"They threaten you with something-something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, 'Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.' And perhaps you might pretend, afterward, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At that time when it happens, you do mean it. You really think there's no other way of saving yourself and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself." (Book 3 Chapter 5, pg. 240)
In this moment Winston is speaking to Julia about an event that occurs in the previous chapter. In this event Winston is being tortured by O'Brien with rats, in a fleeting moment, Winston tells O'Brien not to torture him but instead wishes this torture to be passed on to Julia. This causes Winston to feel some regret because he realizes that Julia is right, he did not merely just utter the words, that in that current moment of distress he automatically said, not thought, to pass on the punishing to someone else. This made me think two things: The power of spoken word and how once something is done it cannot be taken back. This is because I feel that not only in this instance but throughout the book as well this theme is shown.
For me, this really shows the power of spoken word because once a person actually speaks the words into existence they are given power. This means that once you say anything they are given power because of one reason, you actually mean the words you are saying. Whether you are lying about something or gossiping about a person when you speak there is always some meaning and truth of the words you are saying, whether a person is conscious of it or not. Like Winston, he may have just wanted to believe that he merely just said what he did so that his own punishment stopped that was not the case because in his fear he truly meant what he said and truly wanted the punishment to be placed onto her as long as it meant it would stop. There was truth it what he was saying and I think that this applies to everyday life as well-whatever you say does hold some truth to it otherwise it would not be said.
The other things that come to mind when reading this quote are that once something is done it cannot be taken back. This is something that we can see a lot in the text because especially in that society once you do something it is irreversible, once any sign of going against Big Brother is shown that they are automatically punished for it. In there, actions are very important so that once you do or say something you cannot take it back because like before all actions have meaning so that really comes into play here too. In this story, there is a reoccurrence of this: when Winston writes down "Down with Big Brother", when Winston stole the chocolate from his sister and never saw them again, and when Parsons said "Down with Big Brother" and got arrested. For this quote, I really feel that we really get a big sense of some reoccurring themes in the book become encompassed in this quote.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Monday, November 20, 2017
Book 3 Chapters 1-3: "Prison Hierarchy"
"He had sat silent against the wall, jostled by dirty bodies, too preoccupied by fear and the pain in his belly to take much interest in his surrounding, but still noticing the astonishing difference in demeanor between the Party prisoners and the others. The Party prisoners and the others. The Party prisoners were always silent and terrified, but the ordinary criminals seemed to care nothing for anybody. They yelled insults at the guards, fought back fiercely when their belongings were impounded, wrote obscene words on the floor and ate smuggled food which they produced from mysterious hiding places in their clothes, and even shouted at the telescreen when it tried to restore order. On the other hand, some of them seemed to be on good terms with the guards, called them by nicknames, and tried to wheedle cigarettes through the spy-hole in the door. The guards, too, treated the common criminals with a certain forbearance, even when they had to handle them roughly. There was much talk about the forced labor camps to which most of the prisoners expected to be sent. It was "all right" in the camps, he gathered, so as long as you had good contacts and knew the ropes." (Book 3 Chapter 1, pg. 186)
In this quote, Winston is talking about the differences between the prisoners and how people differ in the prison. He is noticing that those who were Party members are very different than the rest of the prisoners because their demeanor is more reserved due to the fact that they are more frightened about being in their so they are more compliant when they are told to do something and do not go out of line. While with the other prisoners they are the complete opposite- they do not care about what they are being told and function more like a prison we see nowadays- they are doing what they want, express their emotions and are defiant. With this, we can pull out: the conditioning of the Party is still shown in the prison, a new hierarchy, and a parallel to modern prisons shown on television.
When the description of the Party members in prison is given we can automatically see why they act that way. We are told throughout the book how these Party members are conditioned to follow everything they are told, thus this means that they hold more fear towards the higher ups. By being put into prison they know the repercussions that will follow because they broke the law. This means that they are more afraid to break any more rules because now after facing the consequences of their actions they know that the Party does hold a lot of power they have more of a subconscious fear that stems from their conditioning, so they are more willing to follow what they are told. This is why there is such a huge contrast between the party member prisoners and the rest, the others have not been conditioned the same way, they do not hold the same view towards the authority. This conditioning to be loyal to the Party or face the repercussions is what sets them apart- they are more afraid because they have more knowledge than the rest in a sense.
