Using 30+ quoted words from George Orwell's 1984 and 84+ words of your own, respond to one of the following options--
Option 1: How has your mind been controlled? Similar to the ways used by the Party of Oceania?
Option 2: In what ways has Winston committed thoughtcrimes so far?
Option 3: What critical reading skills are necessary to understand and analyze this book?
Option 1: How has your mind been controlled? Similar to the ways used by the Party of Oceania?
Option 2: In what ways has Winston committed thoughtcrimes so far?
Option 3: What critical reading skills are necessary to understand and analyze this book?
66 comments:
For some reason the telescreen in the living room was in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as ws normal, in the end wall, where is could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went.(8)
Winston is being a huge criminal to thought crime is several ways. First he has thought of how to get away from the telescreen so he can only be heard but not seen, therefor if he remains quiet it will appear as though he is not there. Second this is when he begins his diary witch is illegal to have in 1984. He wants someone to remember the past. Winston hates how the past is just being erased from everyones brain. He wants the past to remain, he doesnt want the dicionary to change to fewer words. He knows that when that happens that people will be able to speak with fewer words and with that they wont be able to express them selves and they wont think a much because they wont be required to.
Winston's mind is constantly wondering which is a thought crime. He writes in his diary but also skip the gym one night and takes a different way home. He dreams and goes back in time of how his mom died "for him." In the servery he thinks of who will be vaporized for being to smart and includes himself at one point. I think that in the end Winston will be vaporized because he is very smart and he breaks the rules constantly making him a thought criminal.
You had to live-did live, from habit that became instinct-in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing (5). Just like the people of Oceania believe that every thing they do is being watched and scrutinized that is how I feel. My mind has been controlled in the scene that I will not do any thing that I know will upset my parents because they are all ways watching what I am doing and I do not want to get in trouble with them. In the same way the people of Oceania will not do any thing that they do not want Big Brother to see with the fear that they will get in trouble.
"When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same." (76)
I this excerpt, Winston is actually committing multiple thought crimes. He is making a journal entry, which is free thinking. And he is also talking about a prostitute and having "bad" sex.
"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." (78)
Orwell is saying here that the people of 1984 cannot think for themselves and if they are to rebel against the Party, they do not understand fully what they are doing because they've been so brainwashed by Big Brother that the only thing they know what to do is to worship him.
These excerpts are from Winston's diary, which he thinks for himself, which is a major thought crime. He knows he will be caught eventually for both crimes agains B.B.
1) Writing in his journal will have him "vaporized" b/c writing "Down with Big Brother" in it is a thought crime and is punishable by death or 25 years in a forced labor camp.
2) Having "bad" sex with a prostitute is also a crime, b/c it shows love and passion, and B.B. doesn't want any of that. He only permits "Goodsex" which is sex for the purpose of producing children for Big Brother's party. And even though they have these "goodsex" acts, they still have a Junior Anti-sex League, which I think is somewhat ironic.
"A twinge of fear went through him. It had been a sufficiently rash act to buy the book in the beginning, and he had sworn never to come near the place again."
Winston is commiting thoughtcrimes everywhere. He commits thoughtcrimes when he keeps saying "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!" He is being a thoughtcriminal in that he went to this store and bought a diary ( which is illegal for members of the party to do, even walking into the store is wrong) and then he came back later and bought a piece of glass which was like a paperweight and took it back home. Winston is a thoughtcriminal in that he try's to get away from the telescreens, even considers getting the room upstairs to live in at the store so he won't be around telescreens all the time. Winston is a thoughtcriminal because he writes in his diary, which is prohibited because the party doesn't want anyone thinking for themselves and that is exactly what Winston is doing by writing in his diary. Winston also sleeps with the prostitute and that is illegal because the only time people are suppose to have sex is to create new people for the Big Brother Party. Winston is just an overall thoughtcriminal.
"Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or wheether he refrained from writing it, made no differece. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made do difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed--would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself.(20)"
The biggest thoughtcrime that Winston has committed is writing in the diary. the diary is proof that winston doesnt understand or agree with Big Brother or the party. Other thoughtcrimes that winston committed were sleeping with a prostitute, talking to the dark-haired girl, going on a walk into the area where the proles live, going into a bar and talking to an old guy, and going to the antique shop. he even bought a paper weight and thought about renting a room in old store. Winston is defiantly a thoughtcrimal.
"The thing he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp." (9)
Winston's decision to write in the diary was one of the worst ones he could make. That diary is a cranial harbor for all pure, free thoughts and feelings against Big Brother and the party. But, the tangible diary is perfect evidence to his death. Keeping the diary is incredibly risky, but provides the only output for Winston's suffering. Winston needs the diary like he needs another person, not a sketchy “comrade”. Day after day, he constantly feels Big Brother's "hypnotic eye [gaze] into his own...some huge force...pressing down upon" him. Big Brother's invasion of privacy and authority batters his brain and almost "deny the evidence of [his] senses." (89). B.B.'s persistent numbing may try to suture all open thought, but feeds the fire of Winston's boiling spirit.
"His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page" (21-22).
One of Winstion's first thoughtcrime we learn about is that he bought a diary. You are not allowed to have any thoughts of your own, so having a diary is forbidden and he could be vaporized for having it. Not only does he have the diary, but written on the pages is "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" which saying that alone is enough to get you vaporized. If anyone were to see him write in it, he would no longer exist. Winston is against Big Brother's ideas and feels that the world that he is living in is one big lie. Considering the fact that he works at the Ministry of Truth... he actually makes up the lies for Big Brother, so that Big Brother always appears to be right. Winston is a major thought criminal. He thinks outside his world and era, wondering if the present is really better than the past, or if they have it worse off now. He goes off trying to find some answers, but hasn't been successful yet. Winston has great self control due to the habit of hating and never showing emotion. He knows he is doing wrong, and that his life is on the line but he hasn’t been caught yet.
