1984 by George Orwell - summary
984 (1949)
By George Orwell
Entry 1
The story starts with a man by the name of Winston Smith who is aged 39 and is a member of the Outer Party. The society of Oceania is described, it seems like a contry under martial law. Everywhere there are large posters of Big Brother, who is the ruler of Oceania the posters have propergandial messages and I think that they are being used so that the repetition of seeing these things will brain wash the people, and make them think kindly towards Big Brother.
Winston lives in a very old flat on the 7th floor of Victory Mansions. He works at the Ministry of Truth or Minitrue as it is called in Newspeak a language made by Big Brother, it is in an enormous pyramid shaped structure which towers above the other buildings in London. There are three other Ministries housed in similar buildings, they are the Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty and the Ministry of Love.
Everyone in the Outer Party has a telescreen in their home, which has propaganda on it all day, and the Thought Police can also watch its Party members through these devices. The Thought Police make sure that everyone follows the rules and never thinks anything bad about Big Brother.
There life seems to be very dull and doesn't have much excitement in it, it says that luxury is having a drink of Victory gin and the main challenge is trying to smoke a Victory cigarette without the tobacco falling out. This book was written in 1953 but it seems slightly similar to a communist Russia, were the people do not have a real say in anything at all and products are second rate, but this book has taken that idea a step further by not letting the people have any say at all and they even take away the one thing that people can claim as their own and that is their thoughts.
Winston gets a book so that he can keep a diary, and his first entry is "April 4th 1984". He has a place in his flat where he can write without being watched by the telescreen. He had the book for quite a while before he started writing in it, the first thing he writes about is his visit to the cinema, where he watched the usual war film.
It seems a little pathetic that the highlight of his day is to keep a diary documenting his mundane life and the reason he is doing this is to rebel against society, but it does not seem very rebelious at all. But he probably knows that he will eventually be caught, but that shows courage that he is willing to take the risk.
During the two minutes in which everyone chanted "B-B!" signifying Big Brother. Winston chanted with the them,but he did not like it, and a man called O'Brien saw his facial expression, Winston knew that O'Brien thought the same as him. this shows that there are others with his views against Big Brother but they have to stay in the dark so they don't get in trouble.
At the end of the day Winston was writing in his book, and then when he looked down at it he found that he had written "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" five times in large capital letters.He did this because his subniminal thoughts had surfaced through the book. He had just commited a Thought Crime, so that ment that the Thought Police would come and arrest him in the night. He gets a knock on the Door, it seems to be the thought police, but when he opens it he finds that it is only a neighbor needing help with her plumbing.
At Minitrue Winston's job was to change history, he changed the predictions that Big Brother had made so that it seemed like the predictions correspond with the present. I think that the this changing of newspaper article so that it seems that Big Brother are always right, this demonstrates a sort of communist society were the media is sencored, I think that Orwell was basing this book on the drepression and the Communist Russia. There was a public hanging once a month, which was a source of entertainment for some and Most goods were also rationed and coupons were required for clothes and other important things.
The children are shown to be strange and they showed no respect for their parents Winston's neighbor, Mrs. Parsons, was in afraid of her children. They also went to see public hangings. There are 2 other nations in the world Eurasian which Oceania was at war with and Eastasia with whom Oceania has an alliance.
When ever he put away his diary in the drawer, he would place a small grain of dust on the book, so that if it were moved he would know.
The only way to escape the world is to sleep, and when Winston is sleeping, he dreams of when he was little and he is with his mother and his sister. But how can Winston be sure that his childhood memories are accurate? Because Big Brother change the past to suit them how are you supose to know if the memories are accurate. He had another dream about a girl which he works with. She is coming towards him across a field and she tears off her clothes and flings them aside, Winston is not that intreasted in the naked woman, but more the fact that she threw of her clothes, which was an act of freedom. It was as if she was putting Big Brother, the Party and the Thought Police all aside and just living how humans wee ment to live.
He is woken up by the telescreen to do his exercise before work. It was time to get up and do his physical exercises before going to work. While doing the exercises, Winston, was trying to think back to his early childhood. This is when he thinks that if Big Brother control the past who can he know if his memories are true.
The telescreen tells Winston to exercise harder and the voice was saying that he shoul do it for the men in the war.
