Thursday, April 2, 2009

Works Cited

Works Cited

"A Little History of Ireland - The Curse of Cromwell." Irelandseye.com - The Folklore, History and Tradition of Ireland. 02 Apr. 2009 <http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/events/dates/cromwell.shtm>.

"The London Blitz, 1940." EyeWitness to History - history through the eyes of those who lived it. 01 Apr. 2009 <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm>.

"Oranges and lemons rhyme." Nursery Rhymes lyrics, origins and history. 01 Apr. 2009 <http://www.rhymes.org.uk/oranges_and_lemons.htm>.

"St. Sebastian - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online." Catholic Online - Breaking News, World, U.S., Catholic, Diocese & Video News. 01 Apr. 2009 <http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=103>.

"Study Guide for Rumpelstiltskin." Index. 02 Apr. 2009 <http://www.marilynkinsella.org/Study%20Guides%20and%20info/Study%20Guide%20for%20Rumpelstiltskin.htm>.

Oliver Cromwell

"In the street in front of it there was a statue of a man on horseback which was supposed to represent Oliver Cromwell." (Orwell 114).

Winston sees this statue of Cromwell in "Victory Square." Oliver Cromwell prosecuted and killed many non-Protestants, especially Roman Catholics in Ireland. His want for power possessed him to do these evils deeds, along with anything he needed to to get ahead and have control. This is very much like Big Brother. Orwell added this Cromwell allusion to another cruel leader to add to the character of Big Brother. The fact that people like Cromwell are idealized in this society shows their pure want of power and nothing else.

http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/events/dates/cromwell.shtm

Rumpelstiltskin

"On a scarlet-draped platform an orator of the Inner Party, a small lean man with disproportionately long arms and a large, bald skull over which a few lank locks straggled, was haranguing the crowd. A little Rumpelstiltskin figure, contorted with hatred..." (Orwell 180).

"Rumpelstiltskin" is a fairy tale/fable by the Brothers Grimm. It tells the story of a woman who wants to marry the King, but is told she can only do so if she spins yarn into gold. A man named Rumpelstiltskin tells her he will do it for her if he can keep her first-born child. He does, and eventually he comes to claim the child. However, he says that the woman may keep her child if she can guess his name, which he believes she will never be able to do. She does, because her husband overhears him saying his name out loud, and Rumpelstiltskin returns the child and leaves.
Big Brother is like a Rumpelstiltskin character, tricking everyone around him into playing his games and doing things his way, confident he will never be found out. Winston, and accordingly Orwell, believes that if we can find a way around these people that are trying to control us and our minds, then we will be free: all we need is the information and intelligence on how to do so.

http://www.marilynkinsella.org/Study%20Guides%20and%20info/Study%20Guide%20for%20Rumpelstiltskin.htm

The Party did not sing.

"The birds sang, the proles sang, the Party did not sing...Out of these mighty loins a race of conscious beings must one day come. You were the dead; theirs was the future. But you could share in that future if you kept alive the mind as they kept alive the body, and passed on the secret doctrine that two plus two make four." (Orwell 220-221).

Winston and Julia see the "red-armed" prole woman outside of their window, and Winston finds her beautiful as he discusses her child-bearing hips and the fact that she must have had fifteen children at least. He sees in her a hope for the future, in her children and generations to come. He says that the ignorant people "sing," they are happy. However, he has always believed that if people were only to gain intelligence, they might make themselves free by rebelling against Big Brother. Here he sees a hope for the future in the combination of the two: happy people, willing and able to bear children who may be our hope for the future, and intelligent people to pass on knowledge and let it slowly build up over centuries.

Simply Intelligence

"And again, perhaps it was not even unorthodoxy that was written in his face, but simply intelligence. But at any rate he had the appearance of being a person that you could talk to, if somehow you could cheat the telescreen and get him alone." (Orwell 11).

Winston is drawn to O'Brien the first time he sees him. Here he explains why: he looks like he may be, like Winston, secretly against Big Brother, or he may be just intelligent. Winston believes that the only thing that the people of Oceania lack to get them out of their current position is intelligence. If only they, especially the proles, knew how much they were being oppressed, they too would turn against Big Brother and rebel. The Party keeps information and knowledge, and therefore intelligence, away from the people to keep them ignorant of the fact that they are not as good as they seem--"Ignorance is Strength."

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

St. Sebastian

"He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian." (Orwell 15).

Saint Sebastian was a Saint who was killed for just being a Christian. When it was discovered he was a Christian, he was shot with arrows and left for dead. When his body was found however, he was still alive and was then nursed back to health. He was then beaten to death on the Emperor's orders.
Winston says here that he wants to kill Julia like Saint Sebastian was killed. He does not yet love her, and does not know that he ever will, although as we know it is forthcoming. She will remain alive and healthy no matter how much Winston hates her at the time, and, like Saint Sebastian, will make a comeback in his life.
Saint Sebastian was killed like many members of the Party are in Big Brother's London, in the year 1984: just for believing what they believe. A belief in Big Brother is like a belief in God in those days; all of the religious energy is transferred to Big Brother as well as the patriotism. He is an idol in all ways. If one does not believe in Big Brother and his benevolence, does not love him, they will be tortured or killed like Saint Sebastian was, simply for believing what they believe.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=103

I love you.

