Nineteen+Eighty-four

Write about your understanding of the novel that has changed and/or developed as a result of your background reading. Copy and paste on the //Wiki//.

Remember to provide (holistically, doesn't have to be in a particular order)
 * What you thought before your background reading
 * Your developed understanding/interpretation
 * example of background information that helped you make that interpretation //and the source// (provide paranthetical reference and full bibliography)
 * specific example from within the work that supports that interpretation
 * Analysis of that example--showing how it helps to develop Orwell's ideas

Mavji Rahimshoeva Before reading the introduction in the book and do research about George Orwell and the background information of the book I couldn’t see the significance of most episodes in the book. I always compared his allusions with Soviet Union but didn’t think about other allusions on the same aspect. For ex the ministry of truth could have represented the KGB in Soviet Union or the Nazi Party in Germany. I didn’t know that originally the title of the book was THE LAST MAN in EUROPE. His publisher suggested changing to help with the marketing of the book and Orwell just switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book. Also what was the actual reason of being against totalitarianism was his experience in Spanish civil war and the betrayal of revolutions in Homage Catalonia and Animal farm.

Orwell might have chosen a parody of Catholic dogma as a part of his inspiration. For ex, the term “Big Brother” might be a parody of the Catholic’s “Heavenly Father”. “Big Brother” is a character that all- seeing, all-knowing which rules the classes. Orwell suggests that “Big Brother” is just a belief over rational thought and never really existed. I saw Oceania’s undying love for Big Brother as something that was inserted to your brain but Orwell suggests it as a positive nationalism. Orwell is not 'positive' about unthinking, undying love. He critiques it.

² Orwell, George. [|Nineteen-Eighty-Four]. London: Secker & Warburg, 1948. ² Howe, Irving (Ed). (1983). 1984 Revisited: //Totalitarianism In Our Century.// New York: Harper Row. ² Shelden, Michael, (1991). Orwell- //The Authorized Biography.// London: Heinemann. ² “enotes: 1984-Goerge Orwell Biography” 27.Aug.2011 << []>> Use MLA format. Please indicate where you have used the above resources in your reflection.

Erica Lo: Prior to the background reading, I thought it was fundamentally about the author’s critique on a totalitarian society. After reading about Orwell’s background and knowing that Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, which is a colonial police force, for a short while. I could see a relation between the Imperial police and the secret police. Winston chose to put his trust in O’Brian whom he thought was a member of the “Brotherhood” when instead he was an undercover spy for the Oceania thought police. This helped Orwell to develop the idea that in a totalitarian society, there is basically nobody that you can put your trust in because you never know who is going to betray you. In those kind of society, the government plays on fear to control the people because the public would not dare to raise up against the government. It is a fundamental critique of totalitarian society. First sentence a bit confusing! Do you mean that it's possible to see how his experience as a colonizer helped to shape his understanding of totalitarianism?

In addition, Orwell has not only working for BBC on propaganda, but also acted as the literary editor of Tribune, which is a weekly left-wing magazine. It is probably due to these experiences that Orwell is able to develop extensively on the “Ministry of Truth” in 1984. Truth was made there instead of the facts in reality. As the novel says “Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth” (Orwell, #). By publishing news events and correcting news in the past, the government is able to shape people’s understanding of the past, present and future. Through the description of the job of Winston, Orwell mocks dictatorship and shows his side with democratic socialism. What do you mean by 'Truth' was made there? Do you mean it's possible to see that a truth which is a lie can become the accepted truth if a government has control of the media?

“Background information for George Orwell’s 1984 – George Orwell Links” [] “History of George Orwell – BBC” []

Kyle Wong: I thought that Oceania was totally created from Orwell's imagination. I did not know that the extreme form of totalitarian regime in Oceania is actually based on realities. For example, he once worked for the BBC, crafting political broadcasts to India. It was his first time to experience the influence of censorship and the fundamental dishonesty of government-sponsored war coverage. And where do we see this in the novel, Kyle? 101, the number of the room in which lies the “worst thing in the world” in //Nineteen Eighty-Four//, was also the number of the room where Orwell met with the BBC’s Eastern Service Committee (Bloom). And how do we see the 'truth' being destroyed in 101? We can understand, from Winston's work in the Ministry of Truth, the idea that who controls the past controls the present and who controls the present controls the future, which is a main means of the Party to remain its control over the society. Something of a gap in your argument here. Can you give me a specific example from the work?

