Catherine's English Blog

     An unquestionable way to keep the real world from spiraling into an Orwelian society is to not give the government too much power. If the government has too much power, the citizens could be stripped of their rights and it could quickly turn into a tyranny. Another way is to try to not deepen the class divide. We see an extreme caste system in 1984 with the proles not knowing anything, and being conditioned to believe that anything the Party says is correct. We don’t want to create an extreme class divide in the real world to the point where a certain group or class would barely have any rights or be vastly below another. Another way is by preserving our history. The erasure of history in 1984 is something that Orwell talks about fairly in-depth. The Party erased all past history so they could rewrite it themselves. Keeping our history in the real world and learning from our past mistakes is an evident way to make sure that a whole society will never be conditioned t...

The last chapter of 1984 was the ending I anticipated, but one I honestly did not want to happen. At the end of 1984, the Party has finally won and Winston's feeling/story of rebellion is over. Winston hates Julia and can't even think of any memories that aren't associated with Big Brother. I believe the ending ultimately shows how powerful this dystopian society is. Another alternate route for an ending that I first thought would happen when reading the first chapters of 1984 was that there would be a huge rebellion and the Party would be overthrown. Although the ending Orwell went with is the exact opposite and some readers could argue that it is less lackluster, I think the ending Orwell chose to write is much more meaningful, gives Winston's story and this dystopian society more significance, and provides the reader with much to reflect on. What did you think of the ending? Was it what you originally anticipated and did you like it?

 In this section of 1984, we are given an analysis of how O'Brien's torture has affected Winston's brain. With the way Orwell describes Winston's feelings and state of mind, I think that the copious torture Winston has had to endure has ultimately changed his brain chemistry. In these chapters, Winston grows tired and almost turns into a different person. Although, Winston's thoughts of Julia almost seem to ease some of his pain and he realizes that he still hates the Party and Big Brother. When Winston slightly rebels, he is then put into a torture room. Even after the extensive amounts of torture Winston has endured, O'Brien then tries to exploit Winston's deepest fears. After Winston is pushed so far to the edge, he finally betrays Julia. After reading chapter five, it almost felt like O'Brien and the Party had another victory and truly broke Winston. Although Julia and Winston's relationship was fairly short-lived, I was surprised when O'Brie...