were four telescreens, one in each wall."==

The room Winston is placed in reminds me of the room in the first Saw movie, where the characters wake up in what looks like a porcelain old rusty bathroom. In the movies, there is a wall with a large mirror, which Jigsaw, the man who sets up the games, can see through. It can be a parallel to the telescreen, and although the movie is graphic it is what my mind flashed to during this chapter. It creates a chilling mood, with fearful imagery juxtaposed with the glittering white porcelain. The juxtaposition of the bright white floors and walls with the rusty pluming in the image reminds me of the contrast Orwell wrote about.



IQ #3: === "Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case son perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal." (pg. 249). ===

An inkblot test. What better object to represent reality than a picture to test your thoughts. When asked, "what do you see in this..." you except to hear a right or a wrong answer. But who is to say if what you see is right? In Oceania, it is society. If Winston would look at an inkblot, he would think of what object came into his mind. He would be wrong. He would be insane, a thought criminal, and officially crazy. He would believe he is crazy. The party would tell him what it was on the paper, and that would be the reality he would have to accept. He would have to really believe he saw the same thing, even though his mind saw something completely different. In reality, the Party always wins. They are in the right. To me, an inkblot can never be a test. I choose this object to represent reality because in all ways, it is a test of how you see reality. Who is to say if you see something the right way or the wrong way? Society. If you are wrong, society tells you that you are. Not yourself. Orwell changed my views about what is real, what is fake, and what is accepted. Because after all, how can you see something wrongly?

VERY, VERY COOL METAPHOR/SYMBOL. I WOULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF THIS!!!!



IQ #4:

"But the world itself is only a speck of dust. And man is tiny- helpless! How long has he been in existence? For millions of years the earth was uninhabited." (pg. 265).
He woke up, got dressed, went out in the day without noticing the fresh, new spring morning the world gave to him as a gift. It was warmer than usual, with a stillness that would have caused anyone else to pause and take in the beauty around oneself, but he went on with his day. A business man, ready to take on a new meeting. He was so close to finally reaching his goal, soon he would wipe out the forests to build a new highway. After all, they owed this to him. He had been the perfect employee, strategically planning out the highway like a writer aches over every word of a novel. He went in, with his head held high, and proposed the final blue prints. All he needed was the okay, and finally his plan would become reality.

It was approved. He would build his highway. All he had to to was knock down the aged, beautiful bark.. the welcoming foliage. He hired a construction team and would oversee the project as ruler of this world he so much ached to create.

But suddenly a change came over him. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he didn't feel as clean cut and confident. He started saying his name out loud. "Oliver... Oliver.. Oliver". Suddenly, he didn't recognize himself. He felt as if he was calling out any name, he could have replaced it with Robert and it wouldn't have made a difference. His face blurred, and his eyes developed a film he could not rub away. He looked like any one else, he could have been anyone else. He was unresponsive.

The day came to start the project. All the loud, roaring, beasts of machines were on site. To start the undertaking, all he had to do was give the commands. The still, halted air suddenly wavered. The wind picked up and blew a slight breeze through the treetops. Suddenly he could not do it. He became dizzy, faltered, and couldn't even recognize the pit he was feeling in his stomach. He had to call it off.

He told everyone to go home. He found a low, deteriorating stump with moss growing and took a seat. He had never noticed how moss grew, its beautiful green color, the sounds of the birds chirping close above his head. How could he almost have destroyed all this? The dirt, grass, trees, air, was all part of the earth. He could not kill this- the world owed him nothing. For the first time he realized the world was dust to dust, ashes to ashes, earth to earth.

element analysis for the motif of ones identity:

===**"He thought how ten minutes ago- yes, only ten minutes- there has till been equivocation in his heart as he wondered whether the news form the front would be of victory or defeat. Ah, it was more than a Eurasion army that had persished! Much had changed in him since the first day in the Ministry of Love, but the final, indepsensable, healing change had never happned, until this moment." (pg. 297).**===

Winston's often changing identity continuously reminded me of Alice in Lewis Carroll's novels. In wonderland, Alice changes height, learns new rules, and sees a world she does not agree with. She struggles to learn things such as having to run backwards to go forwards, almost relearning in the same way Winston had to retrain his mind. Her environment suppresses her with the monarchy of the queen of hearts ruling her ever so changing moods, like the party controls Winston's thoughts and actions. This often leaves her to wonder who she is and even sometimes forgetting her name. It isn't until she wakes up, or when Winston dies, that their true identities are revealed.


 * "Who are you?" said the Caterpillar. **


 * This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I - I hardly know, sir, just at present - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." **


 * "What do you mean by that?" said the Caterpillar sternly. "Explain yourself!" **


 * "I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir," said Alice, "because I'm not myself, you see." **


 * "I don't see," said the Caterpillar. **


 * "I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly," Alice replied very politely, "for I can't understand it myself, to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing." **

Their changing moods, control of the mind, and even physical control leaves both characters completely different in their unknown worlds.