Monday, April 9, 2012

Journal #3- 1984

Motif: In the last third of the book, a new motif of light comes up. In the second third it was darkness, but in this third, it is light. The light represents the way the Party wants to show itself to the citizens of the society. Throughout the book, we see darkness and the idea of a lost city, a dark city hat is covered with dirt, and is dark, with everyone afraid to go outside. But in the Ministry, everything is lit. Like Winston said, "The place where there is no darkness." This motif represents the idea of hope. The Party shows the people that the Party is all about hope towards the Party and that it wants the best for its people and wants to ensure the people that the Ministry is a place of hope for them where they can be cured and removed from their ideas of rebellion against the Party. In the beginning of the last third, the Ministry of Love is described with "concealed lamps flooded it with cold light" (186). The idea of cold light represents the reader with an idea of the Ministry being cold and inhumane, yet trying to represent themselves as curers to the citizens. Later in the novel, O'Brien "shone glaring lights in his face until his eyes ran with water" (199). The use of light is also used as a way to make the people suffer. Strong light hurts our eyes, and so the Party uses it in a way as to show that too much hope for something other than what the Party offers, is painful and should not be done. For example, Winston had so much hope, believing that he can overthrow the Party, but that was not true. Because too much hope is painful, and so Winston was sent to the Ministry of Love to be tortured for having a lot of hope. Instead, the Party wants the people to have hope that would be loyal to the Party, like hope for victory against their enemy countries and so on.
Setting: The setting of the last third of the book takes place mostly in the Ministry of Love. This Ministry is basically a prison that tortures people in order to obey the Party. Although it is torturing the people, in the eyes of the Party, it is a way where they "care" for the people, and do it for the benefit of the people so that the people would be better citizens. When O'Brien says, "Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! [...] We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested int he overt act: the thought is all we care about" (209). That is the biggest reason on why they call it the Ministry of Love. They try to allude to the people that the Ministry cares about them and wants the best for the people,  but in fact, the Party does it for their own benefit of being a stronger power. This setting is used as a way to show the strength in the control of the government. and bringing out their final reasoning that nothing can beat the Party's control. They reveal all their tricks and treacheries to the reader and the reader understands that there is no use in revolting against this government, unless a big number of people such as the proles, could possibly get together and somehow fight against the government, which may even be hard to achieve. The Ministry is a dark, sort of scary place that no one would want to be in. This setting also reveals how the Party knows every little information about the people, in which they can use in Room 101 to torture the people and make them confess or betray their loved ones, by bringing out the people's biggest fears.
Language: The language in the last third of the book is very violent. The descriptions of everything going on represents the violence in that society and the way the Party takes control of its people through its violence. It teaches them a lesson and represents to the reader that whatever steps the party needs to take to remain in control, it will do. Even through the sentences used, Orwell tries to create some suspense and does not make the reader prepared to what would happen next. Orwell somehow excites the reader and makes them nervous and wanting to know what would happen next through his use of language. Even the language in the dialogue is short, and up to the point, with the element of confusion in it. Orwell uses dialogue in a way as if it is happening for real, creating a lot of imagery. The confusion and narration used in between dialogues representing Winston also gives the reader the feeling of reality and struggle. Winston constantly uses the phrase "I don't know" when O'Brien asks him questions, because he does not know what the right answer is and is afraid to answer something in the wrong way, which would cause him to be tortured even more.
Cultural Connections: In the novel, there are so many connections relating back to World War 2 and a totalitarian government. Orwell based his novel off what was happening in England at that time during World War 2 and the fact that Germany was becoming very strong and starting to take control of everything. He was worried of having a totalitarian government, and believed that this is what would happen with Germany takes over, and that no one will be able to revolt against them because they will be too strong and have control over every single aspect. Even the idea of the way people lived shows a cultural connection to the way people were living in England during World War 2. There was constant bombing on England know as The Blitz, where Germany constantly attacked Britain killing a lot of people and keeping them fearful of their lives, the same way as the Party constantly bombs the citizens. So Orwell seems to be representing the Party as Germany that took over England.

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