[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell

Mention the year of first publication and explain the title.
1949. The book is named 1984 because it was written in 1948 and the writer wanted to predict how it was going to be in 1984.

What part or fragment appealed to you most? Explain why.
The part that Winston and Julia go to O’Brien to talk about the brotherhood. This is because it gave me the feeling that a turning point was about to come, I thought a good and lucky turning point, because I really thought O’Brien was part of the brotherhood, and IO believed everything Winston believed aswell. But it was a very unlucky turningpoint.

What part did you find worst or least interesting? Explain why.
The part in which Winston is reading the book is about 20 pages long, and in the first few pages it appeared to me that everything which was in it I already knew or wasn’t of interest. So I actually skipped that part because I found it so boring.

If you could choose, what person from this story would you like to be? Why?
I wouldn’t like to be any of the persons in the story, at least not the main characters, I would have been happier not to know anything about the horrible politics and all the telescreens, so I’d probably be a prole, not knowing anything and leading a normal and happy life.

Name one character from the book, whom you hated, or could hate. Explain.
I absolutely hated big brother from the first page. A man so selfish to have his own face on every wall, what kind of person is that? A man who wants to control everybody’s life, and wants to be loved so badly that people who don’t love him are tortured and brainwhashed till they do, and then killed, because he doesn’t even want to kill people who don’t love him . What kind of tyrant is this?

In what period was the story set? Does it really matter to know in what period the story takes place? Why is that?
The story was set in 1984, it does matter because the writer wanted to predict what would happen in that period, or wanted to predict how it would be if things went wrong.

Explain why you were or were not satisfied with the ending of the book.
The end was so terribly dramatic I almost cried, there is no way of being satisfied or not, the en was the end. Of course I would have felt better afterwards if Winston had killed big brother and society was turning to normal again, but it just didn’t happen. I think for Winston’s sake that it was good that he was killed. If he was actually killed, I couldn’t really make out if he was, I just hope he was because keeping on living and loving big brother wouldn’t be worth it.
Big brother wasn’t worth staying alive, but anyway, he had no choice, they told him that when he loved big brother he would be killed.

Compare the main character(s) from the beginning of the story with the same persons at the end of it. Has he/she changed? Has he/she achieved or learned something? Explain.
Well the main characters have actually turned around completely. Winston for instance, in the beginning he was still following all orders, but later he found how everyone was ruled, and watched upon, and he started to hate bog brother. For example in the minutes of hate: ‘Thus at one moment Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, The party and the thought police; at such moments his heart went out to the lonely, derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth and sanity in a world of lies’.
He found Julia and so found love. Then he met O’Brien who he trusted but shouldn’t have trusted. Then he was tortured to the insane and brainwashed completely. He actually loved Big brother in the ending while he hated him in the beginning. So actually Winston is completely turned around and put inside out in the end: ‘He had won victory over himself. He loved Big Brother’. The same happened to Julia.

What would you call a story like this? You can choose more than one name.
It’s a science -fiction novel. But it’s also a dramatical story about future politics, and the story of a man.

Is there a turning point in the story, a point after which the story takes a different course? Describe.
The actual turning point in the story is when he finds out that Julia loves him, at that moment he begins to hate the party even more. Winston and Julia begin to work against the party, and together they go to O’Brien, which is actually another turning point, to help in the brotherhood. From this point on everything seems to be fine but is actually so wrong, they are watched upon even more, and it doesn’t take long before they’re arrested.

How much time has passed between the beginning and the end of the story? Describe.
It can be 2 months but also six. He never knows how long he has been in the ministry of love. But I guess it must have been quite a long time.

Has the writer tried to make a point or statement with this story, or has he tried to make something clear? In other words: what is the theme? Explain.
I think the actual theme is a warning against the situation in the book, and so the totalitarian state. At the time When Orwell wrote the book this was a very important topic. Hitler’s try for ruling the whole world had just ended and Stalin’s regime in Russia was popping up in the news. The theme is total political controle, and how important individual freedom is.

Who actually tells the story? IN other words: what is the narrative perspective? Do you see what is happening from the point of view of the main character, or one of the other characters, or the writer? Explain.
The narrative perspective is a "third-person" one, but he doesn’t know everything, for example when Winston is arrested, he doesn’y know what has happened to Julia. He follows Winston everywhere and reads his thoughts.

Where is the story set? Does it really matter where the story takes place? In other words: Why is the setting important or why does the setting not really matter? (Country, town, district, building, indoors/outdoors, etc.)
The story is set in what was called England once. It doesn’t really matter for the story, it could have been any country. It is set in a big city, but it also could have been any city. A part of the story takes place in Winston’s apartment, a part of it at his work, a part in secret hiding places and a part in the ministry of love. These last things do matter because otherwise the story doesn’t make sense.


Would you recommend this book to your classmates or not? Explain why.
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone. Although I think some people might miss the point of the book, it still is a very important story, to show people that a Totalitairian system is terrible and how people can be manipulated.

