Literary Analysis #1

1984, by George Orwell

1.) 1984 centered around the life of a man named Winston Smith, who has spent his life living in a fascist regime that hides behind communism and many other titles to hide the facts about itself.  Winston is constantly personally questioning the regime about why it operates how it does, why it only cares about the middle and upper classes, and why it deletes much of the data and facts from the history of the human race.  Winston starts small, but progressively begins to disobey the government of Oceania (the state where he lives, comprised of England, and what was included in the british empire at its full extent, including all of the new world), starting with small things, like thinking poorly of the government, and writing his views down in a book.  As time passes, his offenses get worse and worse, as he starts making love for pleasure, falling in love, and trying to find out the truth about the world, especially the pre-Oceanian world.  His job, and many other experiences in his life, such as his vague memories of his childhood, deception by the thought police, Julia (his girlfriend), and - worst of all - his job, in which he is required to change records and literature from history to fit the regime’s needs.  He eventually builds up the courage to talk to O’Brian, a government official who he feels is on his side to help him in overthrowing big brother.  This plan backfires on him, when O’Brian takes Winston and Julia into custody, because his is really a member of the thought police, and pretended to be a radical to deceive Winston and Julia.  Julia and Winston are separated from each other and torchered profusely to get them to believe in the deceptions of Big Brother.  Winston is there for a long time, and eventually, he is threatened with death by rats, but when he finally betrays Julia by asking if they will torcher her instead, he is let free, as Julia symbolized all the anti-regime inside him.  This point in the story is the anti-climax, as he has given up all that he worked for, and effectively lost his battle against the regime, dying would have been the only way to win.  After he is set free, he no longer questions, like everybody else in society, he too has become a mindless vegetable, incapable of reason.  

2.) The theme of 1984 is that truth is only what one perceives, as things can be changed, and be just as true.  It depends on what you believe, based on the information around you, just as in the theory of relativity, and the perception theory of theoretical physics.  Another theme is that humans can, with much pressure, be reduced to the level of non sentient life, and George Orwell intended that this book mad man fight the facism and communism that he experienced in World War two, when he fought alongside Stalin’s troops, and spent much time in the USSR and Natzi Germany.

3.) Orwell wanted to give readers the sense of the deceptive government, and Winston’s struggle to to escape it; so he gave the book a dark, suspenseful tone.  This darkness is seen in the doom stricken first pages of the book, where we see the oppression in Oceania, to the point where Winston must hide in his own house to just write.  The darkness is also seen when we see that the government is hiding the truth from its patrons, and using its patrons to hide the truth themselves in a variety of ways, such as creating “new speak,” and altering the literature of the past, so that it agrees with the motives of the party. .  The darkness is most blatantly seen in the horrific torcher scenes, which depict a nation physically punishing its own patrons, simply to “club them into dank submission.”

4.) 1984 was packed with oxymorons to show the motives of the party, such as “war is peace.”  Pathos is used throughout to get us to feel for Winston, and is shown in the betrayal of Julia, and O’Brian’s betrayal, and in a different sense in Winston’s love for Julia and his quest for the truth.  Many anecdotes strewn the pages of the book, such as the anecdotes of the memories of Winston’s childhood, which inform us why Winston is the way he is.  Symbolism is used throughout, such as Julia symbolizing Winston’s rebellious spirit, and the paperweight symbolizing Winston’s want for the truth.  Metaphors and contradictions give us a better sense of what Orwell was trying to portray in his novel.  Imagery, especially in the opening of the book set the scene by explaining a gray, rundown London that lost its splendor and culture many years before.  Orwell used repetition in the parts of hate week to show the true bovinity of the humans living in this society.  Plot twists were used to keep the book interesting, and also to show that in this society that nobody, including lovers and people who promise to be with you, like O’Brian, are really against you.  The use of common themes, like “new speak” drill in each theme’s importance, and how it pertains to an anti-progressive society.  Logos was also used throughout the novel to logically show the problems with the totalitarian state.