2.24.11
AP Lang pd. 7
Reading journal 1: 1984
In the first third of 1984, the main character, Winston, is introduced as a character already broken loose from Big Brother in his mind. He has already purchased a journal and is writing, (forbidden), he’s thinking against Big Brother, (forbidden), and he is preparing to try and make a difference in his current society by rebelling (in small ways) against the government. The narrator, however, makes it obvious through the eyes of Winston that there are other people who are most likely living the same way. Though no one is able to mention it, Winston assumes that most others despise Big Brother like he does and perhaps, some even are ready to rebel as he is.
What seems suspicious to me is when Winston talks about how everyone hates Big Brother, yet somehow a huge following still comes around and he’s still ruling. I can’t comprehend where his followers are coming from. It seems Winston can’t either, from his language, but it seems that maybe Orwell doesn’t even know, and he just needed to make ends meet by leaving some questions unanswered.
Winston later rebels by venturing into the housing areas of the Proles, hoping to find some answers about the past of his society, and ends up purchasing little trinkets that seem harmless, but could cause him a great deal of trouble. Once someone questions him about the trinkets, they may question him about the writing he’s done, or the suspicious activity, or they may simply read his thoughts and take him away in the night.
Yet I find it confusing that in 1984, there are police for thought, and not police for possessions. It seems that those two things should go hand in hand. It would be difficult to patrol everyone’s thoughts, even if there were secret thought police and everyday citizens turning in their neighbors – yet it wouldn’t be that difficult to search people’s possessions periodically. If suspicious items were found, then the owners of those possessions could be thought-analyzed and punished. On some occasions, it probably wouldn’t be necessary to even patrol peoples’ thoughts if they could find especially telling objects in their homes or pockets.
The other loophole I’m concerned about is the timeline that the story is following: Winston is old enough for his body to start deteriorating, maybe 40 or 50, I don’t remember if his age is mentioned; another generation in the Proles was still alive before the “war” but just barely, and there is a generation of children. The children are followers of the government, arresting the parents sometimes, and Winston’s generation is still adjusting/in denial of the government, yet they don’t have anything to compare the government to. It seems that Winston’s generation would be more like the children’s generation, depending on who the parents are. Which leads to another question: Who are Winston’s generations’ parents?
I don’t know if Orwell sorted out things like this in his mind before writing the story and it will all come together eventually, or if he just doesn’t want the reader to think about those things, but it leaves me with a sort of uneasiness as I read. I wish things were a bit more structured. I guess that fits the story though, there is no structure in the government yet the government pretends like there is; there is no structure in Orwell’s story yet he wants to pretend there is so he can tell his ideas.ory.
