1984

"You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right... But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party...  You must humble yourself before you can become sane." What O'Brien said holds some water. Our perception is based on sight and what we believe is our reality. However what we see is something that can easily be distorted. Our opinions and beliefs cloud our judgment of the world and see something when it's really not there. For example, some people see women wearing a hijab reading book and automatically place a negative connotation on her presence. People don't ever see something for its fa...

"They could be tracked down by enquiry, they could be squeezed out of you by torture. But if the object was not to stay alive but to stay human, what difference did it ultimately make? They could not alter your feelings: for that matter you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to. They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable." (167)                                            I interpret this quote as explaining what its like to be human. In the quote, George Orwell said the objective is to stay human. It's possible that humanity is your feeling, something that the party that can't take away. However, I disagree with this quote because I believe that humanity isn't just emotions, it is also keeping a moral compass. Staying true to ...

"As soon as she woke up her demeanour had changed. She became alert and business-like, put her clothes on, knotted the scarlet sash about her waist, and began arranging the details of the journey home. It seemed natural to leave this to her. She obviously had a practical cunning which Winston lacked, and she seemed also to have an exhaustive knowledge of the countryside round London, stored away from innumerable community hikes" (105-06) Once Julia wakes up to work she puts up a front. She becomes different and fake. Julia is a person who acts differently based on who she's talking to. Julia's portrays only a part of herself to the public to protect herself from vaporization. She can only show her full intentions with Winston. This paragraph gives a commentary on how people usually portray a small part of themselves to the public and only become who they are towards people they're close to. However, in order to become close enough to express someones deep perso...

"He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is inalterable. He might be ALONE in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong." (68) A very interesting topic. A person who can be seen as a crazy or loony but can just be someone seeing something in a different angle. It depends on the time such as the astronomer Galileo. He was considered a crazy for saying the Earth spun around the Sun, instead of how the common belief at the time of how the Sun spun around the Earth. Because Galileo went against the church he was convicted of heresy and under house arrest for the rest of his life. Galileo conviction seems to parallel the justice system of 1984. In 1984, p...

"Suddenly they were both leaping round him, shouting ‘Traitor!’ and ‘Thought-criminal!’ the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gambolling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy’s eye, a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so. It was a good job it was not a real pistol he was holding, Winston thought." (23) The children seem to believes in the Party. This could be a commentary about how propaganda affects children at young ages. The children are brainwashed, automatically accusing their neighbors of a thought crime calling him a criminal. The children are similar to the people of North Korea who believe their leader is a God. The children of Mrs. Parson and people of North Korea are entranced by their government, and as a result, being controlled the government. Another idea...