Another very important thing we can note from this scene is that there is some sort of hierarchy between the prisoners. It is mentioned how the guards have more tolerance for the common criminals- they can get away with more because even when they are supposed to be handled roughly they do still try to be patient with them. We can see because of this the Party prisoners are in a way considered lower-rank: they do not get the same treatment from the guards. This means that not only is there a hierarchy in society but also in prison and like society there is still people above the Party prisoners. It seems that in every hierarchy they seem to be lower and it may have to do because they have decided to follow the Party and what they have told them and it seems to be a set back for them. This is why I think it is important to see the hierarchy in the prison as well.
Lastly, another thing that can be seen is the parallel between the dynamics in this prison and the dynamics in real life prison. Usually when we see portrayals of real prison we usually see in prison shows the same things prisons who are scared and follow the orders and prisoners that could not care any less and act out. The other thing that is similar is the hierarchy although we do not know the hierarchy in an actual prison there are prisoners that are more tolerated by the guards and those we are not. The prison talked about in 1984 seems to emulate a lot a real-life prison and its dynamics and I really thought that was interesting.
In this quote, Winston is talking about the differences between the prisoners and how people differ in the prison. He is noticing that those who were Party members are very different than the rest of the prisoners because their demeanor is more reserved due to the fact that they are more frightened about being in their so they are more compliant when they are told to do something and do not go out of line. While with the other prisoners they are the complete opposite- they do not care about what they are being told and function more like a prison we see nowadays- they are doing what they want, express their emotions and are defiant. With this, we can pull out: the conditioning of the Party is still shown in the prison, a new hierarchy, and a parallel to modern prisons shown on television.
When the description of the Party members in prison is given we can automatically see why they act that way. We are told throughout the book how these Party members are conditioned to follow everything they are told, thus this means that they hold more fear towards the higher ups. By being put into prison they know the repercussions that will follow because they broke the law. This means that they are more afraid to break any more rules because now after facing the consequences of their actions they know that the Party does hold a lot of power they have more of a subconscious fear that stems from their conditioning, so they are more willing to follow what they are told. This is why there is such a huge contrast between the party member prisoners and the rest, the others have not been conditioned the same way, they do not hold the same view towards the authority. This conditioning to be loyal to the Party or face the repercussions is what sets them apart- they are more afraid because they have more knowledge than the rest in a sense.
Another very important thing we can note from this scene is that there is some sort of hierarchy between the prisoners. It is mentioned how the guards have more tolerance for the common criminals- they can get away with more because even when they are supposed to be handled roughly they do still try to be patient with them. We can see because of this the Party prisoners are in a way considered lower-rank: they do not get the same treatment from the guards. This means that not only is there a hierarchy in society but also in prison and like society there is still people above the Party prisoners. It seems that in every hierarchy they seem to be lower and it may have to do because they have decided to follow the Party and what they have told them and it seems to be a set back for them. This is why I think it is important to see the hierarchy in the prison as well.
Lastly, another thing that can be seen is the parallel between the dynamics in this prison and the dynamics in real life prison. Usually when we see portrayals of real prison we usually see in prison shows the same things prisons who are scared and follow the orders and prisoners that could not care any less and act out. The other thing that is similar is the hierarchy although we do not know the hierarchy in an actual prison there are prisoners that are more tolerated by the guards and those we are not. The prison talked about in 1984 seems to emulate a lot a real-life prison and its dynamics and I really thought that was interesting.
Monday, November 13, 2017
Book 2 Chapters 7-10 "Emotions"
"What mattered were individual relationships, and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself. The proles, it suddenly occurred to him, had remained in this condition. They were not loyal to a party or a country or an idea, they were loyal to one another. For the first time in his life, he did not despise the proles or think of them as merely as an inert force which would one day spring to life and regenerate the world. The proles had stayed human. They had not hardened inside." (Chapter 7, page 136)
In the beginning of Chapter 7, Winston is recalling his actions from when he was a child. Throughout, he mentions that he had believed for very long that he had killed his mother because of his selfish actions as a child. Winston recalls how he always demanded the most food and constantly took from the rations of his mother and sister. The moment he recalls is when he would purposely fight his Mother for the ladle so that he could get more food, and the moment he regrets the most- when he stole the small ration of food from his younger sister due to his greed. It is in that same instant when he mentions how he regretted stealing from his sister so much that he decided to walk out for a bit. In that same day when he returned home that his mother and sister were just gone, they took nothing with them- so he assumed they had died. From this, he moves onto the topic of how his mother was like, how his mother's feelings "were her own, and could not be altered from the outside" and this leads to a very important issue- how people of the Party have been so manipulated that they had been taught the opposite of what Winston's mother was like.
