Well, That's a Crummy Ending

“Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”

-p 298

Those last sentences may make up the most depressing end of a novel that I’ve read. Orwell ends his novel rather abruptly, with a quick and painful shot to the gut. Orwell jumps from Winston’s submission to the Party straight to a scene some time later, showing Winston as a blubbery, pathetic shell of the independent man he once was. The reader can only observe in shocked disgust as Winston actually cries with joy at Oceania’s probably falsified victory over Eurasia. Winston has become completely in line with Party ideals, yet in doing so, the physical regression in his body is evident. Winston has become much more bloated and, to be honest, seems to have a somewhat slimy sense about him. Yet he is, as far as his now limited mind can tell, extremely happy over his ability to beat his free will into submission. With the absolute defeat of his protagonist, Orwell leaves a sobering message with his readers: the society of 1984 must be prevented, for if it does occur, no man will be able to stop it, no matter how resolute. Man will lose.

Betrayed!

“Mr. Charrington came into the room. The demeanor of the black-uniformed men suddenly became more subdued. Something had also changed in Mr. Charrington’s appearance…It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police.”

-p 224

I must admit, this little plot twist greatly surprised me. It did not surprise me that the Thought Police eventually caught Winston and Julia. Considering how few pages were left in the novel, it seemed unlikely that enough plot development would occur unless they were arrested. What did surprise me, however, was the fact that Mr. Charrington was the leader of the Thought Police squad. When we were first introduced to Mr. Charrington, I suspected that he would play the role of a spiritual guide and counselor, similar to that presented in a hero cycle. This guess was seemingly affirmed by Charrington’s support of Winston’s purchase of the upper room. This room, I thought, would allow Winston to gain a stronger belief in the humanity that he still held inside him. Instead, Charrington was actually a villain, not a guide. This reversal of expectation reflects one of Orwell’s favorite tools in this novel: like O’Brien, it is Winston’s supposed friends who turn out to be his greatest enemies. In Orwell’s world, Winston learns quickly that he can trust no one.

A Breaking Point (Climax)

“The mask was closing on his face. The wire brushed his cheek. And then—no, it was not relief, only hope, a tiny fragment of hope. Too late, perhaps too late. But he suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just one person to whome he could transfer his punishment—one body that he could thrust between himself and the rats. And he was shouting frantically, over and over:

‘Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!’ ”

-p 286

This passage details the climax of Orwell’s 1984. Throughout the novel, Winston has constantly fought with his supposedly unorthodox ideals, beliefs that actually express humanity and a sense of morality. These beliefs fly directly in the face of Party ideals, and Winston tries desperately to hold to his beliefs while hiding them from the Party. As the novel progress, however, it becomes clearer and clearer that such rebellious thoughts simply cannot be kept by a man who expects to live much longer. Yet even when Winston is within the Ministry of Love, Winston still maintains his dwindling beliefs that love, compassion, and humanity are superior to any Party tents. This belief is evident when he breaks down and begins shouting Julia’s name and calling her “his love.” Even when Winston wholeheartedly attempts to lose his beliefs in humanity, he is unable to shake his morals. When he faces the rats, however, his own savage sense of self-preservation takes dominance: he sheds his loyalty to Julia and, in doing so, sheds his hopes in humanity. In this climactic scene, Winston loses the fight to protect his hopes for humanity and effectively succumbs to the inhuman savagery that the Party holds dear.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping...(Metonymy)

“ ‘Does Big Brother exist?’

‘Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party.’

‘Does he exist in the same way as I exist?’

‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien.”

-p 259

I thought that I should take the opportunity presented in this passage to discuss a rather obvious utilization of metonymy in Orwell’s 1984. This case of metonymy, which uses the figure of Big Brother as equivalent with the Party and its ideals, is different from most cases, however. Normally with metonymy, the object which is being used in lieu of the original object is actually real. As this passage hints at, however, Big Brother is not, in fact, real. While O’Brien does not actually state that there is no living Big Brother, his way of automatically equating Big Brother’s existence with the existence of the Party indicates that O’Brien knows Big Brother as a person does not actually exist. Yet despite this, in many ways O’Brien is correct in saying that Big Brother exists. Big Brother is, as O’Brien says, “the embodiment of the Party;” he is the personification of the Party, the figure which all people both fear and adore. That fear and adoration is frighteningly real. Those emotions expressed toward Big Brother—toward the party—are very much real. In this sense, Big Brother is real, as the Party has caused such strong emotions toward Big Brother that he might as well be real. As the Party philosophy likes to muse, the people believe Big Brother exists; therefore, Big Brother is in their midst.