If you had to give a mark for this book, what would that be?
9

Summary
It is the year 1984 and Winston Smith, a citizen of London, the capital of Airstrip One, works at the Ministry of Truth, Minitrue. Airstrip One is England's new name, since it became part of Oceania, one of the three giant states earth is divided in. The Party, the Party of Big Brother, rules Oceania. BB is a fictional person who resembles a president. His face is on millions of posters, which can be found on every corner of every street. His eyes seem to constantly stare at you. The other two states are Eastasia and Eurasia. Oceania is constantly at war with one of them. Winston works at the Record Department, where he deals with the news, art and entertainment. He has to change newspapers and other paperwork of the past, so they can be used as evidence for what the Party says. E.g., when a newspaper of 1979 says Oceania is at war with Eastasia, but it is at war with Eurasia today, he has to change Eastasia into Eurasia. He gets really pissed off by this idiotic system of deception. One day, he buys a book and a pen in a small proletarian junkshop and starts keeping a diary, which of course is strictly forbidden, it is a thoughtcrime. The Thought Police have been founded to prevent Party Members from committing these crimes. The Thought Police look after the Party Members through telescreens, TVs that also transmit in the other direction. Winston can hide himself from the telescreen in his room on a single spot. That is where he writes his diary.
Winstons neighbours, the Parsons, are the kind of people the Party loves, because they behave really orthodox, they live as they should. Their children betray other, suspicious looking people to the Thought Police, as do all other children who are members of the Spies. At work, Winston fears a woman with dark hair, who later appears to be Julia, a woman he will have sex with on a secret place as a protest against the Party. At first, he thinks of Julia as a Thought Police agent, because she seems to be following him everywhere. Only later, he finds out she's also a rebel against the Party. He also meets a man named O'Brien, a member of the
Inner Party that also seems to rebel against BB. Later, after Winston left a pub in the Proles-area, he enters the old junkshop again, buys a glass paperweight he likes and then the owner,
Mr. Charrington, shows him a backroom Winston could rent. Leaving the shop, Winston sees the girl with the dark hair again and wants to smash her head with the paperweight, but decides not to. Now he is convinced she is a Thought Police spy. When a few days later he sees her walking down the hall of Minitrue and sees her fall, he helps her up and she secretly passes him a note. At his office, he reads it. It says 'I love you'. They arrange a meeting at Victoria Square, a crowded place with no telescreens. Julia tells Winston where they can meet next Sunday. That Sunday, they make love. Winston rents the room above the junkshop, so he and Julia can meet there with no telescreens for miles around and have sex, talk about their hate for the Party and do whatever they like. Important detail: a RAT Winston sees in the room terrifies him. Later, O'Brien meets Winston at Minitrue and tells him to come to his
house together with Julia. They go there and find out O'Brian is a member of the Brotherhood, led by Emmanuel Goldstein, the Party's greatest enemy. They learn that they will receive a book, written by EG, that contains an explanation of the way the world is ruled. Winston reads it to Julia in their room above the junkshop, but she's not interested and falls asleep. Winston also goes asleep. When they wake up the next morning, a picture falls from the wall and Winston sees the telescreen behind it. Thought Police agents rush in and beat them up. Julia is taken away, and Mr. Charrington enters. He is a Thought Police agent too. Winston is being arrested and (probably) taken to the Ministry of Love (Miniluv), where he is put in a cell with four telescreens watching him. Other prisoners are brought in. One of them is Parsons, who is betrayed by one of his children. He is proud of them. O'Brien enters the cell, and Winston finds out O'Brien is not a prisoner, but the chief torturer. O'Brien, who wants to teach Winston doublethink, to be able to reintegrate him in the society later, tortures him. He even wants Winston to live BB. Eventually, Winston agrees to everything and gives the answers O'Brien expects, just to stop the pain, but, he has not betrayed his beloved Julia (yet).
After a short period without torture (Winston does not know how long, there are no clocks and there is no light from outside), O'Brien wants to know how Winston thinks of Big Brother. Winston tells him he hates BB, and he is taken to the notorious room 101, for the final step before reintegration. O'Brien tells Winston that this is the room where his worst
nightmare will come true, and shows him a cage of rats. The cage is fitted around his head, and Winston sees the rats, which are hungry and want to eat him. Then Winston yells: "Do it to Julia, don't do it to me, do it to her!". That was the ultimate betrayal of her and himself and he is immediately released from his imprisonment. When Winston returns to the world, he is a physical and psychological wreck. He does not do anything but drinking, playing chess and working a little. He meets Julia, and they both confess they have betrayed each other in room 101. Later, back in the Chestnut Tree Café, he realises that he loves BIG BROTHER.

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

Boekverslag Engels

1
schrijver: George Orwell
titel: 1984
jaar van 1e publicatie: 1949

2
titelverklaring: De titel is heel makkelijk te verklaren, dit is namelijk het jaar waarin alles zich afspeelt. Wat erg opvallend is natuurlijk, aangezien het boek al in 1949 is geschreven.

3
een beknopte beschrijving van de belangrijkste personages:

Winston: Piekeraar, een man van 39 zonder toekomst en zonder verleden. Er is weinig over zijn verleden te vertellen, aangezien niemand aan het verleden mag denken. Het enige wat hij weet was dat hij rond zijn tiende zijn moeder heeft verloren en dat hij een jonger zusje heeft..Hij werkt op het ministerie van waarheid aan het constant "updaten" van het verleden. Moreel kan hij dit niet voor zichzelf verdedigen, dus hij besluit geestelijk (crimethink) en fysiek tegen het systeem op te komen. Wordt uiteindelijk verliefd op Julia en wil met haar in de Brotherhood, de tegenstanders van Big Brother. Hij wordt uiteindelijk in de val gelokt door O’Brien, die zich voordoet als iemand van de Brotherhood. Hij wordt gevangen genomen en gemarteld totdat hij ook Julia verraad.
Julia: ze is een jonge vrouw, van 26 jaar, die op het oog de meest orthodoxe partijaanhangsters is, niet is echter minder waar. Omdat ze na de revolutie geboren is, komt ze nogal naïef over, qua ideeën over bijvoorbeeld haar toekomstideaal. Maar ze is juist slim door zich voor te doen als een echte partijlid, maar eigenlijk bij de Brotherhood te gaan. Vind in Winston eindelijk iemand waarmee ze haar ideeën tegen de partij kan bespreken.
O´Brien : is net als Julia, niet wie hij werkelijk is. Alleen het verschil met haar is dat hij precies het tegenovergestelde is: O´Brien geeft de indruk aan Winston iemand te zijn van de legendarische "Brotherhood", terwijl in het diepst van zijn ziel gelooft in de ideeën van de partij. Dat hij een uiterst intelligent en sadistisch persoon is maakt hem tot een buitengewoon gevaarlijk mens. Hij is degene die uiteindelijk Winston in de val lokt.


4 plaats van handeling:

Het verhaal speelt zich af in Londen, waar iedereen met camera’s wordt gevolgd. Elke handeling wordt door de partij gevolgd. Het einde van het verhaal speelt zich in: the ministry of love af. Dit is de gevangenis waar Winston gevangen wordt genomen en wordt gebrainwasht, zodat hij van de partij houdt.

5 Het thema:

Het thema van dit boek is denk ik erg uitgebreid: Het is namelijk onderandere een navolging van het nazi-tijdperk. Een tijd van meelopers en tegenstanders, waar lange tijd de meelopers overwonnen. Het gaat er voor een deel om dat te veel mensen hun eigen mening niet durven zeggen maar altijd maar meelopen. Want er waren veel mensen tegen de partij, maar velen hielden uit angst hun mond dicht. Ook kun je het boek als waarschuwing zien.Orwell vertaalt namelijk het fascisme en het stalinisme naar een dreiging die onlosmakelijk met macht verbonden is. Hij waarschuwt voor het ontstaan van dergelijke samenlevingen.
Daarnaast moet je ook uitkijken wie je kunt vertrouwen. Winston vertrouwde O’Brien gewoon te snel, wat uiteindelijk zijn eigen ondergang betekende.

6 Eigen leeservaring:

Een ontzettend interessant boek, waar zoveel achterliggende gedachtes bij zitten. Het komt maar zelden voor dat ik zo snel door een boek heb gelezen omdat ik hem leuk vond.Het is gewoon ongelofelijk hoe je ooit op zo’n verhaal komt. Zeker omdat dit boek over de toekomst is geschreven. Vaak blijkt zo’n boek ongeloofwaardig en saai te zijn, maar dit was alles behalve dat. En het is ook duidelijk te zien dat er over dit verhaal is nagedacht, en dat er niet zo maar iets is verzonnen.

7 citeer een stukje tekst:

CitaatO' brien aan Winston Smith) "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-for ever." Het boek samengevat in 18 woorden. Perfect!!

SAMENVATTING

Winston Smith woont in Airstrip One, de grauwe metropool ergens in Oceanië. Winston werkt bij Minitruth, zijn taak is het verleden te herschrijven. De staat waarin hij leeft is totalitair tot elke hoek van de samenleving is men doordrongen (of hoort men doordrongen te zijn) van de Partij. Overal siert het hoofd van de mythische leider "Big Brother" aanplakbiljetten, overal wordt je in de gaten gehouden en ben je bang het slachtoffer te worden van je eigen gelaatsuitdrukking. In deze omstandigheden komt Winston gevoelsmatig tot het besluit verzet tegen de Partij te plegen. Ergens in een winkeltje in de Prolesbuurt (de onmensen/ verschoppelingen) koopt hij een dagboek om zijn waarheden vast te leggen. Winston heeft hoop, want hij heeft een man gezien die waarschijnlijk een medestander is: ook een persoon die zich verzet. Met het schrijven in het dagboek probeert Winston ook iets anders boven te halen, namelijk zijn verleden, Het Verleden. Hetzelfde verleden dat hijzelf aan het veranderen is.
In een van zijn minieme daden van verzet loopt Winston weer eens de eigenlijk verboden Prolesbuurt in en huurt bij het "dagboekwinkeltje" (zonder een beruchte telescreen: een apparaat waarmee je dag en nacht in de gaten gehouden kan worden). In dezelfde tijd ontmoet hij ook Julia, (of eerder gezegd, Julia maakt contact met hem) een schijnbaar orthodoxe jonge vrouw, maar in wezen een potentieel revolutionair is. De twee krijgen een verhouding (wat verboden is eigenlijk: liefde is taboe), en maken het kamertje op boven de winkel tot hun geheime ontmoetingsplek. Hun gesprekken hier gaan over de idealen, de dromen, de oorlog en het leven; dingen die voor ons de normaalste zaak van de wereld zijn maar in het "Engeland" van Orwell niet meer.
De festiviteiten rond Hate-week zijn in volle gang, Julia en Winston zien elkaar niet zo veel meer. Rond Winston worden de kennissen vaporized, oftewel verwijderd uit de maatschappij. In deze voor het publiek emotionele tijd maakt O´Brien contact met Winston en nodigt hem en Julia uit in zijn ruime huis. Daar maakt hij zich bekent als iemand van de Brotherhood en vraagt of Julia en Winston zich bereid zijn tot elke actie die hen opgedragen wordt. Ze stemmen in en vanaf dat moment verklaren ze zichzelf als dood.
O´Brien regelt daarna voor hen het boek der boeken (Algemene bijbel voor het Verzet) van Goldstein, een in ongenade gevallen revolutionair uit de tijd voor de partij. In dit boek zet hij uiteen hoe de partij maatschappij is opgebouwd is en gehandhaafd kan worden aan de hand van de principes van de partij:
· Ignorance is Strenght (onwetendheid is kracht)
· War is Peace (oorlog is vrede)
· Freedom is Slaverny (vrijheid is slavernij)
Nog nadromend in de roes van het boek wordt de rust wreed verstoord: Julia en Winston worden gearresteerd...
In de gevangenis blijkt dat achter de hele operatie O´Brien te zitten, wat Winston overigens niet eens meer verbaasd. De man die dus een eerste klas orthodox is begint systematisch Winston kapot te maken en hem te voeden met het gegeven dat het verleden maakbaar is en alles wat de partij zegt of doet goed is voor de bestwil van ieder individu. En Winston, die nog met het feit leeft dat de geest het enige onaantastbare plekje van de mens is slaat door...
Na zijn verblijf bij O´Brien leeft Winston nog even in afwachting van zijn executie, vervreemd van de wereld, maar met een diep geloof in de partij en een onuitputtelijke liefde voor Big Brother.

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

George Orwell, 1984



Author:

George Orwell’s real name is Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in Motihari, in India,
the 25th June 1903. He was educated in England at Eton College.After service with the
Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927, he returned to Europe to become a
writer. For several years he lived in poverty. Orwell hated totalitarianism and in 1936 he
joined the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was critical of Communism,
but basically considered himself a Socialist. He was wounded in the fighting. Later, the
Communists would attempt to eliminate their allies on the far left. Orwell fought against
them and was forced to flee Spain for his life.During the Second World War, Orwell wrote a
weekly radio commentary, designed to counter German and Japanese propaganda in India. He
died January 21, 1950.Some of his works are: Down and out in Paris and London (1933),
Burmese days (1934), Keep the Aspidistra flying (1936), The road to Wigan Pier (1937),
Homage to Catalonia (1938), Coming up for air (1939), Animal farm (1945), Nineteen
eighty-four (1949), Shooting an elephant and other essays (1950) and Such, such were the
joys (1953).




Genre:

A science-fiction roman. The novel is science-fiction because it was written in 1949 and
it plays in (see title) 1984.A roman because it’s also about the love.




Theme:

A world without any freedom is terrible. The people in 1984 aren’t free anymore and
the whole situation in the book is ridiculous. It’s almost impossible for a person to
live in a world where it’s never safe to even blink with your eyes.




Time:

The story takes place in the year 1984.




Perspective:

The story is told by a narrator who knows all Winston’s thoughts and follows him
wherever he goes.




Summary:

It is the year 1984. Winston Smith lives in London in Oceania. There are three powerful
nations which rule the world: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia. These three nations are
always at war with eachother. The leader of Oceania is called "Big Brother". He
is the leader of the Party. In Oceania the people are divided into three groups: the
members of the Inner Party, the other members of the party and the proles. The proles are
unimportant. They represent 85 % of the inhabitants of the country, but the Party
doesn’t care about them. As long as they’re held stupid, they won’t cause
any problems. The members of the Party think low of the proles, but in fact their
situation is much worse. They’re being watched the whole day through telescreens and
they don’t have any friends, because they can’t trust anybody. Everybody betrays
eachother. They’ve been made "braindead". They take everything the Party
tells them for granted.

The Party destroys all the evidence from the past. When someone is killed, every little
detail about his life is changed or destroyed. It is as if the person has never existed.
And nobody finds any of this strange, except for Winston. He has heard of rumours about a
Brotherhood that fights against Big Brother, but he doesn’t know if he can believe
them. Sometimes he even thinks he’s crazy.

One day he meets Julia. She’s also a member of the party. They love eachother, but
they can’t meet very often because that’s against the rules of the Party.
Winston and Julia start a relationship.

Then Winston is approached by O’Brien. O’Brien is a member of the Inner Party,
but he says he is a member of the Brotherhood. Winston and Julia join the Brotherhood. But
after a week they are caught by the Thought Police. It appears that they are betrayed by
O’Brien and the man from who Winston rents a room. They are separated and Winston is
taken to the Ministry of Love. Here he’s being tortured for many weeks. During the
tortures he betrays everybody and everything including his love for Julia. Then the Party
has reached his goal. They’ve turned him into someone who loves Big Brother. Now he
is ready to be killed.




Structure




The book is divided into three parts which are divided into chapters. There are no real
flash-backs, although Winston sometimes thinks of the past or remembers passages from the
past. In the book sometimes a language is used that is called "Newspeak". In the
end of the book the writer explains the "Newspeak".









Opinion




I found this really a very original book. I found some parts very good and some parts a
bit boring. It was very funny to read about the situation in Oceania as it was described
in the book, but after a while it got a bit boring. I think it took a little too long. I
was also very excited to read when Winston started to read "the book", but
afterwards I found that part rather disappointing. It took too long, and it didn’t
answer the questions I had. The most exciting part, I found, was when Winston was in the
Ministry of Love. I really enjoyed reading that part.




I was really not happy with the way in which the book ended. I expected from the
beginning that it would be an ending like this, but I hoped it wouldn’t. I would have
liked it if Winston would have escaped to another country or something. Or if he would
have destroyed the Party, would have caused a new revolution. Or if he would had loved
Julia again. A happy ending. Not an open ending like this.




I also found the parts in which was told what Winston wanted to do to Julia (at the
start of the book) rather amusing:









"Suddenly, by the sort of violent effort with which one wrenches one’s head
away from the pillow in a nightmare, Winston succeeded in transferring his hatred from the
face of the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him. Vivid, beautiful hallucinations
flashed through his mind. He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie
her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian. He would ravish
her and cut her throat at the moment of climax." (Page 17)









"As he turned it accured to him that the girl had only passed him three minutes
ago and that by running he could probably catch up with her. He could keep on her track
till they were in some quiet place, and then smash her skull with a cobblestone. The piece
of glass in his pocket would be heavy enough for the job." (page 105)









"The silly blond face beamed into his. Winston had a hallucination of himself
smashing a pickaxe right into the middle of it."