On this same page, it is noted how the Party makes it known that if people were to show their feelings or impulses known it would not matter. The context in which it is mentioned is that in terms of what will be recorded and shown in history, their personal things would not matter because it will be erased the Party. Thus, it allows the Party to gain more control because the people have willingly stopped feeling emotions so, their judgment is impaired and carries no feelings so they are more willing to do things that maybe are considered heartless. But that is not the only reason why this issue is important, the other reason that makes this important is the fact that by no longer listening to these impulses they are no longer "human."
Winston mentions how when that thought occurred to him he had realized that the proles were "still human" because they showed their love and loyalty to one another. I think this is extremely important due to the fact that because of who they show their loyalty they are more at peace with one another and it is also what makes them that much more powerful. The proles love one another and express that because unlike the people of the Party they were not taught to forget those emotions and just blindly follow the Party's order, therefore this adds to their power. They can still express their emotions- this means that it is their discontent that will lead to the downfall of the Party if they ever choose to do so, that is why they are not as looked over because the Party allows them to just do as they please since they know the power they hold. But when looked at that specific phrase as well we see that the word Winston decided to use was human, which raises our awareness of the fact that people in the Party are not human.
We can see through Winston that he is having to relearn human emotions and how by doing so it is causing him to have a lot of inner turmoil and that is because they are not even human anymore. They have become so desensitized by the Party that they are more just objects- a mere shadow of what they used to be. They have no feelings whatsoever like the proles, instead of being disgusted and sad that he had seen a person severed hand he had just pushed it away and continued with his way- the children also show no feelings towards their parents and instead just aim to follow orders. This allows us to see just a huge difference between them and the proles. They are extremely desensitized which I think is a great concern- but it is something we see nowadays.
In our society nowadays, children are becoming more and more desensitized due to just the extreme conditions of our world. For instance, now mass shootings have become something that yes we are still trying to keep from happening, however, it has happened so often the news does not carry the same weight as it used to. Violence in our society is either becoming commonplace (more and more hate groups are making themselves known or coming out of hiding) that people are simply becoming desensitized to the news now. These things which should not be common are, which is unwillingly desensitizing us to a lot of things that should be shocking- which you can tell happened to the people of Party. They had just become accustomed to how things were that it became normal to them, which I think is a significant thing to note.
After reading chapters 7-10 this was the quote that really stood out to me. This is bringing up another relevant topic to our society now. You can pull out very clear ideas that Orwell is trying to portray and see how it is tying into our society- which is very startling especially when dealing with this issue.
In the beginning of Chapter 7, Winston is recalling his actions from when he was a child. Throughout, he mentions that he had believed for very long that he had killed his mother because of his selfish actions as a child. Winston recalls how he always demanded the most food and constantly took from the rations of his mother and sister. The moment he recalls is when he would purposely fight his Mother for the ladle so that he could get more food, and the moment he regrets the most- when he stole the small ration of food from his younger sister due to his greed. It is in that same instant when he mentions how he regretted stealing from his sister so much that he decided to walk out for a bit. In that same day when he returned home that his mother and sister were just gone, they took nothing with them- so he assumed they had died. From this, he moves onto the topic of how his mother was like, how his mother's feelings "were her own, and could not be altered from the outside" and this leads to a very important issue- how people of the Party have been so manipulated that they had been taught the opposite of what Winston's mother was like.
On this same page, it is noted how the Party makes it known that if people were to show their feelings or impulses known it would not matter. The context in which it is mentioned is that in terms of what will be recorded and shown in history, their personal things would not matter because it will be erased the Party. Thus, it allows the Party to gain more control because the people have willingly stopped feeling emotions so, their judgment is impaired and carries no feelings so they are more willing to do things that maybe are considered heartless. But that is not the only reason why this issue is important, the other reason that makes this important is the fact that by no longer listening to these impulses they are no longer "human."
