The Society of 1984 Doesn't Make Sense to Me
So I felt a little silly reading the rest of this section, as in it we are told that although the party can monitor you extensively, they can't actually get inside your head and read your thoughts. I'd previously written about how that possibility would completely eliminate all chances of rebellion, so I'll have to retract my earlier statements. Maybe I misunderstood the passage last night, but "Thought Police" would be a pretty misleading name if they don't have access to your thoughts. Anyway, while reading this passage, specifically the section in which Julia and Winston are talking about their inevitable arrest, I wondered how a society like the one in 1984 could ever come about. I mean, if a normal citizen was told about the plans to change to a society like the one in 1984, they would undoubtedly reject the idea on account of the fact that it would be taking away their freedom. The only way to do it would be through subtle changes in the government, and I doubt it would be easy to unify towards that goal in congress either. In terms of keeping the society going once it's established, I can't imagine why anyone would want to, as it doesn't seem like it would be ideal for anyone, unless they were like a government official exempt from their own policies. Julia even says something along the lines of "everyone hates the party, and they would rebel if they felt like they could." Does "everyone" not include the people enforcing the laws and punishments? My other question is, what would be so bad about letting people leave the party and join the proles? Sure, you could be scared about them leaking party secrets, but what danger would the proles even be if they had them? I mean the citizens are allowed to roam freely into prole areas, why not just let them stay? I suppose if they started allowing it, all of their citizens would likely quit, and they're aware of this, so maybe that's why they don't. I just can't comprehend why anyone, including the higher ups, would ever want to create or maintain a society like this one, without freedom or emotion.
Let me know what you find unrealistic or confusing about the 1984 society, or give me a counter argument in the comments. I'd love to understand your viewpoints and hopefully this book a little bit better.
in the beginning of the book i definitely thought that the "thought police" could read what you were thinking and essentially know all your thoughts. As this book goes on the most confusing part for me are the characters of Charrington and O'Brien because it took them so long to actually make a move on Winston after being the only two people who truly helped him rebel. This book confuses me a lot and I feel like the dystopian society doesn't have a lot of sense in it besides having conditioned its members to continue what the original party people had started.
ReplyDeleteThis world was difficult for me to understand too. It wasn't until I got to one section where O'Brien talks about why the Party does what it does: that the Party is interested in pure power. I think there are definitely aspects of this that exist in our world, unfortunately and rather terrifyingly.
ReplyDeleteI was also confused about the society especially O'Brien because Winston's only connection with the Brotherhood was through O'Brien who turned out to be a member of the thought police which means that Winston never actually had any connection with the Brotherhood and it's all just very strange and since Winston was already committing crimes I don't know why they also used O'Brien. As for why people agreed to this society I had assumed that there was some sort of huge military take over of some sort or that there was another huge war that took out the previous forms of government and everyone was so desperate for a solution they let Big Brother take over.
ReplyDeleteDesperation hits deep. I really agree with that point. It's only in times of desperation that things can be allowed to go this wrong, i want to think. But Orwell would probably argue against me on that one and say that people are easily misled without having to be desperate.
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