In the second half of Book 1, we learn quite a bit about the methods of control used by the government. The most effective are language (which you have already discussed) and changing the past. Discuss the concept of “controlling the past,” both as a concept and the specific methods the Party uses. Why is this method so devastatingly effective?
The party controls the past by falsifying documents. So basically if something on print is incorrect or doesn't go with what the party wants people to think, they have a division to track it down and collect it so that it can be rewritten and the original can be destroyed. That way no one will ever know or have prof that the party was wrong, because the goal of the party is to appear correct 100% of the time as well as all powerful. Winston plays a key role in the whole rewriting of documents. After everything is collected it is sent to a series of people, including Winston, who's job it is to rewrite the article and fix it to make big brother and the party appear correct. After making the correction it is reviewed and edited by their superiors and then redistributed. While Winston and his fellow workers put the original copies into the memory holes to be destroyed. The method is so effective because if anyone expects that the party is doing this or thinks that the party is wrong they have no way of proving it. Because of this process there is no documented evidence that the party or Big Brother was ever wrong. Also all this changing of the past could lead a sane person (with real memories) to think they were insane.
Monday, March 23, 2009
1984 post #2
To begin, think about why Winston is writing in his diary and why this is a crime. In what way is writing things down a threat to the Party? Why is Winston drawn to this activity? Now consider Syme’s job of destroying words. Discuss the control of language as a method of controlling individuality.
Winston is writing in his diary, really because he wants to. He knows it is dangerous but he feels this need to do it. His writing is a threat to the party because what he writes down is then documentation of history or what is going on. The reason this is a problem is because the party can't control his diary if they don't know about it. The party controls all other written documents in order to make people think what they want them to think. They change various documents so that people will think big brother and the party are always right. So if Winston has written in his diary that they are at war with Eurasia and the war switches and they are then at war with Eastasia, Winston to an extent would then have documentation of the war having been different.
Syme's job is to destroy words for the newspeak dictionary. The idea of this is that no one can commit thought crime if they can't form the words to describe what they feel. This controls people's freedom because they then can't form thoughts their range of thought is significantly narrowed. Thus there individuality and freedom is controlled. So that is how the party controls the people and keeps them under strict control all the time and how they prevent them from rebelling up against the party.
Winston is writing in his diary, really because he wants to. He knows it is dangerous but he feels this need to do it. His writing is a threat to the party because what he writes down is then documentation of history or what is going on. The reason this is a problem is because the party can't control his diary if they don't know about it. The party controls all other written documents in order to make people think what they want them to think. They change various documents so that people will think big brother and the party are always right. So if Winston has written in his diary that they are at war with Eurasia and the war switches and they are then at war with Eastasia, Winston to an extent would then have documentation of the war having been different.
Syme's job is to destroy words for the newspeak dictionary. The idea of this is that no one can commit thought crime if they can't form the words to describe what they feel. This controls people's freedom because they then can't form thoughts their range of thought is significantly narrowed. Thus there individuality and freedom is controlled. So that is how the party controls the people and keeps them under strict control all the time and how they prevent them from rebelling up against the party.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wednesday March 18th
The first three chapters of 1984 invite us into the world of Airstrip One (formerly England) in the fictitious year of 1984. Read these chapters carefully and describe this world as completely as you can. In your answer, you should consider the following: What is the government like? What are people’s lives like? How did things get this way? Do you notice any characteristics of a dystopian society? What are they?
We start out in Airstrip one, the picture created for us is not a pleasant one, it would appear that we are looking at a city devestated by war, a dark unwelcoming city of concrete and dust. Nothing is clean its just one big city of oppression and unpleasantness. The Government is a very oppresive one, wherever you look there are posters saying big brother is watching you, also there are telescreens in every room and every possible location. The government is constantly on the look for anyone betraying the party. To go with that there are thought police, they come during the night and arrest those who have committed thought crime or taken actions against the party. Also there are no laws but if one were to do anything that suggested individualism or going against the party you could be arrested and hauled off. The peoples lives in 1984 are crap the live in slum like conditions for the most part where nothing works. If you are a parent you live in constant fear because your children are little demons that could rat you out to the thought police weather you did anything or not. This society is a dystopian because basically everything sucks and no one is happy unless your the people on the very top. You could also argue that this isn't a dystopia because it would appear that there was no attempt for a utopia in the first place. A dystopia is a utopia that went wrong due to some flaw... this here is just crap... there was not attempt for this to be a good society its just people living in non stop poverty and being miserable a more correct term than dystopia would be hell.
We start out in Airstrip one, the picture created for us is not a pleasant one, it would appear that we are looking at a city devestated by war, a dark unwelcoming city of concrete and dust. Nothing is clean its just one big city of oppression and unpleasantness. The Government is a very oppresive one, wherever you look there are posters saying big brother is watching you, also there are telescreens in every room and every possible location. The government is constantly on the look for anyone betraying the party. To go with that there are thought police, they come during the night and arrest those who have committed thought crime or taken actions against the party. Also there are no laws but if one were to do anything that suggested individualism or going against the party you could be arrested and hauled off. The peoples lives in 1984 are crap the live in slum like conditions for the most part where nothing works. If you are a parent you live in constant fear because your children are little demons that could rat you out to the thought police weather you did anything or not. This society is a dystopian because basically everything sucks and no one is happy unless your the people on the very top. You could also argue that this isn't a dystopia because it would appear that there was no attempt for a utopia in the first place. A dystopia is a utopia that went wrong due to some flaw... this here is just crap... there was not attempt for this to be a good society its just people living in non stop poverty and being miserable a more correct term than dystopia would be hell.
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