"I love you." (Orwell 108).

This is a note that Winston is passed from the dark-haired girl, Julia. The fact that this note is passed to him by somebody he doesn't know at all and had no interaction with makes a statement about the decline of love in the Big Brother society. People are married, but the society is so stressful and all energy is translated to Big Brother, so these marriage are not in general happy ones, and disintegrate easily like Winston's. People are wanting for love, because it has not faded so entirely that it is forgotten. But it also forbidden to some degree, like Winston and Julia's love, so it must be more repressed, making it therefore more desirable.

Helpless Fright

"'Goldstein!' bellowed the boy as the door closed on him. But what most struck Winston was the look of helpless fright on the woman's grayish face." (Orwell 24).

Winston, along with the woman in this passage, is afraid of the children in the 1984 of Big Brother. They are, like these children, being turned into strong supporters of Big Brother and ThoughtPolice. The children are the future of the society, and Winston sees that they are turning more and more to Big Brother, each generation becoming more loyal to him and to the Party. This means he is afraid for the future of the society and its sanity.

Oranges and lemons...

"'Oh--Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's.  That was a rhyme we had when I was a little boy.  How it goes on I don't remember, but I do know it ended up, Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.  It was a kind of dance.  They held out their arms for you to pass under, and when they came to Here comes a chopper to chop off your head they brought their arms down and caught you.  It was just names of churches.  All the London churches were in it--all the principal ones, that is.'"  (Orwell 98).

This is a nursery-rhyme poem that children used to sing, ending the way Mr. Charrington here describes.  The poem in its entirety went like this:
"'Oranges and lemons,' say the bells of St. Clement's.
'You owe me five farthings,' say the bells of St. Martin's.
'When will you pay me?' say the bells of Old Bailey.
'When I grow rich,' say the bells of Shoreditch.
'When will that be?' say the bells of Stepney.
'I do now know,' say the great bells of Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.
Chip chop chip chop--the last man's dead."
The poem refers to the execution of debtors, hence the "When will you pay me?" and the "chopper to chop off your head."  The rhyme depicts something seemingly nice and good, churches and a "candle to light you to bed," that ends up being something sinister--angry debtors with a "chopper to chop off your head."  This is a direct reference to Big Brother and even the room in which this rhyme is first heard, that Julia and Winston stay in and are caught in.  The society seems like a good one at first, before its faults are revealed and it becomes repressive and scary.  Mr. Charrington seemed like a good man until he helped Big Brother to catch Julia and Winston and throw them in jail.

Only a hopeless fancy.

"'It was only an 'opeless fancy,/It passed like an Ipril dye,/But a look an' a word an' the dreams they stirred,/They 'ave stolen my 'eart awye!'" (Orwell 138).

This is a song that the "red-armed" prole woman outside of the window sings. Winston says it was composed "without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator." It is ironic that the Party would have created this song arbitrarily (evidently they are trying to also remove all art and expression), because it seems to be about Big Brother's control over peoples' lives. It speaks of a thought that someone has, although it is small and passes quickly. It is detected in this person's "look an' a word an' the dreams [it] stirred," and then someone, like Big Brother, has "stolen my 'eart awye!" They catch someone committing ThoughtCrime and they are removed and punished, and, if not killed, returned to being a law-obeying citizen. These people no longer have brains or "'earts," they are mindless drones that do and think what they are told.

"Shakespeare"

"With its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm. That too was a gesture belonging to the ancient time. Winston woke up with the word "Shakespeare" on his lips." (Orwell 31).

Winston here is talking about a dream he had where the dark-haired girl (Julia) threw off her clothes. It is not so much the particular gesture that is important here, but the idea that a single gesture could be enough to overturn Big Brother and the Party. Like I said earlier, the energies of the Outer Party are proles are very easy to direct--they only need something solid to be directed on, as they have a lot of extra repressed energy that must go somewhere. Therefore, Winston thinks that if given some kind of motivation, their loyalties might very easily be switched and their minds changed. Here, Shakespeare is a symbol of times past, as well as beauty, expression and intelligence or knowledge. I think that this dream is suggesting that if the people were only informed, only had more knowledge, only were exposed to art and beauty like Shakespeare, they might switch their loyalties and turn against Big Brother.

The place where there is no darkness.

"'We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.'" (Orwell 25).