It is absolutely ridiculous what kind of world Winston lives in. With all the telescreens and the thought police and the secret spies, it is hard for us to imagine living somewhere where we can’t have free thoughts or emotions. All of our lives we have been taught to think for ourselves and to think "outside of the box". In the world of Big Brother he is always correct and no one ever challenges that. Unless you break the norm and think for yourself or show any sort of emotion. “Suddenly he began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down (10).” Writing is a free way of showing your thoughts and emotions and therefore a thoughtcrime. “ On impulse he had turned away from the bus stop and wandered off into the labyrinth of London, first south, then east, then north again, losing himself along unknown streets and hardly bothering in which direction he was going (91).” For Winston to be walking alone was not safe. He could have been followed by a spy or been noticed by the Thought Police. These two things that he has done along with a lot of other things are thoughtcrimes and he could be vaporized for it.
"For some reason the telescreen in the living room was in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as was normal, in the end wall, where it could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went." (8)
Winston is trying to hide from the telescreen. But if you were completely brainwashed why would you be hiding from it? You wouldn't care whether it could see you or not.
"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp." (9)
Winston is clearly doing something wrong here. Yes, it isn't illegal but he is commiting a sort of thought crime.
"Momentarily he caught O'Brien's eye. O'Brien had stood up. He had take off his spectacles and was in the act of resettling them on his nose with his characteristic gesture. But there was a fraction of a second when their eyes met, and for as long as it took to happen Winston know--yes he knew!--that O'Brien was thinking the same thing as himself. And unmistakable message had passed. It was as thought therir two minds had opened and the thoughts were flowing from one into the other through their eyes. 'I am with you,' O'Brien seemed to be saying to him. 'I know precisely what you are feeling. I know all about your contempt, your hatred, your disgust. But don't worry, I am on your side!'" (20)
Winston looking at O'Brien like that with a sort of emotion and not looking like a zombie could get him killed. Just thinking the things he thinks about Big Brother could get him "vaporized".
"When I saw her in the light she was quite an old women, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same." (76)
Winston is talking about having double ungood sex with a prostitute. This could get him into a lot of trouble as well.
"He was holding the lamp high up, so as to illumine the whole room, and in the warm dim light the place looked curiously inviting. The thought flitted through Winson's mind that it would probably be quite easy to rent the room for a few dollars a week, if he dared to take the risk.It was a wilk, imposssible notion, to be abandoned as soon as thought of; but the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory." (107-108)
To believe that you belong anywhere but with Big Brother would be a thought crime all on its own. Winston thinks alot about escaping the telescreens and getting away from big brother. He is committing the crime of thinking about moving into a place that they can not watch his every move. Renting the room would be a serious crime. Big Brother would think that he was up to something and if he went through with it, the results would not be good for him. Winston commits alot of crimes just in the beginning of the book. Everything from hiding his diary, to thinking about where the I LOVE YOU letter came from. He is committing crimes that may kill him in the end.
"He was holding the lamp high up, so as to illumine the whole room, and in the warm dim light the place looked curiously inviting. The thought flitted through Winson's mind that it would probably be quite easy to rent the room for a few dollars a week, if he dared to take the risk.It was a wild, imposssible notion, to be abandoned as soon as thought of; but the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory." (107-108)
To believe that you belong anywhere but with Big Brother would be a thought crime all on its own. Winston thinks alot about escaping the telescreens and getting away from big brother. He is committing the crime of thinking about moving into a place that they can not watch his every move. Renting the room would be a serious crime. Big Brother would think that he was up to something and if he went through with it, the results would not be good for him. Winston commits alot of crimes just in the beginning of the book. Everything from hiding his diary, to thinking about where the I LOVE YOU letter came from. He is committing crimes that may kill him in the end.
"His eyes refocused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though, by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page."
Winston is committing a thought crime here in several diffrent ways. Number one he has found a special part of the room that cannot be seen by the telescreens. Winston is grateful of the lucky placement of the telescreen, which is different than in every other room. Also, winston is writing in a diary which is forbidden by Big Brother. To make it even worse he is writing DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. Probably the worst thing any one could say or write. He has constantly had thoughts of hatred toward BIG BROTHER. He alson commited a thought crime by going to the prostitute. Just having any thought of his own could be endangering his life, all is considered a thought crime
“Winston’s diaphragm was constricted. He could never see Goldstein without a painful mixture of emotions. It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard--a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind senile silliness in the long thin nose near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched. It resembled a face of a sheep, and the voice, too, had sheeplike quality. Goldstein was delivering his usual venomous attack upon the doctrines of the Party--an attack so exaggerated and perverse that a child should have been able to see through it, and yet just plausible enough to fill one with an alarmed feeling that the other people, less levelheaded than oneself, might be taken by it. He was abusing Big Brother, he was denouncing the dictatorship of the Party, he was demanding peace in Eurasia, he was advocating freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought, he was crying hysterically that the revolution had been betrayed--and all this in rapid polysyllabic speech which was a sort of parody of the habitual style of the orators of the Party, and even contained Newspeak words, indeed, than any Party member normally used in real life. And all the while, lest one should be in any doubt as to the reality which Goldstein’s specious claptrap covered, behind his head on the telescreen there marched endless columns of the Eurasian army--row after row of solid-looking men with expressionless Asiatic faces, who swam up to the surface of the screen and vanished, to be replaced by the others exactly similar. The dull, rhythmic tramp of the soldiers boots formed the background to Goldstein’s voice.
Before the Hate had preceded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room…
The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary…” (15-17).
In many ways what we become is forced on us while we are young. It is how we are brought up at home and just what your values are that makes you who you are. In many houses around the United States revolves somewhat around religion and holidays. Lust what takes place is up to those in charge, usually the adults or those who are in control. You have very little say in what you do while you are young, for the most part that is left to your parents/guardians who were also once influenced by theirs also. Though there is change along the way that happens just because time is passing and no day is the same.
In the passage from 1984 that I selected is about Goldstein. The way that he is described makes him sound like to people that we have been brought up to trust or at least believe in. They are Jesus Christ and Santa Claus. A “lean Jewish face… It resembled a face of a sheep, and the voice, too, had sheeplike quality” gives you the picture of someone who looks like a Jew, much like the way Jesus might look. There is also the reference to a sheep that can also bring this likeness to become apparent. Though in “with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard… senile silliness in the long thin nose near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched.” gives me this picture of an elderly man much like a grandfather figure, the spectacles bring this picture of Santa to mind. So here are to people that we are brought up to love and know, but to them he is someone to fear of what he might do to the way of life that they have been taught.
There is much hatred that is also taught among all people whether it is from fear or just hatred from what has happened in the past. Anything that will ruin your safety net of what you are used to can become as a threat that must be taken care of so that it does not change the way that things are run. We are going through this with the war in Iraq and also have gone through this with Native American, Oriental, Irish , African American, and many other different cultures that seemed as though they or whites would change the way of everyday life. There are many ways that people are willing to try in order to see that things do not change from how they want, no matter how wrong it may seem.
"The most deadly danger of all was talking in your sleep. There was no way of guarding against that, so far as he could see" (71). In my life there are many times when I feel constantly watched. My mother is very spy-like about everything. It is impossible to know if she knows anything about you that you do not know about. She turns up around corners at the weirdest times and says things to make you confess to doing something even if you did not do it. On the other hand when I try to talk to her sometimes she is completely deaf. She has very selective hearing. I imagine that Big Brother is kind of the same way. I mean he would hear everything that people say but tune out people who are not talking about anything suspicious. In relation to the quoted words, I always talk in my sleep and I never know it. My mom always tells me that I do but she will never tell me what I say. It is extremely unnerving to think that she might know one of my secrets but not say anything. Granted if I said anything too terrible she would punish me for it but still. It's crazy.
"The thing he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp...A tremor had gone through his bowels. To mark the paper was the decisive act." (pg.9)
Opening a diary is one of the biggest thoughtcrimes Winston can commit because it is an example of free thinking. Big Brother can not control what Winston writes in his diary. In his diary Winston writes "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" repeatedly. If opening the diary didn't get him in trouble enough, that line would assuredly would. However, I wonder if others were to begin a diary, what they would write? Would Parsons, who is completely brainwashed by Big Brother, be punished for writing down his praises of Big Brother?
"But he did not do so, however, because he knew that it was useless. Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He committed-would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper-the essential crime that contained all others in itself"(22)
Winston had committed many thought crimes. He has thought about writing, and he has actually written free thoughts in the diary. He has questioned the motives of big brother during the two minutes hate. Winston has wanted a real relationship with his wife/or other women, other than the "task" and "duty" of making new party members. But how can Winston help it? We all learn by asking questions, whether they are aloud or in our heads, but they're still thoughts. It's human nature to think, and right now Winston can't help but to question the foundations of the society he lives in right now, and increasingly throughout the novel he is finding harder to hide his "thinking". Winston is committing thought crimes, but when it comes right down to it, I think everyone in one way or another is guilty of free thinking in one way or another. When Syme creates Newspeak words, that takes thinking, but he can get away with it because the party directly benifits, even though in the end he knows too much. Winston can't help but to think, but I think it's going to end up destroying him.
“He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to posses it.”
Winston is buying a book from a prole where there is no telescreen to see him. Winston is feeling a desire to have something which is a thought crime. Winston later uses this book to write a diary for the future or anyone that reads it. Writing a diary is a thought crime. Winston thinks that the time before the revolution was better than after Big Brother took over. Winston is hopes that he isn’t the only one that thinks this, he thinks that O’Brien wants the party to be killed also. Thinking about killing the party is a crime punishable by vaperation.
"His eyes reforcused on the page. he discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals- DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER- over and over again, filling half a page" (21,22).
This quote represents the beginning of Winston's rebellion. It shows his free thinking and how he is becoming a thought criminal. Winston was conditioned into believing only what Big Brother wanted him to believe. In some ways our government is doing the same thing to our society of today. Over time it seems that our government is taking more and more of our freedoms away. We are no longer able to drink at the age of 18 and teenagers now have a curfew that was non existant 20 years ago. In ways our government scares us by giving us bad consequences for the things we do. Which controlls our minds into thinking that we have to be home at a certain time, or that we have to believe something because it is a law. Yes, we do still have many freedoms, but I believe if our society does not continue to be educated on our country's leaders, and does not take the liberty to vote for the candidate that seems well fit for the position, then our society will become the way it was in 1984. If you look at other countries, in ways, 1984 has already happened to them. They choose a candidate that they are not educated on and that they just chose because others chose them, those countries lost their freedoms, and were then completely controlled by their government. I believe to avoid the extremes in our society that are in 1984, we need to continue being educated and continue to keep our minds fresh and full of our own opinions.
“We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some kind of secret organization working against the Party, and that you are involved in it. We want to join it and work for it. We are enemies of the Party. We disbelieve in the principles of Ingsoc. We are thoughtcriminals. We are also adulterers. I tell you this because we want to put ourselves at your mercy. If you want us to incriminate ourselves in any other way, we are ready” (185).
In this paragraph Winston and Julia have just arrived at O’Brien’s flat. Earlier in the book Winston caught glances from O’Brien making him think that O’Brien was also against the Party. O’Brien then slipped Winston a message at working telling him to come to his house. Winston is about to commit the biggest thought crime yet far in the book. He is talking with an Inner Party member about the possibility of a secret underground society and the whereabouts of Emmanuel Goldstein; once there both Winston and Julia find out that both the society and Goldstein exist.
"The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple"(39).
In America we are controlled, but it is in no way nearly as bad as it is in Oceania. Both of the ways are somewhat similar, but that is difficult to say because it is so bad in Oceania. In America some of our freedoms have been taken away. They have been taken away in airports, because of the searching, but they are only doing this to protect us. Also, in America when people are in jail, they all wear the same thing and are identified as numbers. We are controlled because we have to be on time for everything. If we are not on time, then there is usually a punishment. In stores, there are video cameras watching you, but that is only to prevent stealing. I don’t think America will ever become bad like Oceania. Yes, we are gradually becoming more protective and taking away freedoms, but I think that needs to be done to keep us safe. It will never get to the point that Oceania is in.
To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone-to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude from the age of Big Brother, from the age of double think-greetings! He was already dead, he reflected. It seemed to him that is was only now, when he had begun to be able to formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive step. The consequences of every act are included in the act itself. He wrote: Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.
Winston has committed thoughtcrimes by writting in his diary. Big Brother does not want anyone to own a diary. So by Winston writing in his diary he is committing a crime by owning and writing in his diary and also he is committing a thoughtcrime by remembering everything that he is writting in the diary. He committed a thoughtcrime when he decided to buy the diary. He also committed a thoughtcrime when he thought about where he could write in the diary where the telescreen could not see him. Winston is always thinking. So he is always committing a thoughcrime. Many people are afraid of going to sleep. Because they may talk in their sleep. Whatever you say in your sleep is considered a thoughtcrime and you will be vaporized because of it.
pages 21-22
"His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page".
This is an example of how Winston is a thought criminal. By him writing in his forbidden journal, it shows how he is trying to break the conformity that Big Brother wants in his new world of simplicity and "order". His writing in the journal is his way of preventing himself from transforming into Newspeak and being able to keep the world the way that it was in the "past" before it's too late. Writing takes thinking, therefore when he writes in his journal he is committing a crime. Winston doesn't want to be put under Big Brother's spell. Working for the Ministry of Truth makes Winston realize that he is living in a world that is in fact one big lie. In order to prevent being vaporized, he needs to make up lies and make Big Brother appear as though he is always right. Winston is a huge thought criminal, always digging deep into his mind to try to remember the past and compare it to the present to decide which is better. He wonders what will happen in the future; what will the world come to? Winston tries to hide the fact that he does his thinking by going along with the rules of Big Brother, such as showing no emotion and hating everything that Big Brother despises. It's only a matter of time before Winston gets busted for doing his thinking and becomes vaporized from the world.
"If there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles.
If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could even assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off files. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it. And yet-!"
When Winston finally figures that the proles have all the power it is such a break though. He's a thought criminal for just think about how the proles could take Big Brother down. It’s not a direct crime, like writing in the diary, but I think that this is the first of many thoughts that are going to lead Winston to his goal, of taking down Big Brother. I believe that he'll so see that he's that the only person that thinks like him. I think that this one thought will show that there is more to life then to please Big Brother.
Option 2
Pg. 120
"He thought of her naked, youthfull body, as he had seen it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice."
Winston is a thought criminal. In this world you are not suppose to think of others sexually. Winston does this on more than one occasion which could possibly get him vaporized. Before Winston finds out that she is not apart of the thought police he wanted to smash her skull in with a cobblestone. Now all he does is think of her smashin naked body. He is constantly thinking of ways to meet her and ways that he will talk to her and reach her. Because all of this stuff is going through his mind, he is a thought criminal.
(17) the horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic."
In Oceania, they are conditioned to hate Goldstein. Their lives are controlled by telescreens that watch their every move and listen to their every word. They are not allowed to have their own thoughts or ideas. America is definitely not as bad as Oceania, but there are some similarities, mainly video cameras. We are influenced and almost “brain-washed”, especially teenagers, but our friends and the people who are closest to us. If someone I respect and look up to has a very strong belief in one thing or another, depending on what it is, they might have enough influence over me to make me think the same thing.
“Winston’s diaphragm was constricted. He could never see the face of Goldstein without a painful mixture of emotions. It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard—a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched.” (18)
This quote directly represents the hatred that many Germans felt toward the Jewish people during World War II. Their hatred was brought on by a character that is, incredibly, very similar to Big Brother. In this case it is Hitler, and im sure that Orwell used this character to directly represent Hitler, and also he labeled Goldstein as a Jew, because in the novel, all of the party members hate Goldstein much like the majority of Germany’s citizens did due to Hitler’s movement and blaming the Jews for their country’s poverty and state of being. My point by using this statement is that somebody else’s mind has been controlled, not my own because I don’t hate the Jews. An example of a way that I have been “controlled” is similar to this quote:
“The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.” (4)
I feel controlled sometimes at work or at school because of the cameras all over the place. Even if you are entirely innocent, sometimes you feel entirely guilty of doing some terrible deed, just because you have that nasty feeling that someone is watching you all of the time. I would say that it definitely has an effect on how people act in areas that are under observation versus areas that are unobserved.
“Smith!” screamed the shrewish voice from the silkscreen. “6079 Smith W! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You’re not trying. Lower, please! That’s better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.” pg. 41
I think that the average persons mind is controlled much more than that of what they realize. The average adult is not the one that is not being controlled, but rather the adults child or children is the one that is going to be most greatly affected by mind control. Although this is the example that enters most everyone’s mind when confronted with this task, there are quite a few more. The world is more like this book than people think, adults are somewhat controlled by there bosses or people that are higher that them in their field. Now you have to realize that these people aren’t controlled as much as the people in the book, but they can be quite controlled considering that they cant afford to loose their job. I don’t think that this world would ever come to where it is in the book, but I do know that it could get pretty bad if we let it happen.
"With its grace and carelessness it seemed of thought, as thouegh 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 'Shakespeare' on his lips."(page 35)
This is starting to show how Winston is having thought crimes. He is starting to have dreams about things he is not supposed to even have in his head. He is starting to think about the past the way it was, not the way it is. He also starts to think about things like women and doing things with them, and eventually doing those things. He does them just because he can. Also writing in his journal is a thought crime. I would say it is his original thought crime because it is that that gets him thinking about the other things like the past and women. If it wouldn’t have been for the journal and literature he would have remained a zombie. I think that this is Orwell way of showing how literature keeps us from being mindless zombies.
"But he did not do so, however, because he knew that it was useless. Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He committed-would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper-the essential crime that contained all others in itself"(22)
So far, through out the book, Winston has committed many thought crimes. He often seconds thinks the "Thought Police" and the Party of Ocenia/Big Brother and their beliefs. Winston started out when he bought a second hand diary from a store in the Prole section. This store did not have a telescreen to watch him because the owner couldn't afford one. Winston then uses his second hand diary to write down and express some of this personal thoughts and opinions about Big Brother. Buying the diary and even second thinking Big Brother are crimes themselves. Writing it pretty much as the same consequences as thinking. Winston also thinks about the past and women which are other things that could be counted as thought crimes. He thinks another man named O'Brien has the same thoughts about Big Brother. He writes down in his diary "down with Big Brother" which could lead to him being vaporized. If Winston and O'Brien were to be caught, they for sure would disappear.
“In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others…The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in.” (17)
“He had the air of trying to keep what he was saying a secret…” (46)
I think that everyone goes through a battle in their life of whether or not they should just go along with what everyone else is doing. While Winston commits several thought crimes, he still allows himself to get sucked into the Two Minutes Hate because it was impossible not to. 1984 makes you examine your life and the control sources in it. For me, I look back on the time that I spent in middle school and the beginning of high school. Then, I would just go along with what other people told me to do and feel a certain way about people because it was easier. If I was to try to stick up for something different I thought that I might be attacked then, so I would just sit back and observe the negativity. Aside from that, parent are another form of control. A lot of kids are not really comfortable with telling their parents everything, so they struggle with keeping secrets from them and continuously hope that they will not get caught in a lie.
option 1
Well i would have to say that our mind has been controlled by telling us what cool and not, like what the stars do and wear is the only thing thats cool anything else is not. When we are working, we have to be kind polite and do everything the customer wants.
like Winston we have to do everything the Big Boss says(Dr. Tallcott, the managers, parents, and others) and if we dont we get vaporized, fired, kicked out of school.
He had given a quick glance up and down the street and then had slipped inside and bought the book for two dollars fifty(9). His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals--DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER(21).
Winston is going against what you are not supposed to do as a citizen of the Party. He is fed up with the lifestyle they are giving him and he wants to change it. He decides to go into the store and buy the journal that he writes in and then he writes "down with big brother" which could get him into serious trouble. He says that for writing that he would be in a work-forced labor camp for 25 years. He hopes there are other people in the Party that are going against what Big Brother has put as guidelines for them. If he had enough power he would probably try to overthrow Big Brother and bring everyone's life to something better than what it is currently.
"Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day, and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze of the pitiful rubbish that they were- in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less" (16).
This quote is only one example of how brainwashed most of the people of Oceania are. They hate Goldstein although they know nothing about him except what Big Brother says. They follow Big Brother blindly and have total trust in him. He has succeeded in brainwashing them in the same general way the Nazis were brainwashed. From the time one is born they are trained and raised how Big Brother wants them to be. They are not loyal to anyone except Big Brother and cannot be trusted even by their own parents. I don't think that, in this generation, we are raised and controlled by the government. We do have certain loyalties to our family and friends. Now, it's the teachings of our parents, our schools, and the media that control our minds. It's our parents and the schools job to teach us right and wrong, how to be a good successful person, and how to prepare for the time that we will be living on our own. The media, however, is rarely a good influence. It's images more often than not corrupt young people's minds and create a false reality of life.
I don't know if my mind has been controlled, but every experience and thing I see forms the person that I am. Our minds are more conditioned than controlled. There is no one that's going to kill us if we don't think what they want us to, and we can change our minds whenever we want and about anything we want.
"He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk shop in a slummy quarter of the town ad had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it. Party member were supposed not to go into ordinary shops." (8)
Winston has committed the thoughtcrime of going into a place that is considered forbidden for Party members. He also has bought something that he is not suppose to have.
"Suddenly he began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down. His small but childish handwriting staggled up and down the page, shedding first its capital letters and finally ven its full stops." (10)
At this point Winston has committed two thoughtcrimes at once. He is thinking for himself and he is also challenging Big Brother because he challenging the past.
"When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same." (76)
Although this happened in the past, it is still a thoughtcrime that Winston has committed. He has committed the thoughtcrime of having "bad" sex with a prostiute. This is against Big Brothers rules because they are only suppose to have sex when they are making babies for the Party.
I think that Winston wants to be caught be the thought police since he is choosing to write these things done. Maybe he wants to be cauaght so that he can just be vaporized so that he does not have to deal with living this life of not be able to be an individual.
"What he had suddenly seen in the lamplight was that women was old. The paint was plastered so think of her face that it looked as though it might crack like a cardboard mask. There were streams of white inner hair but the truly dreadful detail was tat her mouth had fallen a little open, revealing nothing except a cavernous blackness."
"But I went and did it just the same"
Winston is breaking two crimes in this passage. He is writing this in his diary and he is having sex with a prostitute. Since Big Brother took over a lot of things became illegal. writing, no having a diary, can get you in big trouble. Its called being a thought criminal which Winston defiantly is. This passage says it, he is such a thought criminal that he will do just about anything to rebel. Just like in this passage where he had sex with a prostitute, with no teeth, and very old.
"His eyes refocused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing action. And it was no longer the same cramped awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals--(pg 21)
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
Twenty pages into the book and we see that Winston Smith has already committed two hate crimes. In Oceania it is against the law to have a diary in your possetion because that is free thinking and Big Brother like people to be ignorant and dumb. If the inner party saw what Winston Smith wrote about Big Brother they would voporize him. He knows that if he gets caught they will shoot him in the back of the head but he dosn't care. Thought crime does not entail death: thought crime IS death.
"The thought police would get him jsut the same. he had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crim that contained all others in itself. thoughtcrime, they called it. thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. you might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later htey were bound to get you." page 22
this excerpt, like everything else, gets me thinking about the marine corps simply because you may get by with doing stupid stuff for awhile but you will slip up eventually or someone will let it slip out of there mouth to the wrong person or your messages may be intercepted... a Navy Corpsman (there is no medical field in teh Marine Corps so we use navy doctors) claimed that he saved five marines in a battle in iraq. he earned the silver star anyway and the purple heart...then upon taking a closer look at the guys ribbons (fruit salad), the things on their left shoulder with all the pretty colors, they realized they didnt match up and they put two and two together and got five and found out it was all lies and now he is going to jail...so he got by with it for a long time but then he was eventually found out. i know that the Marine Corps will probably figure it out if i do something against marine corps policy so i since the day i enlisted i have kept my eyes down and my nose clean so i dont get in trouble and screw up my hopefully successful marine career
"Thoughtcrime does not equal death: thoughtcrime IS death" (32)
"You're a traitor!" yelled the boy. "You're a thought-criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines!" (26)
I belive everyone is a thought criminal at one point or another. Everyone's mind is controlled on what they learn from others and what they are taught. They believe in what their parents teach them. Religion for example. If your parents had you go to Sunday School, you believe in what the teachers teach you there. Our mind has been controlled on power. Who has power over who. Your parents have power over you and the things that you do.
I think being a thought criminal is good because you can express how you feel either on paper or in thought, like Winston. Winston was not supposed to go and buy the diary, but instead he did anyways. Everyone is a thought criminal is some way.
#2
"Within two years those children would be denouncing her to the Thought Police. Mrs. Parsons would be vaporized. Syme would be vaporized. Winston would be vaporized. O'Brien would be vaporized. Parsons, on the other hand, would never be vaporized." (page 68).
Winston is able to tell who will be vaporized as well as who won't. He thinks he knows what Big Brother is looking for. Big Brother likes to keep people stupid and deprived of freewill and freethinking. The people he notices are a bit too independent and not zombified enough. Winston himself has committed thought crimes in several ways. He has even written his thoughts down, which is another crime added onto just simply thinking of them. Winston wonders what it was like before Big Brother. This is a big thought crime because BB tries hard to convince everyone things are always getting better and doesn't want anyone to figure out that the opposite is true. Winston also wants someone to love and to love him back. BB doesn't like this because it raises the possibility of a joint effort against him.
though out the book up until the point presented Winston has decidedly made a bit of thoughtcrimes. whethet its the writing in his journal or to his thoughts of the other party. Winston has found a way to present himself in the book as an average citizen while going through his daily based life undecided on if he actually believes in what he is doing for the system. He finds himself looking for answers to the past to get a glimpse at whethet things could have been better in the past. but to his own accord cant find the answers straight up front. he quotes "The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you." —pg 1. so that is how the main character winston has depicted his life in the book of usage of everyday thoughtcrimes.
"The only evidence to the contrary was the mute protest in your own bones, the instictive feeling that the conditions you lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different."
When I think about it, my mind has been controlled everyday of my entire life. Like the Party in 1984 that forces people to learn only what they want them to, the United States government has been forcefully subjecting me into their school system since the age of 5. I have only been allowed to take classes that have been approved by the government and in those classes I can only learn what they teach. Some classes have teachers who realize that students have no other option then to learn what they teach and therefore try and give us as many chances as possible to realize the bigger picture and go beyond what we learn in the structured school lessons. These teachers and outward bound students would of course be deemed thought criminals and be vaporized instantly. And in a way that does happen in this world . Everyday like Winston who gets up to go through the same dull routine time after time, my classmates and I move through the school to each class period in order at the same pre determined times and come back the next day just to do it again. It seems to me that education is not about learning anymore but about showing up and being on time. For instance a student who is failing a class just gets to keep failing without any real punishment. Yet if a straight A student is tardy so many times they are forced to give up their Saturday and go to school. Our school system has practically become just like the Party in many ways. The Party doesn't care if people are dumb and cant read because they can just change it later. Just like our awesome charts and graphs that we see every year. Of course it will appear to us that we are miles ahead of the other schools because our graph bar is so much bigger then theirs. However if you were to see that chart before it was a fabrication of nothing all the bars including ours would be neck and neck save a few. And if we happen to not be the #1 school a particular year its not a problem we will just average it out from the past years till we are #1. It makes be sad to think that no matter how many of us have opened our eyes and are awake to bigger picture, there are still so many who refuse to wake up.
"Vivid, beautiful hallucinations flashed through his mind. He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian. He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax" (18).
Winston has commited many thought crimes throughout the novel so far, and he will commit many more throughout the course of the story I assume. This thought crime is the worst one I have read about so far. He is thinking about major crimes that can lead to ones death. One such crime is murder, while another is free sex. Murder is logically a crime in itself. Sex as a member of the party is for the purpose of having children only not for pleasure or entertainment. One is not allowed to have opinions or even think about anything banned by Big Brother as that in itself is considered a thought crime. The whole point of a thought crime is to keep the people at bay, to keep them lifeless and robotic so they won't rebel, but Winston is starting to realize what is really going on.
When they met in the church tower the gaps on their fragmentary conversation were filled up. It was a blazing afternoon. The air in hte little square chamber above hte bells was hot and stagnant, nad smelt overpoweringly of pigeon dung. They wat talking for hours on th dusty, twig-lettered floor, one or other of them getting up from time to time to cast a glance through the narrow slits and make sure that no one was coming.(142)
Option(2): Winston has created so many thought crimes thus far. He is commiting a thought crime in this passage by talking to Julia. They are sharing ideas not only about lust but ideas against the party. They both disagree on the morales of the party and the message it sends. It seems crazy that just talking to another individual is a thought crime. Other ways that he has committed thought crimes is by questioning the government at his work. He sometimes feels uneasy and wonders if what he is doing is right.
The first thoughtcrime Winston commits is when he comes home from work at the Records Department and takes out his diary. You are not aloud to write in a diary so he sits were he can avoid being seen by the telescreens. He bought the diary in a Junk shop, which he says later isn’t illegal to go in but my bring suspicion the thought police. Then during the Two Minute Hate he thinks why they are doing it but can’t help himself and joins in with the others. Thinking is considered a thoughtcrime and Winston thinks a lot, about his past with his family and why things were the way they are now. He understands that the government (Big Brother) has them under complete control. In his diary he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” many times, it is a thoghtcrime to go against big brother.
"It was all guess work very likely he has imagined everything. He had gone back to his cubicle without looking at O'Brien again. The idea of following up their momentary contact hardly crossed his mind. It would have been inconeivably dangerous even if he had known how to set about doing it. For a second, two seconds, they had exchanged an equivocal glance, and that was the end of the story. But even that was a memorable event, in the locked loneliness in which one had to live."(21)
This shows that thoughout Winstons life his mind has been controlled and that he was even nervous about thinking about going against the government. Our minds have been conditioned that things such as drugs and alcohol are bad but that adultary is all right as long as you arent caught but when you are caught their are no punishments for cheating but if you are caught with even trace amounts of drugs we can be put in jail for ever. Our first ammendment right of free speech has also been revoked because if we even say anything that the government thought that could be a threat or dangerous we can be arrested because we are so called "terrorists" even though we might just be voicing an opinion that we think but would never act on. And after 9/11 the government got way more control by being able to tap into our phones and computers without any reasonable cause and no terrorist has actually been found by tapping into our personal lives.
he began thinking of the thing that would happen to him after the thought police took him away. It would not matter if they killed you at once. To be killed was what you expected. But before death there was the routine of confession that had to be gone through.
He is thinking about all the people that have had thought crimes. He knows that anyone who has these well eventually die, and he is wondering why they have to torture you before you die because the outcome is still the same. He also says that anyone who gets caught will never escape the torture. After you have been caught doing a thought crime they set up a day that you would die and they would go through with that no matter what. He says if he gets caught he will meet O Brien in a place where there is no darkness. The thought crime is him opening up the diary and looking at it.
"Since about that time, war had been literally continous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war","The enemy of the moment always represented absoulute evil".
These parts of the story really remind me of our country's current affairs in the middle east. I can't remember the last time our country wasn't at war. it seems that every year there is a new terroist for us to fight and he is always worse than the one before him. We move from war to war so fast that are constantly in battle with someone, and this isn't right. I am most definately not saying that we should support these terrorists, but what do we (the american people) actually know about them. All of our media is watched by the gov. and if they can stop people from swearing on TV then whose to say they can't make up stories. We may not be controlled as much as Winston but we are on our way.
"He thought of her naked, youthfull body, as he had seen it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice."
Winston is a rebellion more ways than he thinks. The first one is probably the worst because he is thinking of another person in a sexual manner. Winston is considered a thought criminal becuase you cannot think of anything espicially in a sexual way. In real life experts say that people think about sex every seven seconds. So you cant blame Winston for thinking about Julia in a sexual way. But any free thinking is extremely forbidden especially in this way. The second mistake Winston is making is writing in his diary which shows free thinking. Free thinking equals thought criminal. If Winston would be caught writing in his diary he would be killed or "vaporized". Winston is risking his life for thinking and writing about his new found lover.
"Whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed - would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paer - the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it."
This quote tells the reader that any type of thought is a crime. Winston commits a thought crime by keeping a diary. Winston's own opinion of society could also be considered a thought crime. The was Winston views the pretty lady also makes him a thought criminal. I personally couldn't imagine a world where I could not be able to express my self. This book helps me to realize just how fortunate we are to not live in such a world, at least for now.
"'Who controls the past,' ran the party slogan, 'controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. ll that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control' they called it; in Newspeak, 'Doublethink.'" This kind of explains "doublethink" and how it controls our mind. I believe we learn from what we hear and what we are taught, and if we are taught a lie, how are we to know it is a lie, if we are never taught the truth. For example, when I was little, I wanted a cat for the longest time, and my mother always said no, because she was allergenic, and I went around telling my friends that I couldn't have on because my mother was allergic to them, and so I eventually grew out of the "having a cat" stage when I was about 10 or 11 years old after my mother knew I didn't want a cat, she informed me she was not really allergic to them, she just hated them, but knew I would understand more if it was a health issue and eventually drop it. In 1984 they change the past to what they want the people to believe, and the people fall for it, because they don't know any different. Winston has been controlled to know that he has to control his facial expressions and the way he acts, to fit in with everyone else, he knows enough to think for himself but he also knows that if he speaks out against what everyone else thinks he will be vaporized, even though he was never been told that by anyone, because when people are vaporize they just "disappear" it's implanted into their minds as something bad.
“This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp.” (9)
Here Winston is talking about breaking the rule of thoughtcrimes. He has decided to write in a diary. Which is considered a thoughtcrime because you are writing down your thoughts, possibly for others to read. Or as the Big Brother would say, you are thinking about things that we have already thought for you. Which means you should not have a diary. Another thoughtcrime that Winston has created is seeing Julia. Together they go off into the forest, leaving the confines of the telescreens and microphones. This creates a problem for Big Brother to keep an eye on them. And could create problems for either one in the near future.
"Now that he had recognized himself as a dead man it became important to stay alive as long as possible. Two fingers of his right hand were inkstained. It was exactly the kind of detail that might betray you."
This quote is saying that Winston is taking all risks in order to write in his diary during his lunch period to explain why he is against Big Brother. If he is writing during his break dont you think somebody would notice that he is commting a crime. I think Winston should be more careful and wright in his diary in a more secluded area instead of in a big room full of people who might turn him in. Also you might think that there would be cameras and telescreens everywhere and watching someones every move. But Winston on the other hand is just a complete thought criminal because he only cares about what he thinks and he is basically risking his life to be a thought criminal.
"And yet the very next instant he was at one with the people about him, and all that was said of Goldstein seemed to him to be true. At those moments his secret loathing of Big Brother changed into adoration, and Big Brother seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector, standing like a rock against the hordes of Asia, and Goldstein, in spite of his isolation, his helplessness, and the doubt that hung about his very existence, seemed like some sinister enchanter, capable by the mere power of his voice of wrecking the structure of civilation."
This passage reminds me of after 9/11 when the terrorists attacked and the united states immediatley united and hated Iraq and Afghanistan because the government said it was them. Also the part where Big Brother is standing there like he protects innocence and protects justice is like our flag flying during the services protects freedom and justice and against terrorists and most americans became brain washed to think all people from the middle east were terrorists just like the Eurasian prisoners were watched by the Oceanians watched them pass by in the prisoner trucks we watched all middle easterners with hatred.
"His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page" (pages 21-22).
This is an example of how Winston is a thought criminal. By him writing in his journal, it shows how he is trying to break the conformity that Big Brother wants in his world of simplicity and order. His writing in the journal is his way of preventing himself from transforming into Newspeak and being able to keep the world the way that it was in the past before it's too late. Writing takes thinking, therefore when he writes in his journal he is committing a crime. Winston doesn't want to be put under Big Brother's spell. Working for the Ministry of Truth makes Winston realize that he is living in a world that is in fact one big lie. In order to prevent being vaporized, he needs to make up lies and make Big Brother appear as though he is always right. Winston is a huge thought criminal, always digging deep into his mind to try to remember the past and compare it to the present to decide which is better. He wonders what will happen in the future; what will the world come to? Winston tries to hide the fact that he does his thinking by going along with the rules of Big Brother, such as showing no emotion and hating everything that Big Brother despises. It's only a matter of time before Winston gets busted for doing his thinking and becomes vaporized from the world.
"The thing he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp."
I can not imagine a world without freedome of speech. Writing in a diary to most is something that is considered extremely private. In a sense, it's much like the thoughts in your head, except in written form. Being punished for thoughtcrimes is something so ridiculous it's hard to fathom. 50I don't think that the world we live in will ever become so corrupt that we can't express our own opinions. The book in a way is an eye opener, but too drastic for me to even consider realistic.
"The thing he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least twenty-five years in a forced labor camp. Winston fitted a nib into the penholder and sucked it to get the grease off.... He dipped the pen into the ink and then faltered for a second.... To mark the paper was the decisive act. In small clumsy letters he wrote:
April 4th, 1984"
For one thing, Winston is writing everything down in his diary which he is not allowed to have. He is also rebelling against everything which he isn't supposed to do either. He probably is not allowed to interact with Julia or any other women. What the government is doing in the book is wrong. What makes them think they can do that? I would probably go insane if our government became what Oceania's government became.
"Why was it that they could never shout like that about anything that mattered?"
"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." (78)
This quote is in response to option 1:
-Orwell is describing these people as being so unaware of what is going on they aren't even conscious. He is also describing the people on earth. My mind and all teens minds are controlled in just the same way. We are woken up at the same time every morning whether we want to be awake or not. We are to report to school every morning whether we want to or not. Every move is watched all day; whether it be from the cameras in our hallways, our athorities, our teachers, or our elders. The only difference is that it is a crime to not think. We are forced to think so much acctually that we have to write tons and tons of papers in our lifetime just explaining our thoughts. This whole assignment is only based on our thoughts. Is there such a thing as too much thought when the amount of thoughts you are forced to have is also controlled?
The thing he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp
If he writes in his diary he can be sentenced to death. Big brother is afraid of people doing little things like that because it means people are thinking. If people begin to think they will begin to think why there life couldnt be better. Its similar to why people dont know for sure why gas prices are so expensive, they just keep using it and accept the price of it.
What ways has Winston been a thought criminal? Countless within the first few pages. One is that he keeps a diary and writes in it. "But it had been suggested by the book that he had just taken out of the drawer. It was a peculiarly beautiful book. Its smooth creamy paper, a little yellowed by age, was of a kind that not been manufactured for at least fort years past. He could guess, however, that the book was much older than that."(8) He also went into a shops which is prohibited for party members. " Party members were supposed not to go into ordinary shops ("dealing on the free market," it wascalled), but the rule was not strictly kept, because there were various hings such as shoelaces and razor blades which it was impossible to get hold of in any other way." (8)
Another is that he wants to have sex for the intimacy, not for the party. His wife Katharine wants to do it as "... duty to the Party" (74)
The Party was trying to kill the sex instingct, or, if it could not be killed, then distort it and dirty it. (73)
Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death. (32)
he wrote hurriedly, in scrabbling handwriting: "when i saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. but i went ahead and did it just the same."
winston was writing in his diary to try to overcome his temptation of shouting a string of filthy words at the top of his voice. or to bang his head against the wall, to kick over the table and hurl the inkpot through the window- to do any violent or noisy or painful thing that might black out the memory that was tomenting him. when he had finished writing it down at last, it made no difference. the therapy had not worked.
"For some reason the telescreen in the living room was in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as was normal, in the end wall, where it could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went." (8)
-Winston is trying to hide from the telescreens. He obviously is not brain washed because if he was it wouldn’t matter if the telescreens were watching his every move or not. He wouldn’t care if they saw him or not.
"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labor camp." (9)
Winston knows that he is doing something wrong even though it is not illegal. He knows that he is committing a thought crime. This is probably one of the worst thought crimes Winston could commit because he is free thinking. If writing in the diary wasn’t enough to get him in trouble what he wrote would get him in even more trouble.
"For some reason the telescreen in the living room was in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as ws normal, in the end wall, where is could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went."
Winston is a huge thought criminal at heart. He intentionally placed the telescreen so that he could hide in his wall where he couldn't be seen, and as long as he kept quiet he wouldn't be heard. When he bought the diary, he kicked off huge conflicts. Not only was buying the diary a huge risk, once he began writing in it he committed one of the worst thought crimes. He also journeys out into the area where the Proles live, which isn't necessarily illegal, but it is definitely suspicious for a party member. Winston is constantly thinking about what constitutes a thought crime and whether or not he will be caught. In the canteen, Winston lists all the people who are probably going to be vaporized, and even includes himself.
"When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same." (76)
"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." (78)
--Winston has commited some thought crimes. First by buying his diary. And then, not wanting to go to the two minute hate and writting DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. He also commited a thought crime by talking about a prostitute and having "bad" sex.
-- My mind has been controlled before too by, doing what is the right thing and not what my friends want me too.
His pen had slid voluptously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page."(21-22)
This is a good example of how Winston preforms some of his thought crimes. This kind of reminds me on like cartoon shows when they have gotten in trouble they would have to write what the did wrong and that they wouldnt do it again over and over but that was their punishment but Winston could be vaporized for simply writing DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over.
To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went.(8)
I think that the party would probably consider winston wanting to get out of veiw from the telescreen a thought crime. If he were truly a brainwashed big brother loving party member he would have no reason to want to be in this spot where he is free from the cameras careful watch. He is commiting the crime of writing in the diary especially by writing down with big brother which is completely out of line for someone who is a party member. During this part of the novel he is thinking alot about things like the past and he wonders how it really use to be. The party doesn't like this and wants the past to be what they say it is so winston is commiting a crime by just thinking about it.
You had to live-did live, from habit that became instinct-in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing (5). This vision from 1984 shows how society is always controlled. The people have absolutly no privacy and they have basically been stripped from being humans. They cannot enjoy normal day activities, such as, outdoor activities and even sexual ones. The people of Ocenia are under complete control and are not allowed to do anything. That is some what true in our world. In Brandon, you can hardly do anything without some one questioning you on what you are doing or where you are going. In some ways, our country is just like Ocenia.
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