Textual knowledge of Nineteen Eighty-Four
How does Orwell de-familiarise London for the reader?
Nelsons Column replaced by statue of Big Brother
Trafalgar Square now Victory Square
What is the Two Minutes Hate?
the daily ritual of the ‘Two Minutes Hate’ – directed at the tele-screened image of
the ‘arch-traitor’ Emmanuel Goldstein (the ‘Enemy of the People’).
Why is Newspeak important?
control
The goal of Newspeak is to limit the speaker's ability to critically think or form any
ideas that go against the Party. It is made up of an extremely small amount of
vocabulary and much simpler grammar rules that only allow for basic expression
of thoughts.
In the appendix to the novel, "The Principles of Newspeak", Orwell explains that
Newspeak follows most rules of English grammar, yet is a language characterised
by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts are reduced to simple
terms of simplistic meaning. The political contractions of Newspeak
— Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Miniplenty (Ministry of
Plenty) — are similar to German and Russian contractions in the 20th century,
such as Nazi (Nationalsozialist), Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei),
kolkhoz (collective farm), and Komsomol (communist youth union). In Newspeak,
the contractions often are syllabic abbreviations that hide the ideological content
of speech.
, On what has Orwel based the notion of children acting as spies?
Hitler Youth
Compare with Nazi Youth
The children in 1984 are part of the “Spies” program instituted in order to gain
early loyalty to the totalitarian state. The children “….adored the Party and
everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking,
the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother- it
was all a glorious game to them” All the elements of these children’s lives is a near
exact reflexion of the lives of the children of the Hitler Youth. By 1938 Hitler Youth
comprised 7.7 million members and enrolment was mandatory. Parents who
didn’t enrol their children were threatened with having them taken away by the
state. he Proles
Discuss the proles
The faceless masses, some 85 per cent of the population of Oceania. The
Revolution had allegedly been made for them, but as is explained in Goldstein's
“The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”, the lower classes, or
Proles, will not benefit from the Revolution at all. Far from establishing, in Marxist
terms, "the dictatorship of the Proletariat," and the gradual "withering away of
the State," the Revolution has imposed the most extreme form of tyranny on
everybody. The Proles are contemptuously dismissed by the Party as subhuman.
The Party rather encourages their moral corruption to make them easier to
handle. But Winston believes that if there is any hope for the future, it lies in the
Proles. O'Brien is at pains to explain to him, as he is being tortured, why this hope
is futile: the Proles cannot become self-aware until they revolt, and vice versa.
How does Orwell de-familiarise London for the reader?
Nelsons Column replaced by statue of Big Brother
Trafalgar Square now Victory Square
What is the Two Minutes Hate?
the daily ritual of the ‘Two Minutes Hate’ – directed at the tele-screened image of
the ‘arch-traitor’ Emmanuel Goldstein (the ‘Enemy of the People’).
Why is Newspeak important?
control
The goal of Newspeak is to limit the speaker's ability to critically think or form any
ideas that go against the Party. It is made up of an extremely small amount of
vocabulary and much simpler grammar rules that only allow for basic expression
of thoughts.
In the appendix to the novel, "The Principles of Newspeak", Orwell explains that
Newspeak follows most rules of English grammar, yet is a language characterised
by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts are reduced to simple
terms of simplistic meaning. The political contractions of Newspeak
— Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Miniplenty (Ministry of
Plenty) — are similar to German and Russian contractions in the 20th century,
such as Nazi (Nationalsozialist), Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei),
kolkhoz (collective farm), and Komsomol (communist youth union). In Newspeak,
the contractions often are syllabic abbreviations that hide the ideological content
of speech.
, On what has Orwel based the notion of children acting as spies?
Hitler Youth
Compare with Nazi Youth
The children in 1984 are part of the “Spies” program instituted in order to gain
early loyalty to the totalitarian state. The children “….adored the Party and
everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking,
the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother- it
was all a glorious game to them” All the elements of these children’s lives is a near
exact reflexion of the lives of the children of the Hitler Youth. By 1938 Hitler Youth
comprised 7.7 million members and enrolment was mandatory. Parents who
didn’t enrol their children were threatened with having them taken away by the
state. he Proles
Discuss the proles
The faceless masses, some 85 per cent of the population of Oceania. The
Revolution had allegedly been made for them, but as is explained in Goldstein's
“The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”, the lower classes, or
Proles, will not benefit from the Revolution at all. Far from establishing, in Marxist
terms, "the dictatorship of the Proletariat," and the gradual "withering away of
the State," the Revolution has imposed the most extreme form of tyranny on
everybody. The Proles are contemptuously dismissed by the Party as subhuman.
The Party rather encourages their moral corruption to make them easier to
handle. But Winston believes that if there is any hope for the future, it lies in the
Proles. O'Brien is at pains to explain to him, as he is being tortured, why this hope
is futile: the Proles cannot become self-aware until they revolt, and vice versa.