Winston mentions how when that thought occurred to him he had realized that the proles were "still human" because they showed their love and loyalty to one another. I think this is extremely important due to the fact that because of who they show their loyalty they are more at peace with one another and it is also what makes them that much more powerful. The proles love one another and express that because unlike the people of the Party they were not taught to forget those emotions and just blindly follow the Party's order, therefore this adds to their power. They can still express their emotions- this means that it is their discontent that will lead to the downfall of the Party if they ever choose to do so, that is why they are not as looked over because the Party allows them to just do as they please since they know the power they hold. But when looked at that specific phrase as well we see that the word Winston decided to use was human, which raises our awareness of the fact that people in the Party are not human.
We can see through Winston that he is having to relearn human emotions and how by doing so it is causing him to have a lot of inner turmoil and that is because they are not even human anymore. They have become so desensitized by the Party that they are more just objects- a mere shadow of what they used to be. They have no feelings whatsoever like the proles, instead of being disgusted and sad that he had seen a person severed hand he had just pushed it away and continued with his way- the children also show no feelings towards their parents and instead just aim to follow orders. This allows us to see just a huge difference between them and the proles. They are extremely desensitized which I think is a great concern- but it is something we see nowadays.
In our society nowadays, children are becoming more and more desensitized due to just the extreme conditions of our world. For instance, now mass shootings have become something that yes we are still trying to keep from happening, however, it has happened so often the news does not carry the same weight as it used to. Violence in our society is either becoming commonplace (more and more hate groups are making themselves known or coming out of hiding) that people are simply becoming desensitized to the news now. These things which should not be common are, which is unwillingly desensitizing us to a lot of things that should be shocking- which you can tell happened to the people of Party. They had just become accustomed to how things were that it became normal to them, which I think is a significant thing to note.
After reading chapters 7-10 this was the quote that really stood out to me. This is bringing up another relevant topic to our society now. You can pull out very clear ideas that Orwell is trying to portray and see how it is tying into our society- which is very startling especially when dealing with this issue.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Book 2 Chapters 3-6 "Pleasure and Knowledge"
"When you make love you are using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All the marching up and down and cheering and waving your flags is simply sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should get excited about Big Brother and the Three Year Plans and the Two Minute Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?" (Book 2 Chapter 3, page 110-111)
This quote comes from Book 2 Chapter 3, this talk comes up pretty early in chapter 3 during one of the usual talks between Winston and Julia. At this specific moment, Winston and Julia are on the topic of Winston's past experience with his wife Katherine and what his married life was like, it is then that Winston mentions how he could not stand how she would always reference intercourse as 'their duty to the party'. It is here that Julia mentions something important: that the mantra that intercourse is the citizens 'duty to the party' is basically rubbed into them for years. She even goes beyond it to basically give her thoughts on the matter and that is that the Party does not want them to actually enjoy it. They do not want them to view intercourse as something besides 'a duty to the party' due to the fact that they cannot control them if they were to take actual pleasure in it. Like every other thing, the Party wants complete control of everything and that is why this quote really stood out to me.
Something that is very apparent is like always the Party has a reason behind everything they say, so it should come to no surprise that they had ulterior motives when they would tell people that intercourse is mere ' a duty to the party'. By painting it in this aspect people view it in a different light, instead of thinking it is something they can choose to do or not do, they are seeing this as a chore. By making the citizens believe that it is a chore they are less likely to actually enjoy what they are doing, thus they are able to keep their citizens in control.
Along with this new view that we get about intercourse, we are able to see a good point that Julia raises: if they spent their energy on intercourse and are then self-satisfied then they wouldn't waste their energy on arbitrary things like Big Brother, Two-Minute Hate, etc. This is something that I found very interesting because it seems that the Party wants their citizen's full devotion to the Party yet by basically denying them of pleasure it seems to show that they are in a way admitting that if given the option people might not care about such things because they would be self-satisfied. This is an interesting thing because it allows us to see why they are depriving their citizens of basic pleasures: good food, free social interaction, enjoyment of intercourse and being able to do it freely. By depriving them they are causing them to get riled up (have energy or use their pent-up emotions) on things beneficial to the motives of the Party
To put it all together, we get a deeper understanding of how the Party thinks when Julia mentions why intercourse is talked about the way it is, to basically get the citizens to view it as only a chore, 'a duty' so that people do not actually take pleasure in it. This allows the Party to utilize their extra 'energy' they are not using to further the motive (propaganda) of the Party.
