Summary 1984, George Orwell, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Summary 1984, George Orwell e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! 1984: SUMMARY The story is set in 1984: the world, following the World War III, is completely changed. Now there are the following continents: Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia which constantly fight among them. Oceania is led by an omnipotent and supreme leader no one has ever seen: Big Brother. His eyes are the telescreens that spy the daily life of every citizen, allowing the Thought Police to identify anyone who might compromise the security. There are posters and Party slogan everywhere: “War is peace”, “Freedom is slavery”, “Ignorance is strength” are the mottos. Big Brother dictates all the rules and all the citizens must obey to them. Love cannot exist: its only purpose is reproduction. All the books are subjected to revisionism according to the principles of Newspeak, the language of Oceania. Newspeak has a restricted grammar and limited vocabulary, in order to limit people’s freedom of thought. History is modified according to the party’s will and also people’s memories can be cancelled. The main character of the novel is Winston Smith, an intellectual thirty-nine-year-old. Winston hates the totalitarian control that is characteristic of his government. He is a member of the middle-class Outer Party, who lives in a one-room apartment in London. He works at the Ministry of Truth as an editor. He is responsible for historical revisionism, so he rewrites documents in order to rewrite history to make it conform to the frequent changes of political propaganda. Despite being good at his job, Winston begins writing a personal journal where he criticises the Party and its leader, Big Brother. Then Winston meets Julia, a beautiful 26-year-old girl who secretly hates the Party. She is pragmatic and optimistic and her rebellion against the Party is small and personal, for her own enjoyment, in contrast to Winston’s ideological motivation. Julia claims to have had affairs with many Party members. The young lady, one day, gives Winston a note confessing her love for him. Winston and Julia start a relationship, committing a crime (love was banned in Oceania). They decide to rent a room with no telescreens in it, which is located in a proletarian neighbourhood in London. Weeks later, Winston is approached by O’Brien, an Inner Party member whom Winston believes is an agent of the Brotherhood, a secret society that wants to the destroy the Party. Emmanuel Goldstein is the legendary leader of the Brotherhood and he exerts an influence on the novel without ever appearing in it. The Party describes him as the most dangerous man in Oceania. They meet at O’Brien’s flat where both Winston and Julia swear allegiance to the brotherhood. Suddenly, the Thought Police capture both Julia and Winston and the two are delivered to the Ministry of Love for interrogation. Mr Charrington, who rented the room to them, is a Though Police officer. O’Brien is an agent of the Though Police too. O’Brien interrogates and tortures Winston with electroshock, telling him that he can “cure” himself. O’Brien tries to brainwash Winston, but understands that he is determined not to betray Julia. Consequently, O’Brien sends him to Room 101, a room which contains each prisoner’s worst nightmare (in this case rats), and Winston eventually betrays her lover. After being put back into society, Winston and Julia meet again and both reveal they betrayed the other. The man understands he no longer has feelings for her although he is troubled by memories which is sure are lies. While sitting in a bar, he sees a celebration, celebrating Oceania’s “decisive victory” over Eurasia. Winston is happy and proud as he looks up in admiration at a portrait of Big Brother. Other characters: Parsons, a boring Party member who lives near Winston and works at the Ministry of Truth. Syme, an intelligent man who works with Winston. Winston believes Syme is too intelligent to stay in the Party. Doublethink is a mind-manipulation strategy in which individuals hold two contradictory ideas and believe both are true. Party uses this strategy to invoke loyalty in its citizens. Some examples are Ministry of Peace (Minipax in Newspeak), that in reality deals with war, the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue), which manipulates information… The main theme of the novel is the dangers of a totalitarian government. The novel also has clear references to Hitler's regime. The regime uses physical and psychological manipulation to subjugate citizens. In the novel everyone is controlled by technology, they are spied on by the Telescreens. Today the same thing happens with social media, which stores all of our information. This book will always be relevant because it explains how reality can be manipulated and how an entire population can be subjugated where there is no culture or memory. In fact, whoever controls the past also controls the present.