A lot of names in //Nineteen Eighty-Four// are actually allusions too. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is an illusion to Winston Churchill, the war-time hero in Britain who fought against the totalitarian Nazi annexation. Winston in the novel tries his best to fight against the control of the Party, though at last he cannot succeed. Smith, his surname, is the most common surname in Britain and means "everyman" (Gottlieb). In the novel, it means that the experience of Winston Smith is only one of the many of the people in Oceania. He is of no difference and is like all people, whose freedoms are totally restrained by the Party. I also did not know that INGSOC is an allusion to the English Socialism (Pimlott, "Introduction"). It really struck me as an odd because of the fact that he himself was a member of the Socialist Party. It turns out that he wanted to use the novel to warn the people that the Socialist Party could go to that extreme too if the trend of development continued. What trends, specifically?

Bloom, Harold. //The Story behind the Story.// Gottlieb, Erika. //The Orwell Conundrum: A Cry of Despair of Faith in the Spirit of Man?,// Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1992. 56. Orwell, George. //Nineteen Eighty-Four.// New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Pimlott, Ben. "Introduction". //Nineteen Eighty-four.// New York: Penguin Books, 1990. v-xvii.

Christie Chan: I did not know that the Oceanian society created by Orwell was based on a real country before researching for the socio-historical background of the book //Nineteen Eighty-Four//. After reading about the background information, I learn that Oceanian was simulated with regard to the Stalin-era Soviet Union. We can see that the original idea of "Two Minutes' Hate" in the fiction, for example (Orwell, 13-1), was from the habitual demonization of enemies of Stalinism. Besides, Big Brother of Oceania in the novel was resembling the historical figure Stalin. Orwell created Big Brother the character and "Two Minutes' Hate" to portray the societal degradation In what sense? that totalitarianism might bring, and to express his disapproval and hatred towards the complete control of the government on the public, allowing no freedom. It's a little more complex than this. What does 'demonization' allow a government to do? Why is it frightening that people can just shift their 'hate' from one person or group to another as easily as we see Winston doing during the 'Two Minutes Hate'. Why __practice__ hate?

Orwell's experience of working in BBC under the control of the British Ministry of Information helped him with the plot of //Nineteen Eighty-Four//. During the time at BBC, he witnessed propaganda of the British government to glorify the British Empire. In a similar way, propagation of stories and historical incidents were seen in the novel, for example making up statistics in the Ministry of Plenty. An example of this is, "Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie" (Orwell, 43). By altering the contents before being published, the information disseminated are restricted, and the government has total control. Orwell explicitly showed readers the lack of individuality in a country ruled by dictatorship and revealed his favor for democratic socialism.

"SparkNotes: 1984: Context", 25 Aug. 2011, < [] >. 26 Aug. 2011, < [] >. "1984 Background | GradeSaver", 27 Aug. 2011, < [] >. Orwell, George. "Nineteen Eighty-Four", New York: Penguin Books, 1990. "George Orwell Biography - A Biography of George Orwell", 29 Aug. 2011, < [] >. "Background information for Orwell's 1984 - George Orwell Links", 29 Aug. 2011, < [] >.

Kelvin Li:

I was born in Hong Kong and have been living here for 17 years. Hong Kong is a relatively safe place in the world. There was just one war happened on the soil on Hong Kong, which is the Japanese invasion in the 1940s. After the end of WWII, there hasn’t been a major conflict happening in Hong Kong. Especially after 1997, when Hong Kong has changed from a colony of British empire to a special administrative region of People Republic of China, both economically and safety is progressing. Nowadays, Hong Kong has become one of the safest and the most civilized cities in the whole of the world. Being raised in Hong Kong, I have absolutely no idea how a war is like. I have never been involved in a war or a conflict. All I know about war is what I have seen on television about Iraq war as well as Afghanistan war. I have always thought that war is between 2 countries, fighting over resources or land through military means. War is simple a conflict between 2 countries on something they want.

