1984

1.) “Oceania, ‘tis for thee.” (25)
This title of this national song is suspiciously similar to My Country ‘Tis of Thee by Samuel Smith. The original lyrics represent freedom and praise our founding peoples for working as had as they did to create and protect our country. By using this well known patriotic song, but changing the lyrics, Orwell applies it to the new society. However, the sinister first chapter of 1984 outlining life shows that the song no longer fulfills it’s original purpose.

"My Country, 'Tis of Thee". Wikipedia. Web. 8/21/10. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country,_%27Tis_of_Thee>.


2.)"The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’” (32)

The Party slogan describes the extent to which life has been changed. Not only does the party control virtually every aspect of life in Oceania, it also controls every moment that has ever happened, and that ever will happen. It can change history at will. Simply knowing that an event happened a certain way is not nearly enough. In order to prove history, one must find it recorded, but chances are, the recordings will already be falsified. This way, Big Brother can claim to be anywhere at any time. He can do anything. He is all-powerful.



3.) The Purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought - that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc - should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words.” (Appendix, 246)

In his novel, 1984, Orwell bring to life the concept of mind control, but not in the average sense of the phrase. By eliminating words that could lead to heresy, the Party is on a path to remove individual thought, or anything else that may lead to heresy from society. Once the generation from before Big Brother and the Revolution is gone, society will have no memory of previous life; The people of Oceania won’t miss what they never knew, and they will forever believe what the Party tells them to believe.


4.) “What appealed to him about it was not so much it’s beauty as the air of belonging to an age quite different from the present one. The soft, rainwatery glass was not like any glass that he had ever seen. The thing was doubly attractive because of its apparent uselessness, though he could guess that it must once have been intended as a paperweight.” (81)

Throughout 1984, Winston is trying to recall his past. The glass hemisphere to which this quote refers is from the time that he desires to recall, and because of this he snatches quickly from the store. The glass represents his chase for the past and his yearning for the real world, and when he is at last discovered by the Thought Police in his heretical room above the store, the glass symbolically shatters along with his hopes and dreams.

5.) “Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me. There lie they, and here lie we under the spreading chestnut tree” (66)

This is Orwell’s rendition of a poem called The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is sung at the conviction of three men accused of heretical crimes.  The Original poem depicts the satisfying life of a hardworking man who answers to only himself. Orwell rewriting a few lines from The Village Blacksmith, changing them from being about happiness to betrayal, represents the change in society brought about by Big Brother and the Party.

"The Village Blacksmith". Wikipedia. 8/21/10 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Blacksmith >.

6.) “There would be mention of bishops in their lawn sleeves, the judges in their ermine robes, the pillory, the stocks, the treadmill, the cat-o-nine tails, the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, and the practice of kissing the Pope’s toe. There was also something called Jus Primae Noctis, which would probably not be mentioned in a textbook for children. It was the law by which every capitalist had the right to sleep with any woman working in one of his factories. How could you tell how much of it was lies?” (63)

In the 15th century, Jus Primae Noctis was a belief that the Lord of a manor had the right to “share the wedding bed with his peasants’ brides.” This was in the 15th century. In 1984, Big Brother and the Party release an official document depicting life before the Revolution. This document compares our society today with the Middle Ages, stating that we enjoyed many of the same devices for execution, punishment, and torture that were around then. This is ironic, because due to the hierarchy of Oceania, with the proles, workers, outer circle, inner circle, and Big Brother it seems as if current - meaning Oceanic - It seems as if Orwell’s society is as close to the middle ages in order as is possible.

Wettlaufer, Jörg . "The jus primae noctis as a male power display: A review of historic sources with evolutionary interpretation.". Evolution and Human Behavior. Web. 8/21/10 <http://www.fibri.de/jus/arthbes.htm>.

7.) ‘If there is hope, it lies in the proles… Because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the party ever be generated.” (60)

There is an old Aesop fable called The Bundle of Sticks. In said fable, a man gives his sons a number of sticks. The sticks were initially tied in a large bundle, and each son was instructed to try and break them. Each son tried and failed. Then the father removed sticks from the bundle and had his sons snap them. At this point, the sons realized their father’s message. “Union gives strength.” Winston realizes this as well. He knows that in order to mass enough strength to defeat the party, the Proles must organize and retaliate. By referencing the same notion that the father gave to his sons, Orwell warns the reader that whatever government is used, it must appease the masses, whoever they may be.

"The Bundle of Sticks an Aesop's Fable". Aesop's Fables. Web. 8/22/10 <http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-the-bundle-of-sticks.htm>.

8.) “Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of the mind. To keep them in control was not difficult.” (63)

It sounds like Orwell is describing large aspects of life as we know it today. This illustrates why it wasn’t difficult to keep the Proles in order. Thy should they change what doesn’t need to be changed? They had a better quality of life, and felt that they were living for what they had, despite the shorter life expectancy, which, when the novel was written, was the average life expectancy in modern (real life) society. This represents the Party’s mistake of controlling too many aspects of its members’ lives. While the Proles have never rebelled, because they live lives with entertainment and feelings, the Party members are full of heretical thoughts and actions because they have been oppressed and sheltered since the Revolution. Although the Party made this mistake in creating such a society for its members, this quote also quite possibly foreshadows the lack of movement from the Proles against Big Brother upon which Winston so heavily relies.