Entry 2
We meet one of Winstons friends Syme who works in the Research Department. He is one of the people trying to make the Newspeak Dictionary. The Dictionary will take years to complete, but they are trying to get rid of Oldspeak and replace it eith Newspeak by 2050. By that time, not a single human being will be alive who could understand Oldspeak, except perhaps the proletariat. Syme says that proles are not human beings. They have an existence outside the Party, but are still controlled, to a lesser extent, by it. Winston is depressed by this idea that the great literary works, Shakespeare, Milton etc. will be destroyed, and will exist only in Newspeak versions. They are introducing Newspeak so that people can not think bad things towards Big Brother and a though crime will not be able to happen because negative words will be out of their vocabulary.
When Winston looks around the canteen he notices how ugly everyone looked, all dressed in their blue overalls. This makes you think because the posters feature people that are young, beautiful and desirable, but when Winston looks around he sees a massive contradiction in what he sees in the posters and what he sees around him.
There is always background noise in which a mixture of propaganda and music are played. This sort of system is still occouring today in North Korea were there are speaker on every street were people all stop and face the flag and then listen to properganda. You can hardly say that Orwell could see into the future but you can say that he was a visionary and he must have got a lot of his ideas from the second world war
This is when his paranoya starts, when he sees the brown haired girl who was featured ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
There is always background noise in which a mixture of propaganda and music are played. This sort of system is still occouring today in North Korea were there are speaker on every street were people all stop and face the flag and then listen to properganda. You can hardly say that Orwell could see into the future but you can say that he was a visionary and he must have got a lot of his ideas from the second world war
This is when his paranoya starts, when he sees the brown haired girl who was featured in his dream, he thinks she is spying on him. Winston has seen her watching him before, in modern day society this could mean that the girl may like him but that thought does not go through his head but the only thing he thinks about is that she is out to get him. He thinks thatshe is a spy for the thought police.
Winston writes in his diary about a time when experianced sex with a prostitute who was a prole, because she wore make-up, which Party women never did. This was a severe crime. The thing that first drew him to the prostitute was not the his sexual instict but the make up that she was waring, because he just wanted to rebel and not onbly was he having sex but also with a women who was wearing make up.
He was married to a women named Katharine, it doesn't say that they are still not married but they are no longer together because they failed to have children. The only purpose of marriage was to produce children, and the sex was viewed as a disgusting and the only point of it was to reproduce.
I think that the Party did not allow eroticism because sex is a sybol of love and the only thing you are suppose to feel love towards is the party and not anyone else.
Winston writes in his diary "If there is hope, it lies in the proles." He is now becoming more accepting about his feelings towards Big Brother, but he has also achnoledged that they are all but doomed. There is supposed to be an underground movement known as The Brotherhood, they are the only hope of the demise of Big Brother. But Winston says in his diary that the Brotherhood is unaware of the power that they have and until then there is no hope.
The Party claim that life is better than it was before Big Brother. But Winston finds this hard to believe and tries to remember back into his childhood but he can't, I think this is because the party has changed the past so peoples memories are altered and they can not have accurate memories of what happened to them in their past.
Winston questions a time when four main leaders were hang, including Big Brother. But he questions wheter they were really guilty of the crimes they supposedly did, because Winston remember a photograph, which was a sufficent alibi for the men but they were still killed. The party wanted to get rid of them so they accused them of a fake crime. Winston realises this and this is a sign of his slow rebelion.
All party members are expected to go to meetings at the Community Center. But Winston decides not to go even though attendance is monitored, and this was the second time that had recently missed it.He is slowly becoming more rebelious by not doing thing which are expected of him. Instead of going the Community Center he geos to visit the area where the proles live.
While he was walking, a rocket bomb demolished some houses right next to him. He decided to go to a drinking-shop, or pub as it was called by the proles. Winston notices an old man arguing with the barman about his drink, he gets curious about this old man, because it was rare to find a person of his age because most had died during the great purges. Winston wanted some information about what life was like when he was young. But, the man rambled, and Winston was unable to get much sense out of him. this sybolises that like most people Winston wants to find himself and know were he came from and who he really is. Winston left the pub and soon found himself at the shop where he bought his book from. Winston bought a paper weight for $4, then shopkeeper took Winston upstairs where he had some other bits and pieces in an empty room. He thought about renting the room, because it had no telescreen.