*Also I would like to mention another quote very briefly that I very much enjoyed which was :
"Sometimes he talked to her of the Records Department and the impudent forgeries that he committed there. Such things did not appear to horrify her. She did not feel the abyss opening beneath her feet at the thought of the lies becoming truths. He told her the story of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford and the momentous slip of paper which he had once held between his fingers. It did not make much impression on her. At first, she failed to grasp the point of the story." (Book 2 Chapter 5, page 128)
This raises an important issue, Julia- someone younger than his who has not experienced some of the things he was able to have a child- do not understand the importance of what he is saying. If others were to have the same mentality as her it makes it very conceivable that people know most of what the are told is fake, but could not actually care less about the issue of constantly re-writing history to make Oceania look good. In dictatorships nowadays (like North Korea) we see that the same thing happens and it causes people to be completely brainwashed because they are only told what the government wants them to know, allowing them to have more control of their people because they believe that their government is this almighty being. That the government is so amazing for accomplishing so much, so when we see people have the mindset of Julia it is very disturbing, her leniency towards this should not be so because it is just feeding into the favor of the Party because people are just accepting lies because they feel as though it would change anything.That is why I also wanted to briefly mention this quote as well because it is an important topic that should also be addressed.
This quote comes from Book 2 Chapter 3, this talk comes up pretty early in chapter 3 during one of the usual talks between Winston and Julia. At this specific moment, Winston and Julia are on the topic of Winston's past experience with his wife Katherine and what his married life was like, it is then that Winston mentions how he could not stand how she would always reference intercourse as 'their duty to the party'. It is here that Julia mentions something important: that the mantra that intercourse is the citizens 'duty to the party' is basically rubbed into them for years. She even goes beyond it to basically give her thoughts on the matter and that is that the Party does not want them to actually enjoy it. They do not want them to view intercourse as something besides 'a duty to the party' due to the fact that they cannot control them if they were to take actual pleasure in it. Like every other thing, the Party wants complete control of everything and that is why this quote really stood out to me.
Something that is very apparent is like always the Party has a reason behind everything they say, so it should come to no surprise that they had ulterior motives when they would tell people that intercourse is mere ' a duty to the party'. By painting it in this aspect people view it in a different light, instead of thinking it is something they can choose to do or not do, they are seeing this as a chore. By making the citizens believe that it is a chore they are less likely to actually enjoy what they are doing, thus they are able to keep their citizens in control.
Along with this new view that we get about intercourse, we are able to see a good point that Julia raises: if they spent their energy on intercourse and are then self-satisfied then they wouldn't waste their energy on arbitrary things like Big Brother, Two-Minute Hate, etc. This is something that I found very interesting because it seems that the Party wants their citizen's full devotion to the Party yet by basically denying them of pleasure it seems to show that they are in a way admitting that if given the option people might not care about such things because they would be self-satisfied. This is an interesting thing because it allows us to see why they are depriving their citizens of basic pleasures: good food, free social interaction, enjoyment of intercourse and being able to do it freely. By depriving them they are causing them to get riled up (have energy or use their pent-up emotions) on things beneficial to the motives of the Party
To put it all together, we get a deeper understanding of how the Party thinks when Julia mentions why intercourse is talked about the way it is, to basically get the citizens to view it as only a chore, 'a duty' so that people do not actually take pleasure in it. This allows the Party to utilize their extra 'energy' they are not using to further the motive (propaganda) of the Party.
*Also I would like to mention another quote very briefly that I very much enjoyed which was :
This raises an important issue, Julia- someone younger than his who has not experienced some of the things he was able to have a child- do not understand the importance of what he is saying. If others were to have the same mentality as her it makes it very conceivable that people know most of what the are told is fake, but could not actually care less about the issue of constantly re-writing history to make Oceania look good. In dictatorships nowadays (like North Korea) we see that the same thing happens and it causes people to be completely brainwashed because they are only told what the government wants them to know, allowing them to have more control of their people because they believe that their government is this almighty being. That the government is so amazing for accomplishing so much, so when we see people have the mindset of Julia it is very disturbing, her leniency towards this should not be so because it is just feeding into the favor of the Party because people are just accepting lies because they feel as though it would change anything.That is why I also wanted to briefly mention this quote as well because it is an important topic that should also be addressed.
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