"Cliff Notes - 1984" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

NOTE: The parts of the government of Oceania are:

Minitrue, the Ministry of Truth, or propaganda arm. This is where Winston works.

Minipax, the Ministry of Peace, which makes war.

Miniplenty, the Ministry of Plenty, which arranges shortages.

Miniluv, the hated and feared Ministry of Love, the center of secret Party activities. When he is captured, Winston will find out what happens here.

Today Winston was distracted by the nearness of the dark-haired girl, whom he hates because he wants her but knows he can't have her. Worse yet, in the few seconds before the Two Minutes' Hate wrought its inevitable magic and everybody present loved Big Brother, Winston hated Big Brother. He was even more excited because he caught O'Brien looking at him. "It was as though their two minds had opened and the thoughts were flowing one into the other through their eyes." He thinks O'Brien may be part of the Brotherhood pledged to overthrow Big Brother. Some readers believe Winston's real love affair in 1984 is with O'Brien. Watch them together in scenes to come and see what you think.

In a unique mixture of sex and politics, the Party channels sexual frustration to its own purposes. In Winston this channeling misfires. Lust and politics get all mixed up with the dark-haired girl, because, he now realizes, it's the Party's fault that he can't have her. He looks down and finds to his horror that he has been writing, over and over: DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER. He has committed the unforgivable--Thoughtcrime, as it's called in Newspeak. He knows his action will lead to capture and punishment. Thought Police will drag him away in the middle of the night (just the way Nazis in World War II took people to concentration camps). He will end up in the mysterious Ministry of Love, where terrible things happen to people who oppose Big Brother. He will be vaporized.

There is a knock at the door. Winston fears the worst.

^^^^^^^^^^1984: NOTE: ON NEWSPEAK

In an Appendix at the end of the novel, Orwell describes Newspeak. It's the official language of Oceania, made to meet the needs of INGSOC, or English Socialism. When it becomes universal, Orwell tells us, nobody will be able to commit unwanted acts or think bad thoughts because actions and thoughts cannot exist without language to describe or define them. Example: "Free" will mean "without." A cat will be "free" of ticks, but people will no longer hanker for "freedom." Things will be "ungood" or "double plus ungood," but never bad. Orwell is playing with both words and politics. He asks us to believe that language affects life. You may disagree, but for the purposes of his story, Orwell asks us to believe that limiting vocabulary limits thought and action.

^^^^^^^^^^1984: SECTION II

Instead of Thought Police, the person at Winston's door is his neighbor, Mrs. Parsons. Although Party members call one another comrade, this timid lady is very much a Mrs. Will Winston help her fix the plumbing? Her plump, patriotic husband is out on Party business. Winston is harassed by her monstrous children, who, in a patriotic fervor, accuse him of Thoughtcrime. They are Junior Spies.

NOTE: In World War II, Hitler Youth, indoctrinated from childhood, grew up to turn in their parents. Orwell uses the Parsons children as strong indicators of the dangerous political climate.

Depressed and anxious, Winston retreats to memories of a dream in which someone said, quietly, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." He is sure it was the voice of O'Brien. And this is important: "Winston had never been able to feel sure... whether O'Brien was a friend or an enemy. Nor did it seem to matter greatly. There was a link of understanding between them...." Yes, they will meet in the place where there is no darkness. In his loneliness and isolation, emotions which may mirror Eric Blair's loneliness in Burma, this hope is enough for Winston.

Writing in his diary, Winston reflects that this criminal act makes him a dead man. Look for echoes of this thought, especially as Part Two ends. His fatalism is interesting. Does this defiant act reflect high heroism or is it the result of a death wish? You can argue this either way, on evidence found in the book. At the moment, Winston wants to save his skin, so he carefully hides the diary.

^^^^^^^^^^1984: SECTION III

Winston dreams he's with his mother in a sinking ship. We're reminded of the heroic refugee mother from the newsreel in Section I. Winston is struck with guilt. Although his mother disappeared in a political purge, he feels somehow responsible. We'll see why later.

In the next instant he is in a dream landscape in a place he calls The Golden Country, a stubbly pasture where the dark-haired girl appears. She strips naked and runs toward him. He sees this as an act of destruction--the girl wiping out the Party in one free gesture. (In a Party that suppresses sex, anything sexual is rebellion.) He wakes saying, "Shakespeare."

^^^^^^^^^^1984: NOTE: WINSTON'S DREAMS

Look carefully at Winston's dreams. They're prophetic and symbolic. Every one signals something important to come in the book. Look at:

1. The dream about O'Brien. Yes, they are going to meet in the place where there is no darkness, but it's not what Winston thinks, as we find out in Part Three. He doesn't know the possible outcome but in his loneliness he can hardly wait.

2. The dream about his mother foreshadows memories to be revealed to Winston near the end of Part Two. Many people think Orwell uses the idea of woman as mother as ideal. What does this make of Julia, who has sex for fun? Watch how Orwell treats her and Winston's affair.

3. The Golden Country. This dream is the most heavily symbolic. It is directly prophetic, as you'll see when Winston finally meets the dark-haired girl; but there's more to it as an expression of Winston's yearning for the past. Look at:

a. The country as England's rural past.

b. The girl in her nakedness as a symbol of love, perhaps, but for Winston at this point, as rebellion.