This is a sentence from a dream Winston has. Years after he has this dream, he identifies the voice that speaks these words to him as O'Brien's, a man whom he works with and feels a certain connection with, although as he says later on this page, he is not sure whether they are friends or enemies. This quote says a lot about Winston's connection with O'Brien as well as the society in the novel as a whole. When you first read this sentence, a "place where there is no darkness" sounds like a positive thing, a place with no unhappiness or distress. Similarly, when utopias (or dystopias) like the one in the book are first planned or created, they seem like a good thing; a society with no one fighting one another, and everyone united in everything. However, things do not always play out like this. A place with no darkness also means a place with no shadows, and no shadows means no place to hide. The society clearly does not work for everyone, as some people are appalled by the censorship and lack of privacy that go hand-in-hand in the community of Oceania. In fact, as it turns out, the "place where there is no darkness" is NOT a positive place; it is, as we find out later, the cell that Winston is put into at the end of the novel. Nothing is as it seems; good and bad exist interchangeably and ARE interchanged.

To transfer one's hatred.

"It was even possible, at moments, to switch one's hatred this way or that by a voluntary act." (Orwell 15).

This quote is an example of how Big Brother and the Party control the population of Oceania. For these people, many things are outlawed and many energies are repressed. People generally stay in their houses except to go to work; they are constantly watched. They have energy that the Party is repressing; physical energy, sexual energy, and all negative energy towards what the Party views as "good" is naturally repressed. The people need an outlet for this energy; thus, it is not hard for the party to channel it into the things they want it to go into. They focus all of the people's negative energy on Emmanuel Goldstein, the leader of a revolutionary party, and on whichever country Oceania happens to be at war with at the time. This energy is not necessarily placed into these things because the people have real hate for them (or real love for Big Brother) but just because they have a lot of energy that needs to be directed at something. The fact that it is easy for this energy to be redirected shows how insincere it is, and also how easy for the Party to manipulate to their needs.

Ministries

"The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts; the Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs." (Orwell 4).

This passage, describing the jobs of the four Ministries run by the Party, is another good example of the way Big Brother wants the people of Oceania to think. He wants them not to question or think twice about anything, but to trust everything he tells them. Therefore, there are many things that to us make no sense and are totally absurd, but nobody questions them because they are what Big Brother says is true and right, which is what the principal of "doublethink" is. These Ministries are examples of this; Winston works in the Ministry of Truth and, since they control the news, they change it to fit what Big Brother says is the "truth"; it is not really the truth at all. It is paradoxical and silly that the Ministry of Peace controls the wars ("War is Peace,") and that the Ministry of Love controls the punishment of criminals and thoughtcriminals; these things are backwards but people accept them anyway. The Ministry of Plenty controls the economic affairs, which would suggest, by the name, that the economy was fine and people had plenty; however, this is not the case, as many people are severely lacking in finances and essentials; food and clothes are rationed. These things are illogical and backwards, but are accepted by the people anyway, which is what Big Brother wants.

War, Freedom, Ignorance

"WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." (Orwell 4).

These statements are the slogans of the Party and of Big Brother. They are very important throughout the novel. They are seen everywhere, and people see them so often that they accept them without really thinking about them, which is what the Party wants them to do for everything. They are in general nonsensical statements, requiring use of "doublethink," a goal of the Party's. Clearly war is not peace, freedom is not slavery, and ignorance is not strength. But the Party wants the people to accept these things, whether they make sense or are true or not, because the Party says so, because Big Brother says so. This is the whole point of the Party and their political system; blind faith in it. The Party also works very hard to keep people united and uniform, so there is no deviation in actions or even thoughts. These statements help this. Oceania is always at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia, as Big Brother intends. Uniting the people against a common enemy, one of these other two nations, helps to keep them united and patriotic, thus, war is peace. They say "freedom is slavery" because they don't want any freethinkers or revolutionaries. "Ignorance is strength" illustrates the point made earlier, that they want the people to have blind faith in the Party, which for the most part, they do.

Wooden dwellings like chicken houses.

"And the bombed sites where the plaster dust swirled in the air and the willow herb straggled over the heaps of rubble; and the places where the bombs had cleared a larger path and there had sprung up sordid colonies of wooden dwellings like chicken houses?" (Orwell 3).

In 1940, London was bombed by the Germans during World War II. Much of London was knocked out; whole streets of classic architecture were demolished in large areas of London. When Orwell wrote 1984, in 1949, much of London was still being rebuilt, or had been rebuilt as modern buildings, looking out of place and futuristic among all the 19th-century houses around them. The house I lived in in London was actually on a street like this--our half was all new tenement buildings and modern wooden flats, and the other side of the street was all beautiful 19th-century brick houses. Adding this one piece of reality into the book 1984 makes it seem more real, like something that could happen in the future, and not-very-distant either, judging by the title. This means that Orwell was legitimately afraid of this happening, he could see uniformity already taking over the new parts of the town and was frightened.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm