Part 2 Continued

    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?

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2021 at 7:48 AM

    One interesting contrast between January 6 and any rebellions in the United States that could have any chance of succeeding is the number of people involved. The attack on the capitol was fueled by two-minutes-hate type rhetoric, which only effected the few thousand people there. I think for a revolt to be successful, the government would have to become authoritarian, like the Party in 1984, but it would also have to not implement a surveillance state like Winston and Julia have to deal with - because it's that surveillance that makes Winston and Julia's actions, and any rebellions against the party, futile.

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  2. L. MoffittFebruary 25, 2021 at 7:49 AM

    Interesting question. Difficult one, too. I guess I rather hope we never have to find out how far the government would have to go -- that is, I hope we have other measures in place to ensure we don't need armed revolution -- but I don't want to be naive about this given recent events.

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  3. Grace JuhnFebruary 25, 2021 at 8:08 AM

    Your question brings up an interesting point... how different are we from these people? The biggest difference is probably we utilize the freedom to believe in what we want. With this freedom, there's a lot of people who believe that they deserve something or that their life has to go how they want. So I also wonder what people would think when they aren't given much freedom and how the government would try to prepare for this.

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