9.) “For a moment he was tempted to take it into one of the water closets and read it at once. But that would be a shocking folly, as he well knew. There was no place where you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously.” (89)

Bathrooms are one of those places one simply does not expect to be watched. By labeling the private safe-haven of our world, Orwell again makes it clear the extent to which the Party keeps tabs on its members. Orwell creates the Party, which in turn gives the members instincts - acknowledging the cameras, for instance - that keep them in existence. The party, they must remember, has the power to watch at all times, as well as the power to wipe any event or any person from the history of the world.


10.) “’I bet that picture’s got bugs behind it,’ said Julia. ‘I’ll take it down and give it a good cleaning someday.’” (122)

If only she had taken it down and cleaned it someday, they might have managed to evade the Thought Police. For though Julia meant earwigs or ants or spiders, there was a type of bug much worse behind the picture. This was Orwell’s ironic way of foreshadowing the demise of the rebelling couple, for even though they were seemingly safe, their own lack of securing the location ended their long and fruitful run.


11.) “How easy it was, thought Winston, if you did not look about you, to believe that the physical type set up by the party as an ideal - tall, muscular youths and deep bosomed maidens, blonde-haired, vital, sunburnt, carefree - existed and even predominated.” (53)

For years, the media has been leading people on, showing them what it means to truly be a man or a woman. According to the media, men are strong, determined, and attractive, and though women are likewise attractive, they are more easily influenced by love, are less controlling, and they are overall the dominated sex. Common poses for clothes advertising often portray a young, pretty woman looking upwards, as if gazing at a tall, muscular youth. Orwell utilizes the media as a method of population control because it gives an extra sense of believability to the story. The media is alive and well in our world, as well as Oceania.

"Media and Girls". Media Awareness Network. Web. 8/22/10 http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_girls.cfm.

"How the Media Define Masculinity". Media Awareness Network. 8/22/10 http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/masculinity_defining.cfm.

12.) “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” (69)

Winston wants more than anything to be able to use his mind and to satisfy his craving of knowledge. He wants to be free. This statement make the claim that as long as you can do simple addition, you will be able to live in a world of sanity and reason. However, O’Brien crushes this premise and removes any hope Winston may have had. By continuing the theory that two plus two equal four throughout the novel, Orwell establishes it as Winston’s sanity, and when the theory is crushed, his sanity is crushed as well.

13.) “What was worst of all was that by means of such organization as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produces in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big brother - it was all a sort of glorious game to them.” (24)

Before and during World War II, Hitler created a group called Hitler Youth (HJ). Boys ages 10 to 18 were recruited and places in two different age groups, and then received military and weapons training, and underwent basic assault tactics. By 1940, nearly every boy over the age of 10 was recruited to the HJ. The Party uses tactics similar to those of Adolf Hitler, one of the world’s harshest rulers, to control their population. By robbing their innocence and converting children into tools for Party, Orwell again shows the full extent of control that Big Brother has gained over Oceania.

"Hitler Youth". Wikipedia. Web. 8/24/10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth.

"Hitler Youth". Historical Boys' Uniforms. 8/24/10 http://histclo.com/youth/youth/org/nat/hitler/hitler.htm.


14.) “Winston’s entrails seemed to have turned to ice…The room was full of solid men in black uniforms, with iron-shod boots and truncheons in their hands…It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking at a member of the thought police.” (183)

The Nazi SS were organized by Hitler as his secret guard. They were honored with the duty of carrying out millions of arrests, tortures, and killings of thousands of people deemed “inferior” to themselves. While Orwell’s Thought Police did not torture and kill their captives right away, they did strike unthinkable amounts of fear into the hearts of their victims. Again, Orwell applies methods of control used in Nazi Germany to demonstrate the lengths to which the party was willing to go to reach total domination.

"Schutzstaffel". Wikipedia. Web. 8/24/10. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel>.


15.) “A thrush had alighted on a bough not five meters away, almost at the level of their faces… It spread out its wings, fitted them carefully into place again, ducked its head for a moment, as though making a sort of obeisance to the sun, then began to pour forth a torrent of a song.” (103)

In the poem “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy, a thrush bursts out in a wondrous song despite the dark, desolate land in which it lives. The narrator, who is glum from the dreary season, questions how on earth the thrush could summon the joy to sing so blissfully. Perhaps the thrush’s reason is unknown as of yet, but will soon be revealed. Orwell writes a thrush’s song into the story to slightly foreshadow that there is reason for happiness even in the darkest of times. In Winston’s case, this happiness comes in the form of love, forbidden in society by the Party.

Hardy, Thomas. "The Darkling Thrush". Poetry Foundation. Web. 8/24/10. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=173590>.


16.) “He pushed the picture out of his mind. It was a false memory. He was troubled by false memories occasionally. They did not matter so long as one knew them for what they were. Some things happened, others did not happen.” (243)

The party eventually turn Winston into a member, though at this point he does not yet fully understand. By labeling some memories as false and others as real, his own history can be written and re-written; all he needs to do is apply the label. Winston struggling to keep control of his mind is Orwell’s final foreshadow to the ultimate ending of Winston Smith. He will no longer be himself, but a member of the Party, a true believer.