When Winston left the shop he saw the girl with the dark hair walking towards him. She looked directly at him and then walked quickly on, as if she didn't see him. Winston was paralyzed. Now he knew that the girl was spying on him. In panic, Winston left the scene, he then toyed with the idea of finding the girl and killing her before she could report him to the Thought Police. He did not have the courage to take this action. It is obvious that Winston will be discovered soon. He is committing more and more thought crimes.
Entry 3
The book has now entered Part 2, Part 1 concentrated on Winstons thoughts of rebelion but in Part 2 he will take it a step further and commit serious crimes.
Four days later, at his work, Winston was on his way to the toilet when he saw the dark haired girl at then end of the corridor coming to him, when they were close to each other she fell down. When Winston went to her aid she held out her hand to him and he helped her up. Then she left, but the girl had given him a piece of paper.
Winston woundered what was in the note he thought it may be his death warrant. But then he eventually opened it and the note said 'I love you'.He then disposed of it with some other papers.
Winston did not feel love towards the girl but more of an admiration that the girl had the courage to pass him the note. He could not think of a way to meet the girl but eventually, after many days, Winston had the opportunity to be alone with the girl in the canteen. He sat down opposite her at the table and they spoke to each other with low voices, but did not look at each other. They arranged to meet in Victory Square at 1900 hours.
When he went to the Square, it was full of people waiting for a convoy of Eurasian prisoners. When they met she gave Winston details of a rendezvous in the countryside where they could be together without being observed.
I think that Winston is taking these risks because before he read the note, he was merely existing as a faceless nobody for the party. But now he has a reason to live, but ironically he he knows that this newfound life might be very short. But he wants to do it because the 39 years previous to this seem to be a waste and in his eyes I think that even if he can live a life of excitement and adventure for only a few days he will still concider it worth it.
Winston follows the instructions, which he had memorized, Winston made his way out of London by train to the countryside. There were no telescreens in the countryside, but there were hidden microphones, so Winston still had to proceed with caution.
Winston followed the girl to a grassy knoll surrounded by saplings. There were no microphones there, because the trees were too thin.
Dispite Winston being 39 years old and not very attractive the girl didn't care, she concidered Winston to be a kindred spirit. Her name was Julia.
They shared a bar of proper chocolate, which Julia had got from the black market. At first Winston was not sexually aroused by Julia, he was just pleased to be in this place of freedom.
Later that afternoon, they made love and Julia discarded her clothes just as in Winston's dream. When Winston found out that she had done this hundreds of times before with Party members excited Winston. He saw this as an indication that the Party was corrupt and rotten under the surface, and this act of freedom would only go to further weakening the system.they then went thhome in their separate ways. When Winston and Julia had sex it was not for plesure but an act of rebellion against the state. Winston has now committed the ultimate crime by making love to Julia. All of Part 1 has led upto this point.
They agreed not to use the place in the country for a while because it would be unsafe, but Julia had another place were they could meet. They met in crowded areas so they don't arouse any suspicion.
Julia is not particularly clever and she likes to live her life on the edge. Her first love affair had been when she was 16 with a Party member aged 60. He was discovered, but before he could be tortured he committed suicide, which saved Julia. Winston and Julia did not discuss marriage, as this would be out of the question. When Julia spoke she used swear words which surprised Winston swearing was a Thought Crime.
Winston and Julia are now beginning to share storys off their past and it seems like they are falling in love. At first it seemed that they were only doing this so that that they could rebel but now it seems like they are doing this because they are falling in love with each other and their seems to be a depedence on each other.
Winstonthought what might happen if they get caught and he did not want Julia to be in any trouble, this shows that Winston has got feelings for her and wants to take care of her. Julia encouraged Winston to be more positive about their future together. Their lovemaking has now become a physical necessity rather than a statement of rebellion.
Winston rents the room above the shop where he had bought the diary from. He had a feeling that it was not a good idea nad that it was to riskybut he wanted to be alone with Julia in a normal environment were he can pretent that the world outside does not excist. I have a feeling that with these risky actions they will probably be caught within a few weeks, but Winston is prepared to take the risk. . I think that she Winston wants to be more rebelious but he does not really know how to.
