Nineteen eighty
four is a tale of future society, a society in which independent
thinking is a
crime punishable by death. This is also a society who's leaders are self
serving and don't
set their goals for the common good by which all of the society will
benefit. The
party doesn't need to justify its selfish ways because it holds all of the
power. The symbol
of the party was Big Brother. The idealism of blind loyalty was
embodied in this
symbol. It was the centre of control. The Party has set its agenda of
completely
controlling every single human mind by narrowing down the complexity of
human thought.
They will try accomplish this through the elimination of speech to a
form where humans
can no longer think for themselves. These future citizens would
not be able to
commit any crimes against the Party.
There is no possible way these
humans would even
think "criminal" thoughts to begin with since they had no
knowledge of any
crime from personal experience or history.
The main
character of this book is Winston Smith. Even though he is portrayed as a
criminal, I
believe that he is a victim of a system that is criminal. All through this book
Winston's
convictions lead us to believe that he is ethical and the Party is unjust but
it
is left up to the
readers discretion to decide whether he is the criminal or just a victim
of a totalitarian
society. The first instance of Winstons "criminal" nature was when he
bought an illegal
journal, quill and bottle of ink to record his thoughts. Although he
had so called
"criminal" thoughts before, the journal seemed to bring out the more
daring ideas in
him as to how to get free from the Party's reign. This all indirectly led
to his meeting
with a woman called Julia who shared his feelings and was either very
brave or very
foolish because she was more open then he about her feelings. I
believe that
these and the other actions following his initial "criminal" offence
are
justified and
that Winston Smith is not a "criminal".
My first set of
examples as to the flaws in the Party government are how they pitted
family members
against each other, and how the true nature of the family was
destroyed because
of this. The controlling intentions of the Party were reflected in
how children were
used to spy on their parents. The toys given to the children such
as ear horns
were used to listen in on the conversations of their parents. Through
groups and
activities that were provided , the
children were actually taught how to
spy and were given justification for this act.
They were given the title of "Child Hero"
when they
denounced their parents and reported them to the thought police. The
children felt it
was perfectly acceptable to inform on their parents to the authorities
even though it
meant punishment for their mothers and fathers.
When Winston was
in jail he met a
colleague named Mr. Parsons who's child turned him in for saying
" down with
big brother " in his sleep. Husbands and wives were also affected.
They would report
their spouses or children if they said anything improper, did
anything
improper, displayed a facial tick or any other abnormalities.
The Party took
away the basic pleasures of their people, as another method of
control. One
example of this is how the food was intentionally very bland and
tasteless. There
is an account in the book where Winston is in a public cafeteria and
longingly
remembers a better time and how food was pleasurable then. Another
example od
pleasure deprivation is how they brought sex down to a level where the
general public
was repulsed by the thought via the anti-sex league. The public
continued having
sex as it was the will of the Party that people must reproduce. The
degradation of
sex also kept the married and unmarried alike brimming with energy
for hate week,
war marches and other fascist public activities which the people had to
attend. A
specific example of the degradation of sex in Winston's life was the account
he made in his
journal of his wife's attitude towards sex and how she cringed at his
touch. She called
sex "our duty to the Party" or "making a baby". Because of his wife,
he became as
repulsed at the idea of sex with her as she was with him. Winston
recalls becoming
physically sick at the mention of it. Winston wasn't satisfied with the
status quo
regarding sex. It eventually led to their divorce.
It is important
to mention that there were two classes of people, Party citizens and
Proles. What
rules apply to the Party citizens did not necessarily apply to the lower
class Proles.
They government did not care about the Proles who were not important
to them. Although Proles were allowed to drink any
alcohol and gamble, this was not
acceptable for
Party citizens. This was part of the denial of pleasure.
In order for the
people to believe the Party's perversions of the truth, the Party had to
make their
fiction reality. The Party slaughtered people ,burned books, shredded and
altered documents
in order to control information. Winston Smith's job was to alter
old government
documents, birth certificates and many other things. Winston was a
willing part of
this deception until his realization that what he was doing was immoral.
His troubling
conscience drove him to record his feelings in his illegal journal as part
of his personal
rebellion.
The ultimate
deception that the Party perpetrated on the people was the war the Party
staged against
it's own citizens using a created
villain named Goldstein.( It's
interesting that
this Jewish name was given to a villain in this novel written in 1947 by
a Party modelled
after Hitler's fascist Germany ). To keep it's economy going Oceania
had to be in a
constant state of war thus the Party's creation of Goldstein. This
character
broadcasted "criminal" thoughts for two minutes each day and enraged
the
citizens to the
point that they gladly went to war. The Partys goal was achieved. This
calculated
deception lead to senseless suffering and death of numerous Party citizens
and Proles.
At the end of
this novel the reader is left with the decision of where the crime lies.
This decision is
subjective. Democracy is a model of government which I have
chosen to
compare. It is the same style of government which both the author and
myself have
experienced and it is the one which
serves its people the most
effectively. If
you believe in social order at any expense as do fascists, then you will
have to believe
Winston Smith is a criminal. If one takes a more humane approach,
you will have to
look at the numbers of people that were hurt or killed by this "Party
Government's"
actions.
Humans are a
social animal and they need interaction and contact with other humans
to thrive. The
uncontrollable need to belong to a group sometimes drives people to
compromise
themselves. A common example of this is a teenagers choice of music,
clothing etc to
belong to the group. A more extreme example are religious cult
members such as
David Koresh's Branch Dividians who even voluntarily excepted the
order to kill
themselves. People become willing to accept the unacceptable until there
conscience will
no longer allow it. This is what happened to Winston Smith. He was a
product of his
humanity and it should not be a crime to be a human.
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