However, after reading 1984 written by George Orwell, I am surprised to know that war can actually be perpetual. In the book, Oceania has been fighting Eastasia with Eurasia over North Africa in the later part of the book. According to Goldstein, the war is not necessary; it is not because the super-states are fighting over certain resources or territory. The war’s only purpose is to burn their resources. The states cannot afford a high living standard for its citizens due to their political motivations. They need to keep the whole economy low, resources just enough, no surplus. And they also need the citizens to have a patriotic feeling towards the state. Therefore the super-states actually want the war to continue. Quite in the contrary to my belief, which no country wants the war to continue forever. War is used as a political tool in 1984, a mean to control its citizen and its economical state. Although this sounds quite an efficient way to control its population, living standard as well as resources in the means of political stability, I totally disagree of this kind or perpetual war. In a war, any kind of war, human lives are lost. It is not only about human lives, but also thousands of families broken. This is not only about the soldiers’ lives, but also their relatives, their children who reply on him. War is cruel, it gives people an excuse to kill and murder. There is no moral on the battlefield, no sympathy, it is a place which makes people no longer human, but cruel, killing machine. In my opinion, there are a lot of means to achieve certain political goals, but war is definitely not one of them.

In view of other political tools used by the Party in 1984, especially about the absolute control on its citizens, I think I am more familiar with that then war. Since China is almost having the same political situation as Oceania. Freedom of speech and political freedom is not applicable, not even mentionable in China. Political crimes are also all over China as in Oceania. They follow almost the same political form and using the same political tools. Big posters and slogans are still all over China. But as China’s economy grows, the society has been marching towards socialism rather than communism. There is, as how the western countries call, progress in its political freedom and democracy. Quite different with the situation in Oceania, since the economy has been kept constant by the perpetual war, and its citizen being totally isolated from the outside world. Actually, the situation in Oceania is quite similar with North Korea. In which people are totally blinded by the government, with no opinion of their own but follow the government blindly.

When George Orwell wrote this book, it was 1949. The Second World War has just ended and the world is going through the Cold War. It is actually quite obvious that Oceania in the book resembles USSR at that time. Orwell scared that one day, when USSR takes over Europe and America and when communism is spread all over the world, the situation would be like what described in the book. At that time, the western countries feared the communism that is rising in the east. They feared that liberty, freedom of speech and even human rights, control of your own mind, freedom to think will be gone if USSR won the Cold War. That was a hectic time, Orwell’s 1984 describes the situation of the westerners and how they look at communism at that time.

Nowadays, we have a better understanding of communism. We have history to tell us how communism failed in different regions. We no longer fear it; we just know it doesn’t work. It is quite different with the view in Orwell’s time, when they make judgments base on guesses and rumors.

Kaylie Before reading Orwell’s biography, I thought he wrote it purely out of his objection towards communism. After reading his background, I realized that his experiences have greatly inspired his work. For example, he hates imperialism because he couldn’t attend to university due to his family finance. He actually put in a lot of personal emotion into his work, which makes 1983 more appealing to readers. He wrote about a lot of the unreasonable, ridiculous and cruel acts of the big brothers. It shows hatred towards authority. His vivid depiction of running away from the BIG BROTHERS shows the influence of his experience of narrowly missing being arrested when the communists suppress Spain in 1937. His writing shows his awareness toward the rights and freedom of working class. He worked for BBC, mostly on programs to gain indian and east Asian support for Britain’s war effort. Through his work, his gained more understandings on the fear and helplessness of the working class. While writing 1984, he got a request from a friend, who worked for the Information Research Department, which is set up by the Labor Department to promote pro-democratic and anti-communism propaganda, to produce a list of writers who were actively involved in communism activities. The acts of betrayal in 1984 are the portrayal of his real life experience.

