Crafting Creative Concepts with Charlotte

 "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." - H.P. Lovecraft I decided to start this blog post with a quote, because I think that this particular quote pinpoints an aspect of human nature that Orwell is both exploring and exploiting at the beginning of Part 3. Winston first hears whispers about Room 101 in the general jail, and these whispers reappear throughout his imprisonment in the Ministry of Love. The most memorable scene that includes Room 101 is when the emaciated man does everything in his will to prevent the guards from taking him there. However, we never are told what is inside Room 101. Even when Winston asks O'Brien directly, O'Brien will not answer. For Winston, his fear of Room 101 is a fear of the unknown. Not knowing exactly what he's afraid of makes the fear worse. It's the same reason why so many people are scared of the dark and of death - this fear of the unknown...

 After reading Brave New World  and seeing the openness of Huxley's futuristic society towards female equality and empowerment, I was optimistic for similar trends in 1984 . Boy, have I been disappointed.  Our only real female character is Julia, who serves as a distraction, an object of desire, and a companion for Winston that won't make him look stupid or less important. She is essentially a fantasy for Winston - a beautiful woman who he can sleep with and then plot to take down the Party with. She comes across as naïve because rebellion looks different to her than it does to Winston, and we never see her as an individual outside of the male gaze. I know that it was common for female characters during this time to exist only within the context of the men, but Orwell is writing a book that takes place in the future . If he can be so creative with his envisioning of a dystopian world, surely he can find the imaginative capacity to see women as more than toys for men. Do y...

 So. A LOT happened in this section. The worst thing Winston had done at the end of section one was write in his diary. Now he's having sex with Julia, working with the Brotherhood, and even drinking black market coffee! However, I'm quite dissatisfied with Orwell's depiction of Winston's path so far. Everything seems to fall perfectly into place for Winston, to the point where it seems wildly unrealistic given the setting. I think that Orwell has overly romanticized Winston's life, and thinks of Winston as a version of himself if he lived in Oceania. Winston lives a pretty valiant life: he is an inconspicuous guy who fights against the government while conducting an affair with the most beautiful woman he knows. He knows it's only a matter of time before he gets found out, but this doesn't dissuade him from his life of rebellion. How upstanding of him. Perhaps the scene that irked me the most was when Winston and Julia go to O'Brien's flat to offici...

 Oceania is clearly a Communist country. In chapters 7-8 there was a strong emphasis on community, with Winston mentioning how risky it was to even take a walk alone because it suggests individuality. However, even with all of the pro-community messaging, 85% of the population lives in slums. The proles seem to be the working class from the pre-revolution world, and are allowed to lead somewhat normal lives as long as they do their jobs. These seems strange to me because Oceania flaunts itself as the perfect communist society, but the proles are on a distinct tier that makes class divides significantly harsher in Oceania than in capitalist society. I'm not going to pretend like class mobility is very legitimate in our modern society - it's extraordinarily difficult to alter your financial situation so significantly. However, there is at least the prospect of it happening - in Oceania, the divide between the proles and the Party members is impassable. The proles are treated like...

 One of the most prominent themes in Brave New World was encouragement of promiscuity in society. Aldous Huxley clearly saw society headed away from traditional Christian morals. However, George Orwell paints a sharply contrasting future in 1984 . In the first six chapters, I am shocked by the way in which the Party stifles sexual desires. There are many taboos in our current society surrounding sexuality and promiscuity, but the amplification of these taboos into organizations such as the Junior Anti-Sex League seem much more dystopic to me than the stigma-less sexual freedom in Brave New World . I also appreciate Orwell's ability to see a more nuanced future than Huxley. Huxley took everything he felt was going wrong with society and amplified it - Orwell was able to identify the more threatening aspects and amplify only those. Orwell's dystopia is also clearly influenced by World War II and the resulting paranoia regarding authoritarian regimes. (Is it just me, or does his d...