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

George Orwell - 1984



Summary




In the year 1984 the government is continually watching you by telescreens. Telescreens
are some kind of large televisions to which you can talk to and they can also talk back.
They see everything what you are doing at any time of the day. When you do something wrong
the Thought Police will arrest and vaporize you. That’s why most people exactly do
what the party tells them to do. People are “programmed� to love their leader,
Big Brother. But some people refuse to love him, because they aren’t brainwashed to
do everything the Party says. They remember a better world. One of them is Winston Smith,
who works for the Party as a history changer. He sees what the party is doing with people
and what tries to let you believe: things that aren’t true. Winston decided to write
everything down in a secret diary, which he kept in an alcove in his kitchen, hidden for
the Thought Police. You also never had to tell it to anyone, because he never could be
trusted, they could betray you. Even kids do, because the Party learnt it at their
mother’s knee.




Winston was against all these practices and he wanted to meet some people who were also
against the Party, but it was very hard, because you never know whether someone could be
trusted or not. And Winston was lucky: at a night Winston got a note from a girl who has
been following him for a couple of days. The note says that she loved him. After that
moment he felt he loved her and tried to contact her somewhere in a place without any
telescreens or hidden microphones. Because if two party members were seen, they could be
arrested; loving each other was forbidden. Julia, the girl, planned all those secret
meetings and at the first time the made love, just like the other times. At a moment there
was less trouble in meeting, because Winston found a room without a telescreen, above a
Junk-Shop. There he and Julia could make love and talk about everything the wanted to.




Winston and Julia wanted to do more against the party and wanted to join
Goldstein’s brotherhood. Lucky as they are, O’Brien, a colleague of Winston and
Julia, invited them in his house. He was a member of the Innerparty, so he has a big
apartment and a telescreen, which could be turned off. O’Brien welcomed them and told
what the conditions where to join the brotherhood. Winston and Julia excepted everything
and got Goldstein’s book, in which all things about society were written down and
things about history, geography, economy and more like those subjects. It was very boring
and while reading it they fell in sleep in the room above the Junk-Shop.




After they had woken up they saw that people of the Thought Police had surrounded them;
Winston and Julia were arrested. When Winston regained consciousness he was in a cell in
the Ministry of Love. It seemed that Charington the shopkeeper was a member of the Thought
Police and that there was a hidden telescreen in the room. O’Brien, who also works
for the Thought Police has been following Winston for seven years. He arranged it all to
catch people, who commit thought crimes. After the conversation, Winston was taken to room
101, where he was interrogated and maltreated. That’s why he confessed everything
what O’Brien said he had done. Most of the time he confessed things he hadn’t
ever done. After this horrific treatment O’Brien “programmed� him with good
things, to obey it and to believe in it.




After being several months (or weeks, we don’t know) in the Ministry of Love he
was and felt like a wreck. He built his body slowly up to something strong and healthy. He
unfortunately still had the wrong meaning about Big Brother. He hated him and was supposed
to love him. In room 101 he was tortured again and released after they had
“cured� him.




A few days later while he was sitting in a cafe he noticed that he really does love Big
Brother.




Characters




Winston is the main character of the story. I can’t tell much about his
background, because the party expected people not to know anything about the past. So it
was for Winston difficult too, to remember such things. The only thing he told is that he
must have been ten or eleven years old when his mother had disappeared. The other thing
was that he had a sister, who was younger than he was. Winston was always very nasty to
her, because when he was hungry he stole her food. Nowadays he is changed and always very
nice to everyone; the only person he hates is Big Brother. Winston is a 39-year-old man,
who works for the Party as a history changer. That’s why he knows what the Party is
doing with people and begins to hate the Party. He wanted to share his thoughts about the
party with someone else. He succeeded in doing so and met a girl, Julia, whom he fell in
love with. He met her several times, made love with her and wanted to join the Brotherhood
with her against the party. O’Brien invited them and said things they had to do when
they wanted to join in. Those were the worst things, like maltreating a child and kill
innocent people in large numbers. This showed how very much he hated the Party.
Unfortunately O’Brien was a member of the Thought Police. He had been following
Winston for seven years. In the Ministry of Love he had to confess everything he had done,
even things he hadn’t done, because he was afraid of the electrical shocks they gave
him when he lied. Finally he betrayed Julia, because he couldn’t stand the torturing
and was programmed to love Big Brother.




Julia is a 26 year old woman, who works for the Party; first on the novel writing
machines in the Fiction Department and later for the Pornography Department, producing
cheap pornography for the proles. She hates the Party and could share her thoughts with
Winston after she had said that she loved him. Julia is a very handsome girl with a
youthful body and was clever too. She makes the Party believe she is on their side by
working for the anti-sex movement. But in reality she seizes every opportunity to make
love with another party member to rebel against the Party. Julia walks in the trap of
O’Brien, too, and was tortured and “reprogrammed� to love Big Brother.




O’Brien is a person who is, most of the time, at the background of the story. At
the end he became important. O’Brien is a member of the innerparty, so he lives very
pleasantly. He is very shabby, because he pretends to be against the Party in order to
lure Julia and Winston into his trap. He wanted them to love Big Brother and did that with
dirty tricks. In reality he is a spy for the Thought Police and interrogated Winston and
Julia and maltreated them too. He isn’t very nice.





A person I would like to meet is Big Brother. I want to know if he is real or just a
figment of the Party’s imagination. I think he is a very strange person and I would
like to ask him why he had made the world like this in the year 1984.