Joanne Before reading background information on Nineteen-Eighty Four, I thought that the book and society of Nineteen-Eighty Four was created purely from Orwell’s imagination. I did not know that the Thought Police, the Big Brother, the Oceania society in general, were created according to Orwell’s understanding of the Stalin-soviet society. Recently, I watched a movie called Stalin (1992), which is a biographic picture and covers the rise to power of Stalin and his minions. After reading Orwell's fear of Stalin-ism, I realized that some features in the story were actually allusions to real life incidents in the Soviet society. For example, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston sees on a bottle the faces of the once heroes of the society, which contrasts with the way they admitted to thoughtcrime on televsion. I think this alludes to how Stalin put his allies into jail after the revolution succeeded, which also leads to Orwell's understanding of how revolutionists betrayed the promises of revolution and their people. I also began to see the resemblance between Stalin and the Big Brother, in the way that the Inner Party thrived in luxuries while the rest of the country starved.

I also looked up how Newspeak was constructed, and I found that it was constructed according to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. According to Benjamin Whorf, one of the advocators of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, “language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is the shaper of ideas…We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages.” This claim affirms language as a way of knowing; that language conveys not only information and knowledge, but also determines in essence our perspective of the world. In a way, Newspeak really captures the essence of the hypothesis because we see the way the thought of the people in the Oceanian society are limited.

"SparkNotes: 1984: Context", 25 Aug. 2011, < [] >. "philosophy of language." // Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online //. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 29 Aug. 2011. <[] >

Orwell, George. //Nineteen Eighty-Four.// New York: Penguin Books, 1990.
 * [|^] ** [|George Orwell] : [|//Review//], //Tribune//, 4 January 1946

The minute I read the title “ 1984” and the sentence that says “ big brother is watching you”, all what I imagined was that George Orwell would write a story about someone lived in the20s century and was trapped in some kind of unknown dilemmas. I thought of the novel as the creation of Orwell’s brain which only happens in movies, but not reality. However, after reading 1984, I had very a good understanding to the massage George wanted to deliver to readers. My understanding to the novel comes from my experience of totalitarianism I am having in my home country. Reading 1984 is like exactly living in Yemen. George Orwell lived during the historical periods when Totalitarian governments controlled Europe, Particularly, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and The soviet union. Those governments used to suppress the population’s freedoms and strictly controlling their actions by the illusion of “Big Brother is watching you”, that is the party and its secret police who exist everywhere. Even exists in every house through Orwell’s saying: “they adored the Party and everything connected with it... All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children." . Orwell’s ideas and thoughts about those regimes inspired him to write 1984 as reflection of what happened during those times to himself as well as other people. His disappointment in the fascist regime in Spain also woken his creativity to write such a novel.
 * Khaled**

JiffyNotes: 1984: Summary: Historical Context." //Jiffynotes.com - Novel Resource Guide and Literary Analysis //. Web. 29 Aug. 2011. . George Orwell, //1984//, Book 1, Chapter 2 "'1984' Quotes." //Books & Literature Classics //. Web. 30 Aug. 2011. .

 Kristy After understanding the historical background, some quotes in the book resemble Hitler’s Nazi Party during World War II. In Chapter 7 (Orwell, 78), “The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, and the lie became truth." Which is actually what the Nazi believed at that time. A Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels once said "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." War is a tool for the political parties to control their people. I was quite shocked when I read "1984", as some minds are really manipulated and people will believe in ridiculous thoughts. This is actually the same as what happened in World War II, where the Nazi Party controlled minds and believed killing Jews are correct. George Orwell put an effort in hiding his criticism. He purposely flipped the last two digits of the title as to divert the attention of political parties. This is not only a criticism towards totalitarianism, also a prophecy and warning to the society. However, his prediction is incorrect as Britain defeated the Stalinist Soviet Union during Cold War.

“Background information for George Orwell’s 1984 – George Orwell Links” Web. 28 Aug. 2011 [] Orwell, George. //Nineteen Eighty-Four.// New York: Penguin Books, 1990.