As my grandfather told me when I first started reading 1984 by George Orwell, the first sentence foreshadows a lot of the philosophical controversy in the book. Because of this, I will attempt to analyze the first sentence and see if he is right. It reads, "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" (1). The phrase "bright cold day in April" is strange because April is normally warm. Also the fact that it is a "bright" day makes the reader think that the sun must be out, implying that the weather is warm. The next odd discrepancy is that the "clocks were striking thirteen." The old clocks that "strike" a time generally are analog and only go up to twelve. The clock striking thirteen implies that this society must be on military time. The number thirteen cannot be a coincidence. Thirteen also carries serious connotation in society today, it is symbolically a very unlucky number. These two weirdly contradictory phrases in the first sentence, do in fact foreshadow the Oceanic philosophy, specifically an idea called doublethink. To be a complacent member of society, one must be able to reconcile a fact that clearly contradicts their memory and the world around them with the idea that whatever Big Brother says must be true. Likewise, the reader must reconcile these weird and potentially logically flawed opening descriptions with the idea that the author gets to decide what is truth and what is not in his novel. The thirteen is present to foreshadow the bad luck that Winston experiences later in the book. He is captured and tortured for most of part three.
With the conclusion of 1984, I have recognized the interconnectedness of all the objects I traced in my three previous posts. First I have realized that the power symbolized by the telescreen is instrumental in the Oceanic philosophy of truth. Big Brother's ability to change facts at will rests on the fact that the Party can convict people of thoughtcrime at a moments notice. The telescreens also allow Big Brother to convey any message to all the Party members at a moments notice. Even the slightest dissent in the belief of truth can cause massive turmoil in this society.Another two themes that are closely tied are the idea of truth and Winston's love for Julia. When Winston feels that the truth is set in stone, it coincides with his passionate love for Julia. Perhaps this is because this is an illegal thought and Julia symbolizes Winston's desire to break the law. Likewise, when Winston begins to agree with Big Brother's idea that the truth is fluid, he and Julia lose a lot of their chemistry and their relationship tails off.
One thematic conclusion I came to through reading this novel is that there does not exist an exact truth to every event. Big Brother attempts to control the memories and written records so that it has full control over the "truth" of the past. It seems that Orwell portrays this concept as ridiculous. Orwell presents both sides of this truth issue, and I did not finish the book feeling as if either side was entirely correct. A statement that is articulated many times though, even by O'Brien in his monologues to Winston, is that the truth of an event lies only in the observer. For that reason, I have come to the conclusion that there cannot exist an absolute truth to any event. This is especially timely with our discussions of The Things They Carried and Atonement currently going on. Both of these authors present their texts without declaring an absolute truth. They seem to feel that the storytelling truth is what is relevant, and that storytelling is a very subjective process.
In terms of close reading, I am very proud of the way I read this book. It is easy to go into this book with an anti-socialist viewpoint already established, and then disagree with everything that Big Brother stands for. Instead I read and reread both the Goldstein philosophy about society and O'Brien's dictation about what Big Brother stands for. Many of these points are eye opening, especially the quest for power. This is a fundamental struggle in society, and it humanizes the motives of Big Brother. Another pitfall readers can run into with this book is relating it too much to the society that we are set in. The reader has to remove themselves from the bounds of our world, even though both universes seem so similar. This was something I attempted to do. In the first 100 pages I attempted to identify objects and characters that would take on layered meanings as the text moved on. I wrote about some of these in my blogs, and I was able to closely follow many moving parts.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in political philosophy. To fully understand the socialist philosophy, one needs to immerse themselves in the culture from a relatable viewpoint. This book was my first up close look at socialism. It is incredibly interesting to grapple with how the inner Party is able to govern so effectively with six million members and very little structure. I am also amazed by how much this got me thinking about truth. I am not sure I really know what the truth of an event is anymore. As Winston gets persuaded to become obedient, I could kind of relate to his switch. This book is gripping and full of intrigue.
As I sat reading the posts I could remember reading another one of George Orwell’s books: Animal Farm which was along time ago. I read the book in seventh grade and I remember that there were some things that I read that are similar to this book by George Orwell. But what I remember from reading the book in class was my teacher referenced that each of the characters in Animal Farm “stood” for something as if retelling the Russian Revolution.
ReplyDeleteIn 1984, telescreens were used as a way to monitor the people that were in Oceania. They were like Stalin’s secret police who would make sure that there would be no bad-mouthing of the leader and if there was any they would be put to death. But in this case it was to make sure no one was thinking freely and if the telescreens picked up any trace of free thinking they would be jailed. This is what happened to Winston. In Animal Farm, there are no telescreens to keep eyes on people at all times. There is, however, a very similar purge of “non followers” in Animal Farm. Orwell creates animosity between two pigs who struggle to lead the animals on the farm after rebelling against their farmer Mr. Jones. Napoleon the pig ,who would be Stalin, has attack dogs kill any animals on the farm who had any plan or connections with Snowball the pig ,Trotsky, to demolish any hopes of Animal Farm succeeding as a civilization. Orwell created an interesting parallel between his books because he does create a lot of references to socialism in the past. Napoleon the pig and Big Brother all want to monitor their peoples in their environments because whatever they say goes and they don’t want to deal with people who would rebel.
Both of the books involve some level of exposing people to the troubles of socialism to Western civilization. When Orwell wrote many of his books he did talk about the downsides of socialism through his characters. I am starting to enjoy political books and it was a joy to read someone’s opinion of a book. I will definitely have to read 1984, and reread Animal Farm. Maybe I can find more parallels between the books and look at my findings from a historical stand point. Nicely done, Benedict!