A person I would not like to meet is one of the agents of the Thought Police, because
they are very cruel to everyone who commits thought crimes. And I don’t like to be
tortured.




Place




The story takes place in the future, in London. There are in 1984 three superstates and
one of them is Oceania where the whole story takes place. The other states are Eurasia and
Eastasia. In London, there are a few places where the story takes place. In the city is
the house of Winston and there is the room, which Winston hired because he thought it was
the only place without a telescreen. There Julia and Winston met each other secretly and
it was a rest in the daily chaos. Before they met there, they met each other in the
country, where there were no microphones or telescreens either. The other important places
were in the city of London again. It was the Ministry of Love where Winston and Julia were
interrogated.




Time




The story takes place in 1984. But it is not the past; it is the future. You would
notice this, because there is hypermodern stuff like telescreens, which you could talk to
and they could talk back. They keep an eye on you wherever you are. Many things are
comparable to the 20th and the 21st century. Because of things in the book that are
reality nowadays, maybe in some different ways, but they are comparable. In 1984, it was
forbidden to know anything about the past and so it was difficult to tell something about
the expired time, but I do know that the story is chronologically told.




Genre




The genre of the book is that it a future novel with also some elements of a love
story.




I think the story is very realistic. Orwell shows a system, which has much power over
the people and keeps an eye on them. Our society is almost just like here.




Title




I think the title is well chosen in the time when the book was written, because the
title used refers to the future. Nowadays it is hard to imagine that it is still a future
novel, because we are living in the 21st century and 1984 is past. But because the book is
situated in 1984 I find the title good enough. Another suitable title nowadays could be
“Big Brother� or “Big Brother is watching you�.




The book




Year of first publishing: 1949 (Secker and Warburg)




Year of publishing I’ve read: 1990




Publisher: Penguin Books




Pages: 325

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

Author: George Orwell, born 1903, died 1950.
The Book: first published in 1949

Main Characters: Winston Smith, a round character, employee at the Ministery of Truth at the Records department and so a member of the Party. He is silently an opposant of the regime and has a love-affair with Julia. At one time he thinks he becomes a member of an underground organization, but in fact he is mislead by the Party and soon he is arrested. He "disappears" and becomes an "un-person". He is transported to the Ministery of Love and tortured and threatened until he is "cured". Winston Smith has become an "orthodox" member of the Party, but because of his deeds in the past he is shot after having lived a few months in freedom.

Julia, a curved character, employee at the Fiction Department, has a love-affair with Winston, she is also with Winston when they become members of the underground. At the same time arrested as Winston, what happened with her after the arrestation I don't know.

O'Brien, a curved character, a member of the Inner-Party, Winston thinks he's a member of the Underground and thinks to enter this organization with his help, O'Brien makes it seem he wants to help, and gives them "the book" of underground. Later Julia and Winston are arrested, and at a moment Winston is tortured by O'Brien, so O'Brien has mislead Winston and Julia.

Theme: No one is safe under the regime of totalitarians.

Setting: The story takes place in London, a city in Oceania, one of the three countries left. Oceania is Great-Brittain, both Americas, the pacific and Australia. The other countries are Eurasia and Eastasia. These three are always in war with each other, in changing alliances, they're fighting in Africa and India. The regime in each of the three lands is very the same, and the real goal of each of the regimes is to maintain it's power, so the state are constantly in state of war, because people are more easily forced to do what the regimes wants them to do. The legendary leader of the Party in Oceania is "Big Brother" and everywhere are posters with his face and the text: "Big Brother Is Watching You." Every one is really watched all the time, because also are everywhere so-called telescreens, with wich the party watches its citizens 24 hours a day. The Party is also introducing a new language, "new-speak" with wich all words not liked by the party are banned, words like equal and freedom. There's also a principle called "double-think", it means that the party is always right, and orthodox people are able to switch memories very fast. During a meeting, the news arrives that the alliance is switched from Eurasia to Eastasia and everybody is yelling because the Underground has changed all posters, the enemie is not Eurasia, like the posters say, but Eastasia, like the party say, the party is always right, so the underground has changed the posters.The year is about 1984, but it's unsure since the years aren't count anymore.

Narrative Technique: The author is outside the plot, the events are chronological order, there are flahbacks,about the childhood of Winstom, how there was war and hunger in those times, how his mother and sister disappeared.

Symbolism: The Party stands for the german nazi party and the russian communist party and all other totalitarian regimes. The whole book is a warning against such regimes who only seek power for the power, in this book O'Brien asks Winston why the party seeks total power and the answer is not for the proles or something, as the pary's slogans say, but for the power.

Genre: alternative realism

Explanation of the Title: 1984 is the year the story takes place in. When Orwell wrote the book it was 1948, so 1984 was the future then, he switched the 8 and the 4 of the year he was writing the book.

Language: the language is easy to read, not rather formal nor colloquial, there's rather a lot of dialogue.

Turning point: When Winston and Julia are arrested.

Summary: Winston Smith works at the Records Department of the Minstery of Truth (Minitruth, in Newspeak). At one day he comes across Julia, and she hands him a paper over, she tells him she in love with Winston. They have several secret meetings. At a moment Winston has hired an old room above a junk store in the proles quarter, there are no telescreens and hidden microphones, he thinks. From that moment they meet in the little room. After a few days, Winston and Julia go to O'Brien, they're invited, they think they enter the underground, and they receive "The Book"(of the underground, by Samuel Goldstein, a jew, against whom every day demonstrations are held) a few days later, Winston reads it out for Julia at their secret room, but then they're arrested. Winston and Julia are separated. Winston is tortured a long time in the Ministery of Love (Minluv), and after a few months he undergoes his final tests, he is questioned by O'Brien. His very final test is at room 101, they make the worst nightmeres of one come to live here, after he is deliberated. He can live a few months in freedom, but because of the tortures, he has became an "orthodox" party member. He has been cured in the Miniluv. The book ends: "He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

Personal opinion: I think it a great book.