Julia bought things from the black market like sugar and coffee. They also ate bread and strawberry jam. I think that this sybolises that they are trying to replicate how life would be without Big Brother and the party.
Julia is now acting more like a housewife and sit seems that this relationship is more important to Julia then her previous ones, she is not with Winston because of his looks but because at first it was to rebel but now they are falling in love.
Winston is clinging on to Julia like a security balnket because she is experianced in sex and rebeling against Big Brother and Winston is like a boy who is experiancing everything for the first time. This is another reason why Julia likes Winston because she feels responcible for him and like he is her protégé which she must teach and guide, she almost has a motherly role towards him because she is helping him experience a world which he has bearly seen, just like a moher would hold a childs hand as he or she took her first steps , Julia is holding Winstons hand as he journies through life.
I think that the paper weight that he brought from the shop, symbolises the past and how they Julia is the past because of the way she live and Winston has always been fasinated with the past, that is another reason why he likes Julia.
Entry 4
Winston's friend Syme has been erased by Party, this just shows the brutality and coldness of the Party, this has been put in because it is trying to explain what happens because it is obvious that the same fate will happen to Julia and Winston, and it is enevitable the only factor in your head is when will it happen and when it does happen what is going to happen to Julia and Winston.
Julia and Winston are now meeting in the room almost twice a week, Winstondoes not feel as nervous as much as he did about it before, he is still aware of the danger of going their but he has put that on the back of his mind because at the moment he would much rather spend time with Julia then worry about the reporcussions of what may happen> Winston is putting on weight, people tend to put on weight when they are happy and I think that's why he has put on the weight.
The room is like a sanctuary to Julia and Winston, it is like their own little world. Julia is only concerned about them while Winston is thinking how they can end the oppression of Big Brother.
Both Julia and Winston are both becoming more enthusiastic about the Party. During the Two Minutes Hate period, Julia would lead the shouting of insults at Goldstein, the leader of The Brotherhood. Julia also said that the rocket bombs that fell daily on London were probably fired by Oceania, to keep the people frightened, and with fear comes loyalty.
Oneday when winston is walking down the corridors at work O'Brien is following him.O'Brien compliments Winston on one of his articles, but criticied the fact that he used words that were not in the Tenth Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Winston said that he only had access to the Ninth Edition, so O'Brien invites him to his house to collect the tenth edition.
Winston thinks that this is an excuse that O'Brien is using so that they can meet and share their veiws. Winston has a feeling that O'Brien shares the same views but I thnk that O'brien is some sort of a spy who is cheacking up on Winston. Maybe Winston would not have had this veiw if he was not with Julia, but now that he is he seems to be less paranoid like he was when he first met Julia, it seems that Winston may be a bad judge of character and can be easily fooled.
It seems that O'Brien is the one who will catch Winston but I am still unsure what Winston will do when he is caught, there is hope that he may do something heroic that will end or help end the Big Brother regime, but at this point it looks like Winston will do nothing really significant and may be erased just like so many others.
Winston comes to terms with the guilt he feels about his youth, and his feelings towards his mother. He feels that his childhood was not as enjoying as he hoped it would be. I think that the main pointwhich Winston is trying to make in chapter seven is that by keeping memories of the past alive, he is some how rebeling and fighting the system in which he lives, even though he is saddened by his memories he still relives them as an act of rebelion. Since the Party is always changing the past the only person who can keep track of your past is you, and that is what Winston is doing, he is trying to keep the past alive so that he can feel that he is different and he isn't just another ant which is following the rest, he wants to be an individual and that is mmost probably why he has views like he does.
Julia and Winston go to O'Briens house, when they get there, O'Brien switches his telescreen off. They are shocked but Inner Party members are allowed to turn of their screens.
O'Brien claims to be a part o the The Brotherhood. He asks Winston a lot of questions regaurding their loyalty towards The Brotherhood.Winston replys O'Briens questions with answers which confirm that he and Julia are loyal to the movement. It comes as a shock that they both go to O'Briens house and further more that they give so much information, I believe that O'Brien is a spy and that he is going to catch both Julia and Winston. Winston has told him everything and I think that it is only a very short time now that they are caught.
Julia leaves first, but O'Brien asks Winston for more details,he asks them about their hiding place, and Winston tells him. O'Brien says that he will give him a book by Goldstein and he will arrange for Winston to get a copy.