A Not So Fiery Rhetoric (Rhetoric)

“The book fascinated him, or more exactly it reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part of the attraction. It said what he would have said, if it had been possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden.”

-p 200

In his 1984, Orwell uses a rather unique technique to express a large part of his philosophy. Instead of having his protagonist Winston express his political views, Orwell includes passages from a secret book by Emmanuel Goldstein. In his writing, Goldstein tells of the main principles behind Oceania’s adoption of Ingsoc. Goldstein reasons that the Party developed as a result of growing fears about atomic warfare. According to Orwell, the nations of the world soon realized the potential stability from continuous yet controlled warfare, which uses up nations’ supplies, limits excess wealth available to all economic classes, and therefore ensures that the middle and lower classes do not rebel against the upper class.

Based on Winston’s reaction to the book, it seems that Goldstein’s writing is a perfect example of rhetoric. It is through this rhetoric that Orwell attempts to persuade the reader to think as he thinks. He has already convinced the reader that the society which he has created is completely undesirable. The reader has long come to the conclusion that whatever Orwell states caused this world to occur must be avoided at all costs. It is not until Goldstein’s rhetoric, however, that the reader finally discovers the cause of this dystopia: atomic warfare of the 1940s has ravaged the world. Considering Orwell wrote this novel in the 1940s, it is clear that Orwell is employing this rhetoric to attempt to convince his readers of the danger of atomic warfare and adjusted moralities.

The Beast Within, Part...4?

“As thought to harmonize with the general mood, the rocket bombs had been killing larger numbers of people than usual. One fell on a crowded film theater in Stepney, burying several hundred victims among the ruins…Another bomb fell on a piece of waste ground which was used as a playground, and several dozen children were blown to pieces. There were further angry demonstrations, Goldstein was burned in effigy…and a number of shops were looted in the turmoil; then a rumor flew round that spies were directing the rocket bombs by means of wireless waves, and an old couple who were suspected of being of foreign extraction had their house set on fire and perished of suffocation.”

--p 149

As I read this passage, my immediate suspicion was that it may actually be Big Brother who coordinated these bombings on Oceania. After all, these seem like rather civilian-oriented bomb drops; if Eurasia really was bombing Oceania, one would assume that they would attempt to bomb the separate ministries, yet instead they bomb the locations which would incite civilian rage against them. This uncannily unlucky placement makes me think that Oceania may in fact be bombing their own citizens in order to maintain fear and incite rage and support for the war effort against Eurasia. Regardless of whether this is true or not, however, the theme in this passage—one discussing the extremely violent and savage measures that fear can drive people to take—remains. In this passage, people have become so fearful of bombings that they are driven to take the law into their own hands. What is so frightening about this situation is that it is an old couple—a common symbol of innocence—that is killed by arson. Fear causes men to lose most common sense; they become fueled solely by the animalistic instinct to survive at all costs.

This animalistic instinct, as well as the lengths the people took to ease their fears, reminded me of the actions of the Jack’s group of boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Jack whips the boys into such a frenzied fear of the Beast that they savagely murder Simon due to blind suspicion that he was the beast. They then kill Piggy simply because he opposed them. In a way, this savagery has already occurred in Oceania. People kill those whom they fear to be traitors, yet the Thought Police already are immediately killing anyone who even thinks of opposition to Big Brother. Despite the Party’s supposed sophistication, the Party in reality consists of nothing but animals.

UPDATE: On page 153, Julia expresses her own belief that Big Brother is actually responsible for the air raids. Looks like I’m not so crazy after all!

That's Amore

“Eight minutes had gone by. He readjusted his spectacles on his nose, sighed, and drew the next batch of work toward him, with the scrap of paper on top of it. He flattened it out. On it was written, in a large unformed handwriting: I love you.”