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

Dit verslag heeft 3 sterren = goed boekverslag, met extra's!

1984 - George Orwell

Number of pages : "241".

1. Mention the year of first publication and explain the title.

The book was first published in 1949. I think that the title can be explained in three ways. Firstly 1984 is 1948 in reverse. Orwell wrote the book in ’48 so he just had to change the numbers and 1984 was the title. Secondly the whole book happens in the year 1984. Thirdly the book was written just after World War II, where Orwell thinks lays a beginning of a new war, a cold war. It’s the beginning of a run to a Totalitarian State. He suspects that it will be so in the year 1984.


2. What part or fragment appealed to you most? Explain why.

I actually liked two parts of the book very much. One is when O'Brien says to Winston: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-for ever." I liked this part so much because I think that it summaries the whole book. But the following part appealed to me most:

"Do it to Julia ! Do it to Julia ! Not me ! I don´t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me ! Julia ! Not me!"
He was falling backwards, into enormous depts, away from the rats. He was still strapped in the chair, but he had fallen through the floor, through the walls of the building, through the earth, trough the oceans, through the atmosphere, into outer space, into the gulfs between the stars-always away, away from the rats. He was light-years distant, but O´Brien was still standing at his side. There was still the cold touch of a wire against his cheek. But through the darkness that enveloped him he heard metallic click and knew that the cage had click shut and not open."

This is because by saying this, he breaks his promise to Julia. It also shows that Winston believed that he could fight against O'Brien, but at last he was no competition for him, by swaying for his biggest fear: rats.

3. Which part did you find worst or least interesting? Explain why.

The part that least interests me, was when Winston sat in the canteen with Parson. This is because I think that this part is not interesting for the rest of the story. It could easily have been left out.

4. If you could choose, what person from this story would you like to be? Why?

I think that if I could chose, I would like to be Big Brother. I only want this because I want to know if he is real and not just a strategy step from the party. If I could be him (that is if he really does exist), then I would know why he made such a terrible and totally dishonourable world. I am just curious for his underlying idea(s).

5. Name one character from the book, whom you hated, or could hate. Explain.

I could hate O'Brien, since he acts as though he is a friend of Winston, but at the end he betrays him, because he is from the Party and brainwashes him. I do not like people who pretend to be someone they are not, and betray someone's trust by doing so.

6. In what period is the story set? (If you don't know the exact dates, mention the period as follows: 1600-1650; 1950-2000, etc.) Does it really matter to know in what period the story takes place? Why is that?

The story is set in the year 1984, but not the past; it is the future. You notice this, because there are hypermodern stuff like telescreens. They keep an eye on you wherever you are. Many things are comparable to the 20th and the 21st century. For this book it does not really matter in what year it is set. You just have to keep in mind that this book is set in the future.

7. Explain why you were or were not satisfied with the ending of the book.

I was satisfied with the ending of the book, because here you could see what room 101 means. In addition, it shows the real influence of the party, how they brainwash and manipulate. Especially the fact that Winston and Julia break their promise to each other about always keeping their love intact, puts this influence extra in prospectus. It is very understandable that in the end, after room 101, they feel guilty towards each other and rather do not want to be together.

8. Compare the main character(s) from the beginning of the story with the same persons at the end of it. Has he/she changed? Has he/she achieved or learned something? Explain.

Winston is a 39-year-old man, who works for the Party as a history changer. That is why he knows what the Party is doing with people and begins to hate the Party. He wanted to share his negative thoughts about the party with someone else. He succeeded in doing so and met a girl, Julia, whom he fell in love with. He met her several times, made love with her and wanted to join the Brotherhood with her against the party. Then he is arrested. In the Ministry of Love, he had to confess everything he had done, even things he had not done, because he was afraid of the electrical shocks they gave him when he "lied". Finally, he betrayed Julia, because he could not stand the torturing and was programmed to love Big Brother. This is one of the most bizarre and scariest characterchange ever. Winston's mind is totally broken down, brainwashed, in order for O'Brain to build it up again. Meaning this is not only a characterchange, but also a change in the feeling deep down in the soul of a human.

9. What would you call a story like this? You can choose more than one name.

Science-fiction, distopia

10. Is there a turning point in the story, a point after which the story takes a different course? Describe.

The turning point in this book is when Winston and Julia are arrested. Before this event, they both "fight" against Big Brother, have their own thoughts, really love each other and promise that whatever happens they will always keep on loving each other. After the arrest they are brainwashed, start to think in the big brother way and they both let each other down in room 101, when they scream to do it to their partner (meaning their love promise is broken).

11. How much time has passed between the beginning and the end of the story? Describe.

In 1984, it was forbidden to know anything about the past and so it is difficult to tell something about the expired time, but I think that the story has taken place in one year. I think this because otherwise the title would not contain only one year.

12. Has the writer tried to make a point or statement with this story, or has he tried to make something clear. In other words, what is the theme? Explain.

George Orwell warns for the fact that the world will eventually be taken over by one person, or a group of people such as the government, so that it will become a Totalitarian State. They will try to do so by defeating not only the human body, but the human mind and soul as well. It will be a world without freedom, and privacy would not exist. This book shows that it is impossible to "live in a world where it's never safe to even blink with your eyes". Orwell shows his idea in such a way, that it is evident that should a group of people attempt such a thing, only human qualities such as moral and courage would be able to resist and defeat it.

