Journal #3 1984

In my opinion, the author’s vision is not very powerful /believable.  If you think about it, in order for someone to gain this much power, it would have to go unnoticed.  Also if they wanted to get people to be loyal to The Party it would require to stop all the rebellions.  And with hundreds of millions of human beings, each with different/separate ideas, some speaking different languages, some different races and other unique things, it would be nearly impossible to gain control over such a huge group yet change many of their lives to worse than they were before.  This kind of change would not go unnoticed, and it would be stopped before it could go too far.  Look at Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy.  How long did that last?  Not very long.  Hitler’s cause was quickly seen and rebellion, in a sense, from Britain, Poland, France, the US and other countries rose up to defeat the Nazi movement.  I don’t think we have anything to worry about, especially with the U.S. being a world super power and butting into everything whether it includes them or not.  The U.S. promotes equal rights for everyone and so something like 1984 happening is not very likely.  Yes we are probably watched more as citizens, with the FBI and all the technology that allows it, but that said, we don’t have to worry about something like 1984.  There may be more rules/more watching, but that shouldn’t matter if you are a good citizen and follow the laws.  Plus if the FBI or the government tried to promote something similar to the thought police, over 300 million people live in the U.S., I believe if something like that happened we would just rebel and stop it from happening.

1984 Journal #2

Winston resists The Party in multiple ways.  The fact that he commits Thoughtcrime leads to his other actions, and this is one example of his resistance.  Winston also buys a book, pen, and ink, which he uses for a diary.  This is another example of how he rebels, yes he may not be hurting the party, but he plants a seed of rebelliousness which will grow into his later action of starting an affair with Julia.  When Winston does start this affair, in a sense, he teams up against The Party with Julia.  He hates The Party, and he wants Julia to know every reason why.  But Winston’s thoughts lead to his actions.  Winston’s eye contact with O’Brien and the facial expression Winston has, even for a split second are because he committed Thoughtcrime.  O’Brien later makes contact with Winston because O’Brien can tell that Winston is against The Party.  A few days later, after speaking with O’Brien, Winston and Julia meet inside O’Brien’s flat and discuss The Brotherhood.  So far Winston has not committed any serious acts of rebellion against the party, no killing, no destroying, however, Winston’s Thoughtcrime is very successful.  It is successful because his thoughts lead to his actions (which also seems to be brought up in the text).  So far there are no consequences or effects of his rebellion, however Winston has acknowledged the fact that sooner or later, he will be killed, he will be vaporized, it is inevitable.  But this does not stop Winston from hurting The Party as much as he is capable of, and he does everything in his power to do so.

1984 Journal #1

On page 70 Winston writes in his diary “Until they[the proles] become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”  The Party, which is the society in 1984, is trying to destroy or suppress the human conscious as much as possible.  Winston is right in this passage, he has realized what it would take for The Party to be overthrown.  Winston is not a prole, but he has rebelled by starting up a diary and has awakened his conscious enough to realize that in order for The Party to be overthrown, the proles must “awaken”, to rise up and rebel.  The proles are the only hope because they make up 85% of the population, and because they are not as closely monitored as The Party members are.  Any Party member who rebels, is quickly taken from society and “vaporized”, almost always never seen again.  Anything that the rebel has said would then be altered in history so that it would appeal to what The Party wants.  These alterations of the past are seen as fact by The Party members, and that is another reason why members of The Party would not be able to overthrow it on their own.  They are constantly watched, and this makes it so only 2 to 3 members would be able to rise in rebellion before being caught in the action, only to be vaporized.