1984

  The end of the book reminded me of mafias, corrupt governments, and similar bad groups that force those who speak against them to be quiet using threats. Russia and North Korea are two big examples of this. Last year, Putin poisoned Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of his. I think this is pretty similar to how the Ministry of Love is used to suppress anyone who has ideas of rebellion against the government in 1984.      Speaking of North Korea, I recently saw a video of a morning in North Korea on YouTube that is incredibly similar to what I imagine 1984 is like. There are even posters of Kim Jong Un that are comparable to those of Big Brother. What other comparisons do you see? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i82PBpw2Vg0

  Although Winston was getting interrogated and tortured most of the time in chapters 3-5 of part three, the only thing I could think of was how big the Ministry of Love is and how many employees they have. Winston mentioned the size of the building previously in the first few chapters, and he also mentioned it in these chapters. But, what stands out to me most is that I think Winston hasn’t seen anyone but O’Brien and a few guards since the beginning of his imprisonment. Surely there must be at least hundreds or thousands of people that are detained in the Ministry of Love, and if they all stay there for a few months without seeing each other, the building must be colossal. In addition to that, there were a few guards that Winston saw, such as the ones that beat him and the ones that took him to Room 101. But, if there are guards beating everyone that is detained, there must be a ton of people hired by the Ministry of Love. Not to mention, there are many that guard the outside, m...

  The beginning of Part 3 shows how difficult it is for regular people in 1984 to gain power by fighting with the Brotherhood. It’s pretty shocking when Winston sees O’Brien, who goes on to torture him and force him to side with the government. Winston’s trust has been betrayed, because O’Brien and Mr. Charrington were both unassuming people, and O’Brien even claimed he was part of the Brotherhood. While Winston is being tortured, O’Brien keeps asking him what two plus two is if the government says it is five, and keeps torturing him if he says four.      I thought this part was interesting, because it vaguely reminded me of people who deny science, such as flat-earthers. Only maybe a few hundred years ago, we didn’t have any proof that the Earth was round, so we thought it was flat. If our government was restrictive, destroyed all evidence saying that the Earth is round, and killed those who tried to say otherwise, then who would believe the Earth is round?

     The end of Part 2 was surprising, but still expected, since Winston is diving deeper into helping the Brotherhood. It’s similar to our world today: if you commit a horrendous crime, like fighting against the government, you’ll probably get caught. But since this is a story, I’d like to assume it ends happily with Winston and Julia surviving and gaining their freedom (I think most stories, especially fiction ones, end happily). However, revolting against the government and succeeding isn’t similar to our current world… yet?      You may be familiar with the news from last month about hundreds of people storming the capitol. Currently, our government is functional and guarantees our freedom, and yet people still found a reason for storming an incredibly important, highly restricted government building, which makes me wonder: how far would the government have to go for the citizens of the US to revolt and succeed ?

  In Part 2, 1984 really started to remind me of other utopian/dystopian books, most notably Brave New World and the Hunger Games, because those are the ones I remember most clearly. I think Winston and Julia’s entrance to the Brotherhood was what caused me to make these comparisons, because they were acknowledging their differences against the suppressed society they live in, similar to how Bernard thought differently in Brave New World, or how Katniss and Peeta rebelled against the government and the Hunger Games. There were also other similarities, such as in 1984, there are the Proles and the “normal people”, similar to how there is a hierarchy of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, etc. in Brave New World (I’m not sure if there is something similar in the Hunger Games, it’s been a while since I read it). Additionally, in 1984, the government and Thought Police are comparable to the Capitol in the Hunger Games, and the “normal people” and the proles in 1984 are comparable to those who live ...

     In chapters 7-8, I especially noticed the economic gap when Winston goes on the walk to where the Proles live. It seems like he judges them to some extent - he talks about the lottery and their appearances, for example, and sounds like he looks down on them. This reminded me of a picture and an article I saw a few days ago. I think it was on Twitter, and it talked about a very poor area in South Korea that neighbored a big, modern city. The picture showed a stark contrast between the two areas, with the sheds and overgrown trees of the poor area in the foreground and the shiny skyscrapers of the city in the background. When I read about Winston’s adventure, I imagined the area with the pub as the rougher area, and I imagined the ministries in the background as the more well-off area. The picture can be seen here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-17/seoul-slum-near-gangnam-guryong-exposes-south-korea-wealth-gap