1984 #9 notes

1.      War is Peace

-“It is for the possession of these thickly populated regions, and of the northern ice cap, that the three powers are constantly struggling” (187).

            Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia are constantly at war with each other, but the motive for the war is more geographical than economic. The countries try to gain control of regions with supposedly lesser populations that serve as a labor force for the country.

-“Goods must be produced, but they need not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare” (191).

            The countries needed to determine a way to keep their citizens from attaining too much wealth without having the citizens turn against their country. After all, wealth precedes knowledge and power. With the three countries in constant warfare, the citizens remain loyal to their countries even when they do not have a sufficient amount of goods.

-“What is more remarkable is that all three powers already possess, in the atomic bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any that their present researchers are likely to discover” (194).

            The atomic bomb destroyed the need for science, and thus the need for researchers and scientific intellectuals. The destructive power of the atomic bomb also means each country has the power to destroy the others, but they will not. The war is literally never ending.

-“The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society in tact” (199).

            The above quotation summarizes the entire objective of the war. War keeps society as a

whole angry at the enemy; therefore, the anger is directed away from the Party. This collective anger keeps the Party safe from overthrow and the society together. Thus, war is peace.

2.      Ignorance is Strength

-“But the purpose of [perpetuating unfreedom and inequality] was to arrest progress and freeze history at a chosen moment” (203).

            The Party chooses to take away freedom from its citizens for the safety of the Party. Without freedom and free thought, the citizens are unable to rebel against the Party.

-“The possibility of enforcing not only complete obedience to the will of the State, but complete uniformity of opinion on all subjects, now existed for the first time” (206).

            Technology and media lead to the Party’s ability to control the thoughts of its citizens. It is through print and television that the Party is able to alter the past. The thoughts of the citizens are no longer their own, and they are forced to believe whatever the Party tells them.

-“Admission to either branch of the Party is by examination, taken at the age of sixteen” (208).

            This examination determines the intelligence of the person who takes the test. Those who lack intelligence become Proles and are granted free thought. However, granting free thought to the Proles is not dangerous to the Party because the Proles are not intelligent enough to do anything to rebel against the Party. Those who are intelligent are admitted into the Inner Party where they are not given free thought. The Inner Party is most greatly influenced by the Party because the Party is only safe if they keep the Inner Party seemingly ignorant to the Party’s lies.

-“Ultimately it is by means of doublethink that the Party has been able-and may, for all we know, continue to be able to thousands of years-to arrest the course of history” (215).

            The illusion of ignorance by the members of the Inner and Outer Party is what keeps the Party in power. This ignorance is achieved through doublethink for the citizens know a concrete truth, but choose to believe the Party’s lies instead because the Party must always be right. Doublethink takes away freedom of individual thought from the citizens, which is the ultimate goal of the Party.

1984 #3

            Within this reading of 1984 by George Orwell, Winston is on his lunch break with his co-workers. Winston observes one of the co-workers speaking while the narrator explains “As [Winston] watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy” (54). There appears to be a motif of eyes within 1984. Those with large eyes, such as Winston’s mother and sister, see the truth within the world. They are not tainted by the lies of the Party. However, the eyeless characters believe everything the Party tells them. They praise Big Brother because they do not see that Big Brother is attempting to take away their free thinking. In a sense, the eyeless characters are blind to the unjust world around them.

1984 #1

     In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the main character Winston goes to the Two Minutes Hate and “[a]s usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had flashed onto the screen” (11). Emmanuel Goldstein is to Winston Smith what Kurtz is to Marlow in Heart of Darkness. For starters, Emmanuel Goldstein stood up against the injustice of the Party for which Winston respects him, but Winston is unable to do so because he fears the inevitable punishment. In the same respect, Kurtz stands up for what he believes in and Marlow respects Kurtz for that. In both of these scenarios, Goldstein and Kurtz act as warnings for Winston and Marlow, respectively. If Winston follows in Goldstein’s footsteps, Winston will end up like Goldstein, and the same goes for Marlow and Kurtz.  All in all, Goldstein and Kurtz both serve as a warning to the people who respect them.

Heart of Darkness post 5 (pages 145-end)

At the end of Heart of Darkness Marlow goes to the house of Kurtz’s Intended. Even though it has been a year since Kurtz’s death, the Intended is still dressed head to toe in black in mourning. She wants to know what Kurtz’s last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to tell the Intended the truth. Instead, Marlow lies to the Intended and tells her, “The last words he pronounced was-your name” (164). Marlow detests liars more than anything, but in that false confession he deliberately put himself in the same category as liars. However, there was reasoning behind the lie. One detail Marlow and the Intended agree upon about Kurtz are that his words will never die. When Marlow does not tell the Intended Kurtz’s real dying words, he is putting the uncivilized Kurtz to rest in the process. Kurtz, to the Intended, will be remembered as an incredibly intelligent, but also loving husband to the very end. She will remember Kurtz as he once was before he travelled into the Congo, for her perception of him will not be skewed by accounts of the monster he became at the inner station. Kurtz’s words are remembered from the powerful reports Kurtz wrote from the company, not from the insanity that overcame him in the Congo.

Heart of Darkness post 4 (pages 116-142)

            The characterization of Kurtz by Marlow displays the tragic results of isolation on a previously respectable individual. Marlow explains that the “original” Kurtz had sympathies that “were in the right place” (92). From this quotation, the reader can infer that Kurtz was not always the ivory-obsessed man he has become. However, Kurtz has been assigned to report on his views and actions in the heart of the Congo. He ends this report with “Exterminate all the brutes!” (92). Kurtz gives this order to all those who read his report, and he believes that many people will eventually read it as well. Since Kurtz has been in isolation, he has lost touch with the world outside of the Congo. Nobody is around to shut down Kurtz’s ideas, so he believes his word must be taken with the utmost regard. Kurtz faces no opposing opinions of others, and this proves to be dangerous to his sanity. The fact that Kurtz has been given enough time in isolation to make himself believe his word is divine word displays the disastrous effects isolation can have on an individual. Isolation, due to its large allotment of time for self-reflection, is enough to make a sane man believe he is a god.