Kyle McCrossin

“Chinua Achebe makes a fiery statement in regards to this manner of thinking – he speaks of how much better it would be for Western culture to see Africa in its true light. It is a continent of people. Not savages, angels, demons, or monsters – but people, just like other continents. However, in context to the book, the European culture had set up Africa as being a sort of mystic land of heathens and dark sin.”

I know this is just a quote from one of your sources but it really made me realize a big part of what I was thinking but couldn’t put into words.  I realized that the thoughts in this article, though it was more a walk through of the book, were concerning Conrad’s wish to paint Africa in a true controvirsal light.  A mix between nature and myth, beasts and humans, darnkess and light.  vEry interesting

Also in another article concerning covered up vietnam war crimes, I realized just how brutal some of those stoyrs/orders were.  About how the likelyhood that such war crimes might be going on today in Iraq.  The scariest thought that came from this article was that even when a few soldiers got thier storys out and heard, the goverment claimed them to be inaccurate.

The three main devices I saw throughout the novel 1984 were irony, tone, and symbolism.

Irony: The greatest irony of all from this book is the word play of the party’s slogan. “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”.  Although these are later explained exactly how the slogans work in the party, they are quite contradictory of themselves in meaning.  We view war and peace as opposites of each other and the same applies to Freedom and Slavery.  Though ignoance can mean strength we don’t view ignorance as typically a positive attribute.  These slogans work for the party because of the way the party controls its citizens.

Tone:  Although I debate on whether or not this counts as a literary device I feel it is the biggest player towards this books meaning.  From the ever watching telescreens, to the broken off natural human relationships, this books tone is very dark and depressing.  Throughout the novel the controlled human lifestyle and loss of any form of privacy creates almost a world that no reader can truly comprehend.  The tone plays on this ominous world.

Symbol: The big prole woman who Winston sees out his window is continuously singing a light hearted beautiful song, and hanging up wash (mostly diapers).  Winston believes that the future belongs to the proles (or 3^rd class).  The light hearted singing is something a member of the inner party would never due. Her wide hips and big frame symbolizes fertility, and a future through children.  As a whole she symbolizes a freedom that very few posses.

Another symbol in this alternate future (technically past) is the party’s leader Big brother.  From a literary character standpoint a big brother is a person younger siblings look up to, he’s watching out for them, and is a lovable icon.  In the book he serves all these purposes but in a much more ominous form with a sort of eternal power, strength, and vigilance.

My favorite symbol in this book was the human eye.  Any sort of eye contact stood for a sort of strong human connection.  An almost forbidden connection that was sure raise suspicion.  When Winston made momentary eye contact with O’Brian it meant hope, friendship, and closeness to Winston.  When Winston was holding hands with Julia in a crowd of people watching Eastasia war prisoners drive by he was staring into the prisoners eyes instead of Julia’s.  There is so much lost in this book concerning human emotion, and conversation but it is with eye contact that that which cannot be said is said.

I think the main theme all these devices play on is:

In the overpowering control of government over a submissive populous, human thought, history, and relationships can all be controlled/altered by hate, depression, and fear.

Having just finished reading less than 10 minutes ago my first emotion I feel is relieved.  Not towards the book but just the fact I’m finished with it.  The book left me with mixed emotions.  The context of the book itself was a cross between a descending depression of human ideals and a political nightmare of dominance over a stupefied populace.  Nothing in the book seems outrageous but rather the mentality of the general public is just too hard to believe.  The explained occurrence of events is logical but rather drastic all the same. Let me explain:

Big Brother, a persona rather than a person (which is necessary to avoid the weakness of death in the eyes of the public) is terrifying to imagine due to the power of his dictatorship.  The idea of telescreens (watching everyone every moment of the day) is what makes the idea of privacy of thoughts so important.  Winston’s loss, regain then loss again of his privacy of thought is what hurt me most as a reader.  It is at the climax/turning point of the story that the reader feels that the tide will be turned and that some good will come out of this hell of a future (technically past) it’s revealed Winston has been being watched the entire time and he is now a prisoner of the thought police.  Even in this prison the reader still hopes that Winston will retain some of his head but in this prison logic, emotion, and attachment to any of his preconceived ideas are all thrown out the window.

Mostly I hated the denial of the necessities of many things we believe to be a part of the human experience.  The belief in freedom of thought, the relationship between a parent and a child, the love shared between two human beings, but mostly to me the loss of something to smile about.  The fact that no one goes about smiling, that even to say hi to a neighbor could raise suspicion, though mostly it’s the fact that not a single character with a head on his shoulder ever broke out into song in a light hearted manner (related to myself this was weird to think about).  Another fact that bothered me was that the people who remained human through out this book, the proles (lowest class), were too stupid to even appreciate it and they were just as controlled by bog brother as all the other slaved working men.  This book made me hate the idea that history can be altered and ignored, that people could be controlled if a state withheld necessities from them, and that they couldn’t be beat.  This book made me confused if nothing else about what politics is really capable of.