Winston receives the book from O'Brien, he reads it to Julia in their room. It gives details on the history of the world and how it was split into three great super states. Winston read the first 3 chapters to Julia, then she had fallen asleep. He didn't read the whole book but he could see what the message was.
Julia has hope that the proles will defeat Big Brother, and that they will be part of the movement that will one day overthrow the oppressors. The book consept is an intreasting one by Orwell, because I am sure it would have been difficult to explain the full history of the super states but by putting a book in his story it makes for intresting reading and for some reason while you read the second book it seems like it is fact and not fiction. I think this was was Orwell was trying to achieve, to make the reader really believe what is happening in the book and make you feel sympathetic towards Winston.
Winston says, "We are the dead," and Julia says the same and then they hear a voice say "You are the dead." The voice came from behind the picture and they realized that they are being watched by a telescreen concealed behind the picture. The house is surrounded and they are soon joined by the Thought Police. When the police men come in, they smash the glass paperweight, this sybolises that they have been smashed to because they saw them selves as the paper weight and now that it has been smashed so has their hopes and dreams. When one of the men punches Julia in the stomach, she is on the floor fighting for breath. Winston does not do anything to help her, this shows that he does not care as much as Julia as he does himself. I don't believe that Winston is at fault because even though in modern times a man would protect his lover, Winston is inexperianced and has been taught all his life to obey Big Brother and up until recently his idea towards women has changed, but when he saw this authority figure I think it re-fed everything that was always in their before.
Winston excepts that they are caught because I think deep down he knew this day was going to come.
At this point the first thing that came to me was that I was right about my suspicions about O'Brien, but then Mr Carrington comes into the room. He now looks different and has lost his accent. Winston realises that Mr Carrington was a member of the Thought Police all along and it seems like they never really had a chance.
Entry 5
The book has now entered Part 3 and I am assumeing that this is the part in which Winston has to face Big Brother, and will be brougt to justice in a sence.
Winston was put in jail, but then was taken to a room which he thinks is the Ministry of Love, which is people guilty of thought crimes are taken to be punished.
He was put in a cell with a bench going round the whole room. On each wall was a telescreen. Whenever he moved, he was yelled at by a voice from the telescreen.
He had thoughts of killing himself to end it all painlessly or at least less painlessly. He wanted O'Brien to bring him a razor so that he could get it all over with instead of face the horrors that he may be subjected to.
Work colleagues of Winstons were sent in the roomand they were all taken away to Room 101. which is the torture room. One of his work colleague's was dobbed in by his 7 year-old daughter for a Thought Crime that she heard him say in his sleep.
One man was about to be taken back to Room 101 but he hung to the bench and said that he would stand by and watch them kill his wife and 3 children rather then go back into that room.
I think that these were not real criminals but were instead just their to scare and break down any spirit that he may have left.
When Winston was alone again, O'Brien came into the room, then he talked to Winston and then signaled to the guard. I thought that my assumpsions about O'Brien were wrong when I found out that the shop keeper was the spy but now I know that O'brien was working for the thought police to. The gaurds seem to be saddists and clearly take pleasure in inflicting pain on the prisioners.
Winston wakes and finds himself strapped down fast to a bed. O'Brien is stading over him.
He has been beaten by the gaurds and keeps falling in and out of consciousness He is in massive amounts of pain. He is prepared to confess to anything. O'Brienis the one who is controling everything, he was the one telling the gaurds to bash Winston and inflict pain on him. O'Brien had a lever in his had which controled how much pain Winston would get into Winstons body, it went from 0 to 100. Winston was being torn apart, he was being put through massive amounts of pain. O'brien stops and says that, that was only 40 and he can inflict pain on him when ever he wants and if Winston lies to him he will turn it on again.
O'Brien tells Winstonthat the Ministry of Love considers Winston to be worth the trouble, to rehabilitate him. O'Brien acts as Winston's teacher and is putting back all the propergander which has been put in their over time. He asks him questions and if Winston answers correctly he doesn't get hurt but if he answer by using his own mind instead of Big Brothers answer he would get a shock.
