Apparently Winston's not the only person not-so-fond of Big Brother. The dark haired girl, Julia, is against Big Brother and all his interferences into their lives. The ironic part is that she appears as the ideal worker for B.B., but in reality she goes to many lengths to try bring privacy into her life. This results in her easily able to meet Winston in a place where no one is watching. In a place where no one can catch them and report them to authority.
I have a feeling this affair might lead to bad things for Winston and Julia. B.B. is way too involved in the lives of the citizens for them to have access to privacy.
Another event that took place in the book was Winston going out to the suburbs to buy random antiques from a store ,and more importantly, to strengthen past's memories. This is considered important because through B.B.'s propaganda, the memories of the people are deliberately being weakened. This is bad because it's already the government is changing the past... at one point, the past could totally disappear, and this is exactly what Winston doesn't want to happen.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
1984 continued. . .
Paranoia seems to be a recurring theme EVERYWHERE. First Macbeth, then all those totalitarian rulers around the time of World War II (i.e. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini), and now Winston from 1984.
Everywhere he goes he feels like he's being followed by Big Brother's eyes (which isn't exactly a pretense--for he is being watched constantly). Lack of privacy is one cost, but another is one's sanity and sense of security: seems like Winston's going crazy over who can see him, say, going into an old antique store in a "prole" neighborhood--a place where the people of the middle class--the proles--live. Him going into such an area is somewhat taboo, but he feels the inclined to go anyway based on how nostalgic he feels in its atmosphere--he senses the presence of his unknown past in these forbidden alleys. Only...he's EXTREMELY paranoid about this whole breaking-the-law thing, so as soon as he sees "the girl with the dark hair" from work (who later reveals herself to be an admirer of his) he immediately presumes she is spying on him.
Everywhere he goes he feels like he's being followed by Big Brother's eyes (which isn't exactly a pretense--for he is being watched constantly). Lack of privacy is one cost, but another is one's sanity and sense of security: seems like Winston's going crazy over who can see him, say, going into an old antique store in a "prole" neighborhood--a place where the people of the middle class--the proles--live. Him going into such an area is somewhat taboo, but he feels the inclined to go anyway based on how nostalgic he feels in its atmosphere--he senses the presence of his unknown past in these forbidden alleys. Only...he's EXTREMELY paranoid about this whole breaking-the-law thing, so as soon as he sees "the girl with the dark hair" from work (who later reveals herself to be an admirer of his) he immediately presumes she is spying on him.
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