1984 Blog 3

In the second half of book one, the concept of controlling the past is presented to its readers. This concept means that the past is controlled such that it can be altered without objection and no one will take any notice. It is used as a means for control of the citizens of 1984 by the Party. The Party uses the past in order to convince its civilians that they are always right. History is constantly changing in order to fit the future that the Party wants. In order to maintain the society that they have strove so hard to create, the Party has to make sure that no one remembers, if only vaguely, how the world used to be. This way they will think that their present state of living is normal and is a lot better than in the past. This makes it seem like the Party is providing for their people in every best way possible. The Party erases the past by recreating/rewriting it in the history books in the way that they want everyone to believe thins happened. Another mechanism for controlling the past, is to get rid of the people from the past who might cause trouble. The Though Police can take people away in the dead of night and no one will ever really know what will happen, all of their records will be destroyed and in a short time no one will care about what happened to them because history is always changing and the missing person will have become old news.

1984 Blog 2

I think Winston is writing in his diary because he feels the need to express himself in more ways than the party has allowed. Writing can be a creative outlet that permits the imagination to roam and wonder and the Party doesn't like that because if the mind can think differently than the way the Party wants, then it can be detrimental to them. The Party won't be able to control what's being said if they aren't allowed to read and censor it. When people are able to write things down on paper and not have the Party censor them, it allows for more freedom of speech. In Winston's diary he is able to badmouth the Party without their knowledge, so he, to some extent, isn't being controlled by the Party. The Party is losing control when people are able to write, and they aren't in enslavement of their own mind by remaining ignorant, but they are able to explore their own feelings and to think on their own without the methods of control that the party uses for stability. Syme's job is to destroy words, he is working on the new Newspeak Dictionary, which is shortening the language so that vocabulary isn't as long. The main objective is to create basic words where their opposites antonyms and synonyms aren't needed because that is a waste when the same meaning is in the simpler word. This is making the population have a smaller vocabulary, and with a smaller vocabulary and controlled system of speech, no one has the speaking capacity to protest against the Party or use different languages and dialects to appeal to different types of audiences or to express oneself.

1984 Blog 1

The world that's created in 1984 very much resembles that of a dystopia. The world doesn't seem like a pleasant place to live, the vision of the society was to be a perfect one, but it has turned into a society of disfunction and war. There is also a rebellion called the Brotherhood which the majority hates. The government in this society consists of four sections of government to make a whole. They all control every aspect of the the individuals life. They watch every single citizen, or trick everyone into thinking they are watching you, through a television set which never turns off and can hear and see everything you do in your home. They still have allowed the family unit, but it has turned against each other. There aren't any close or personal connection between family members because this world is in a much tougher, militaristic setting. Everyone has to watch their own backs because no one can be trusted completely for fear of the Thought Police coming and killing you or torturing you. The government has also created a world where war is a central part of the society. War is there form of peace. They also think that slavery is freedom and ignorance is strength. They try to keep citizens from knowing anything about the past by erasing it. They tell them that an event never happened, and in a span of so many years everybody excepts this as truth. No one is really educated in the sense that they know history because the facts are always hazy for the reason why they are at war with someone, they just know that they hate the enemy with a burning passion. Though Winston knows how to write, he doesn't write well and doesn't use grammar or capitals after a period.