O'Brien holds up 4 fingers and asks Winston, How many fingers he is holding up? Winston says, "4." The pain starts again, Eventually, he says what Big Brother say it is, "5", but O'Brien says that he is lying. Winston is put through more pain until, O'Brien asks him again how many fingers he is holding up, and Winston replies, "I don't know." O'Brien is happy with the answer.
They are using something similar to shock theropy, and by inflicting pain on him everytme he says somethinng that Big Brother don't want him thinkingthey shock him, so eventually Winston has a neuro assossiation of pain with anything that Big brother does not want him to think. So that everytime he thinks of something like that, he remebers the pain of what happened to him.
Winston gets electrodes fitted to his head, and then a blinding flash of light is inside his head. After this treatment, his memory was incomplete and he really could see 5 fingers when O'Brien held up 4.
When the session is over O'Brien says that Winston can ask him some questions. He asked what happened to Julia, O'Brien said that Julia conffessed to being a rebel, and her memory was slightly erased. She now no longer has any rebelious thoughts in her head.
I think that this question time shows O'Brien to be Winston's friend, I think this is so that Winston can see his enemy (Big Brother) as his as his friend. This is so that Winston is made to feel safe with his oppressor when they have control of him, and they want him to think that they are a source of safty and that they are the only important things in their life.
O'Brien tells Winston that there are 3 stages required for him to be cured learning, understanding and acceptance. He tells Winston that he has passed the second stage, uderstanding. He is still tied to the bench.
O'Brien tells Winston that the Party's aim is to acquire power over everybody. They are not interested in the welfare of their citizens they only wish to have power. it seems that the Party will last forever because unlike Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, they are purely concerned with power and not the people.
O'Brien says that nothing existed before the Party and that things like the bones of dinosaurs are merely fakes produced by 19th Century archaeologists. But, Winston asks about the stars, and O'Brien answers by saying that they have mathematicians who say that the stars are not far away at all. This is making you look at the bigger picture and how Oceania is probably as big as O'brien says and they will have power fow ever, there seems to be no way out of it and it looks like Winston can do nothing to stop the rise of big brother.
O'Brien says that truth does not matter, and Winston must not use his intellect to decide whether facts are true or untrue. The Party does this for him.This is part of the Party's power.
Entry 6
Winston attempts to train himself to doublethink. He is trying to accept that Oceania is at war with Eastasia, or is not at war with Eastasia. He thinks that he can if he can master this process of doublethink, he will be enable to keep his spirit free.
Winston is being brought back to health. He is getting regular meals again. O'Brien now thinks that Winston is ready to take the last step. Winston confesses that he hates Big Brother and is taken to Room 101.
O'Brien tells Winston that Room 101 contains the worst thing in the world, and for Winston, that is rats, because he has an extream fear of them.
When Winston got in the room he was straped in a chair and their was a table and on that table there was a device containing 2 rats, which O'Brien said they would put on his face. O'Brien says that the rats are very hungry and when he opens the gate, they will rush at his face and will strip him to the bone. O'Brien stresses that there is no escape for Winston and no escape for the rats.
Winston realizes that his only way to escape was to put the only person who could take the blame for him and that was Julia. He shouted frantically, "Do it to Julia, not me, Julia."
As he he blamed Julia he had his last throw of the dice, he had admitted defeat and had given up his mind. Room 101 proved that the Party has power over Winston's mind and spirit.He now belongs to Big Brother, and he has nothing left but to love Big Brother.
Winston is employed on a Sub-Committee made up of other people like him. It is not quite clear what he actually does, but he does not spend much of his time with his work. He spends most of his time now at the Chestnut Tree Cafe where he sits on his own playing chess and drinking Victory Gin.
He met Julia once and she confessed that she betrayed him,just like Winston betrayed her. They are no longer interestrested in each other anymore.
Winston stares at the portrait of Big Brother and as gin-scented tears roll down his face, he realizes that he has won the victory over himself. He loves Big Brother. Winston has excepted Big Brother and has become just like everyone else, he still has his own thoughts but a majority of his mind is pro Big Brother.
This is an intresting end because you are not sure whether he is actually going to continue to love Big Brother or he might try to rebel onse again it is really unsure, and orwell has given no inducation of what is going to happen to Winston. In my opinion Winston will just be another worker ant in a long, insignificant line.
984
Zohab Khan
Page 1 of 10