--p 108

Well, this is a rather interesting plot twist, eh? Personally, I was more than a bit surprised when Winston read the note and discovered those three little words. Like Winston, I was expecting the note to entail details about where Winston could meet with a Brotherhood operative, or even with Goldstein himself. I thought that Orwell’s main focus in this book involved Winston’s attempt to rebel against Big Brother. Now, however, I have a feeling that Orwell’s plot is not as grandiose as I believed. Perhaps Orwell’s tale will turn out to be a romance story amid a harsh, unaccepting society (unlikely). Perhaps the tale is simply supposed to be that of a regular man in his futile life within an oppressive government. This possibility seems rather likely. I now doubt that Orwell’s intent is to write of Winston’s endeavor to bring down Big Brother; after all, Orwell’s intent in writing 1984 was not to teach how to overcome socialism, but rather to warn against accepting socialism before it is implemented.

Down the Memory Hole (Flashback)

“But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past…it was enough to blow the Party to atoms, if in some way it could have been published to the world and its significance made known. He had gone straight on working….Then, without uncovering it again, he dropped the photograph into the memory hole, along with some other waste papers. Within another minute, perhaps, it would have crumbled into ashes. That was ten—eleven years ago. Today, probably, he would have kept that photograph.”

--p 79

Over the course of his writing, Orwell includes several flashbacks from earlier in Winston’s life. These flashbacks often reveal some aspect of Big Brother’s society which Winston struggles to accept. Winston is able to remember limitedly a time different from the present, or memories which contradict his current situation. Yet while he may briefly use these memories to fuel his temporary hatred for Big Brother, these memories inevitably fade back into memory. Like the photograph in his flashback, these flashbacks and memories are unable to convince Winston to act progressively, even in the face of such contradiction and oppression. These flashbacks only emphasize the fact that Winston is unwilling to take the risk in standing up to Big Brother. Sure, he walks in the bad part of town; yet that hardly makes him a hardened rebel. In reality, Winston is little more than a spineless subject to the Party like all the other mindless citizens of Oceania.

Be Oppressed Like an Egyptian! (Paradox)

“And what way of know that the dominion of the Party would not endure forever? Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back to him: WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”

--p 26

These three slogans of Big Brother are all rather jarringly twisted paradoxes. I’m still not totally sure that I understand them well enough to argue their truthfulness or not, yet they seem unsettlingly incongruous with my beliefs. This is most likely due to the fact that I’ve grown up in a democratic country where freedom, peace, and knowledge are so strongly valued. To me, these slogans carry little if any truth or validity; they simply make no sense. Yet citizens believe them and abide by them. They have learned that two extremely different ideas are in fact the same, and their mental processes reflect this convolution. Despite Winston’s growing realization that these slogans are weak and that Big Brother is oppressive, he takes pride in his ability to fit into Big Brother’s system so well. He knows that Big Brother is always right and benevolent, yet simultaneously he knows that Big Brother is wrong and malevolent.

This condition, known as cognitive dissonance, was also experienced by the ancient Egyptians, who both trusted their Pharaoh to provide for them as a god, yet blamed him for not appealing to the gods when crops were meager. This cognitive dissonance led the Egyptians to become obsessed with religion and fanaticism. Perhaps the same will happen to Big Brother.

Things Are Looking Doubleplusungood (Vernacular)

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words….Take ‘good,’ for instance. If you have a word like ‘good,’ what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well—better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of ‘good,’ what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning, or ‘doubleplusgood’ if you want something stronger still…In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words—in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston?”

--p 51

This rather frustrating passage summarizes the entire concept behind Ingsoc’s vernacular, known as Newspeak. The interesting aspect of Orwell’s usage of a vernacular is that not only does he use it, but he explains it. If Orwell had simply written in the vernacular, including words such as “ungood” and “doubleplusgood”, the reader would infer that Big Brother has dumbed down society, creating a stupid—and almost illiterate of sorts—mass of citizens to obey them. By explaining why citizens speak in Newspeak, however, Orwell sends an even more frightening message. Big Brother has created Newspeak not to make it easier to express ideas, but actually to make it harder. By limiting people’s power of expression, Big Brother limits their power to think independently. The whole point of an expanding language is to accommodate for new ideas, opinions, and beliefs. By shrinking the language, Big Brother slowly but surely inhibits these ideas and opinions, getting a firmer grip on the minds of its subjects over time. Orwell explains his vernacular to emphasize the implications of “benevolent control.”