1984 summary and analysis, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica 1984 summary and analysis e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Summary Winston Smith is a 39 year old man who's part of the Outer Party and works for the Ministry of Truth. He doesn’t agree with the ideas of the Party and the ideas of Big Brother. He writes in his diary a notebook he bought from a shop in the Quartier where the Proles live, he wishes for a revolution. Ever since he dreamed of him, Winston believes that O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party, is actually a member of Brotherhood, an organisation against the Party, whose leader is Goldstein. Winston starts seeing more and more often a woman, who he fears being a member of the Thought Police; he will find out that she, just like him, is a rebel, and they will start to clandestinely see each other. Winston has the opportunity of meeting O’Brien, who reveals himself as a member of the Brotherhood. He gives him and Julia a book written by Goldstein himself, that they have to read in order to become a part of the brotherhood. In the meantime, Winston and Julia have moved in a room that is located on top of the store in which Winston had bought the notebook, thanks to the owner, Mr Charrington. The couple becomes part of the brotherhood, but both of them get caught by the Thought Police, guided by Charrington himself. In fact, they had been lied to all along: O’Brien was actually a member of the Ministry of Love, and the Party had been watching Winston’s move ever since he had bought the notebook from a store he wasn’t allowed to buy from. Goldstein’s book had actually been written by O’Brien and given to Winston so that they could catch him. Before vaporizing him, O’Brien has to indoctrinate Winston so that he can love Big Brother. When even after being tortured several times he still doesn’t betray Julia, he is brought to room 101. When a cage of rats, his biggest fear, is put in front of him, he finally betrays Julia. In the end, Winston is indoctrinated: he loves Big brother. - The book describes a dystopian future divided in 3; Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Is set in 1984 in London, Oceania. Oceania is governed by “the Party”, led by Big Brother to control people’s lives. The Party has created a propagandistic language known as Newspeak, which is designed to limit free thought and promote the Party’s doctrines. Its words include doublethink (belief in contradictory ideas simultaneously), which is reflected in the Party’s slogans: “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.” Winston Smith is the main character, a minor member of the ruling Party in near-future London. Thin, frail, contemplative, intellectual, and fatalistic 39 year-old. He hates the totalitarian control and enforced repression that are characteristic of his government. He harbors revolutionary dreams. Julia: Winston’s lover. Beautiful dark-haired girl working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Julia enjoys sex and claims to have had affairs with many Party members. Julia is pragmatic and optimistic. Her rebellion against the Party is small and personal, for her own enjoyment, in contrast to Winston’s ideological motivation. O’Brien: A mysterious, powerful, and sophisticated member of the Inner Party whom Winston believes is also a member of the Brotherhood, the legendary group of anti-Party rebels. He is a spy for the Party. Big Brother: He never appears in the novel, and though he may not actually exist, Big Brother, the perceived ruler of Oceania, is an extremely important figure. Posters of Big Brother’s face bearing the message “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” are everywhere. Big Brother’s image is stamped on coins and broadcast on the unavoidable telescreens; It haunts Winston’s life and fills him with hatred and fascination. Mr. Charrington: An old man who runs a secondhand store in the prole district. Kindly and encouraging, Mr. Charrington seems to share Winston’s interest in the past. He seems to support Winston’s rebellion against the Party and his relationship with Julia, since he rents Winston a room without a telescreen in which to carry out his affair. But Mr. Charrington is not as he seems. He is a member of the Thought Police. Syme: An intelligent, outgoing man who works with Winston at the Ministry of Truth. Syme specializes in language. As the novel opens, he is working on a new edition of the Newspeak dictionary. Winston believes Syme is too intelligent to stay in the Party’s favor. Parsons: An obnoxious and dull Party member who lives near Winston and works at the Ministry of Truth. He has a dull wife and a group of suspicious, ill-mannered children who are members of the Junior Spies. Emmanuel Goldstein: He doesn’t appear in the novel, like the Big Brother. According to the Party, Goldstein is the legendary leader of the Brotherhood. He seems to have been a Party leader who fell out of favor with the regime. The Party describes him as the most dangerous and treacherous man in Oceania. SYMBOLS Big Brother Throughout London, Winston sees posters showing a man gazing down over the words “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” everywhere he goes. Big Brother is the face of the Party. The citizens are told that he is the leader of the nation and the head of the Party, but Winston can never determine whether or not he actually exists. In any case, the face of Big Brother symbolizes the Party in its public manifestation; he is a reassurance to most people (the warmth of his name suggests his ability to protect), but he is also an open threat (one cannot escape his gaze). Big Brother also symbolizes the vagueness with which the higher ranks of the Party present themselves—it is impossible to know who really rules Oceania, what life is like for the rulers, or why they act as they do. Winston thinks he remembers that Big Brother emerged around 1960, but the Party’s official records date Big Brother’s existence back to 1930, before Winston was even born. The Glass Paperweight And St. Clement’s Church By deliberately weakening people’s memories and flooding their minds with propaganda, the Party is able to replace individuals’ memories with its own version of the truth. It becomes nearly impossible for people to question the Party’s power in the present when they accept what the Party tells them about the past—that the Party arose to protect them from bloated, oppressive capitalists, and that the world was far uglier and harsher before the Party came to power. Winston vaguely understands this principle. He struggles to recover his own memories and formulate a larger picture of what has happened to the world. Winston buys a paperweight in an antique store in the prole district that comes to symbolize his attempt to reconnect with the past. Symbolically, when the Thought Police arrest Winston at last, the paperweight shatters on the floor. The old picture of St. Clement’s Church in the room that