13. Who actually tells the story? In other words: what is the narrative perspective? Do you see what is happening from the point of view of the main character, of one of the other characters, or the writer? Explain.

In the beginning of the story, it seems that the book is written in third person narrative, which really helps to explain the strange systems in the book, such as the telescreen, the Thought Police, and the institutions named in Newspeak (the language The Party would like to be predominantly spoken in Oceania): Minitrue, Miniluv and Minipax. Nevertheless, later you can conclude that the narrator is an omniscient one, since he does not appear in the story, so we can conclude that the writer is also the narrator. He is only an observer. He has full knowledge of actions, thoughts and emotions. The narrator (Orwell) gives a personal and coloured version of the events. He warns the reader for the things described in the book.

14. Where is the story set? Does it really matter where the story takes place? In other words: Why is the setting important or why does the setting not really matter? (country, town, district, building, indoors/outdoors etc.)

The world is divided into three parts: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia who all are at war with each other. The story is playing in London, fictional England (called Airstrip one), which is a part of Oceania. Oceania is being watched by telescreens of the government. The telescreens see everything you are doing and hear every sound you are making. If the Thoughtpolice thinks that you are taking actions or thinking about taking actions against the Party, they make you disappear and you become an 'unperson'. There are a few places in London where this story takes place. In the house of Winston, in the room Winston has hired (where he thinks there is no telescreen, but there is). It is this room where Winston en Julia meet, before they met each other in the country, where there were no telescreens and microphones. Most of part three is set in the Miniluv, where Julia and Winston are interrogated. I think that it is important to know the setting, because then you know if they talk freely (no telescreen). Also if the whole background was set up differently, the writer would have lost his main point, and the book would have no purpose anymore.

15. Would you recommend this book to your classmates or not? Explain why?

Yes, I would recommend this book to my classmates, because I think that this is a book from which we can learn something. Despite of that, when you get used to the language (sometimes Newspeak is used), it is an easy book to read.

16. If you had to give a mark for this book, what would that be?

I would give this book a nine.

17. Make a brief summary of the most important events in the story. (minimum is 1x A4)

Part I sets up the misery of Winston's world before he outwardly expresses any sort of rebellion.

Winston Smith is living in London, Chief City of Airstrip One (formerly known as England), in the superstate of Oceania. It is, he thinks, 1984.

Oceania is a totalitarian state dominated by the principles of Ingsoc (English Socialism) and ruled by an ominous organisation known simply as the Party. Oceania and the two other world superstates, Eurasia and Eastasia, are involved in a continuous war over the remaining world, and constantly shift alliances. Actually, the war is fake and serves to hold onto absolute power over the people.

Oceanic society is hierarchical and oligarchic. At the bottom, where the vast majority of the population lies, are the "proles" or proletariat, the working classes who are uneducated and largely left alone by the government except when it is necessary to tap into mass patriotism or political participation. Above the proles is the Outer Party, less privileged members of the Party who spend their time keeping the wheels of the Party machine well-oiled and running smoothly. These people are systematically brainwashed from a young age and are kept under constant surveillance by ubiquitous "telescreens" (which can receive and transmit visual and aural impulses simultaneously) and the ominous Thought Police. Above the Outer Party are the Inner Party members, who enjoy the fruits of power and production, and whose sole aim is to perpetuate power for the Party, forever. At the very top of the pyramid is Big Brother, the embodiment of the Party, a "face" and glorified persona, which it is easier to love than an abstract collective organisation.

Winston does not pay attention to his fears, he is overwhelmed with the need to impose some sanity upon his world. Winston is a rebel at heart, a heretic who does not subscribe to Party doctrines or beliefs.

Winston's diary and his dreams and memories of the past are all testament to his need to anchor himself in the past, believing it to be more sane than the world he lives in now. The description of his dreams and memories gradually unfolds the developments that have led to the current world order.

Despite his horror at the Party's destruction of the past, Winston enjoys his part in it, taking pleasure in using his imagination in rewriting Big Brother's speeches and such.

It becomes apparent, through a painstaking unfolding of detail, that the standards of living in Oceania are tolerable. For the majority of the population, goods are scarce, and everything is ugly and tastes horrible. Depressed, Winston wonders if the past was better. He wonders if people ever did enjoy marriage, if sex was pleasurable, if there were enough goods to go around.

Winston feels that the only hope lies in the proles, if they wake up one day and realise that they are not living the kind of life they could have.

Tormented by memories and searching for answers, Winston walks aimlessly through a prole area. Eventually, he finds himself in front of the antique shop where he had bought the diary. He enters and buys a beautiful glass paperweight. Mr. Charrington talks to him some more and shows him an upstairs room furnished with old furniture. There is no telescreen in this room, surprising Winston, and inspiring him to consider renting this room as a hiding place, though he immediately dismisses the idea as lunacy. Still, enchanted, he resolves to come back sometime.

Upon leaving the shop, he is startled to see a girl with dark hair who works in his Ministry. There is no reason for her to be in this area, and he deduces she must have been following him. Terrified, he hurries home and tries to write in his diary, but cannot.

The second part of the book traces hopeful events.

It opens with a startling encounter with the girl with dark hair. They pass one another in a corridor. She trips and falls on her injured arm; Winston helps her up. As he does, she slips him a note. He is surprised but tries not to show it. When he finally reads it, he is astonished to see that it says, "I love you."

After an other short meeting, they decide to go to the countryside on Sunday. That specific day they talk and make love. They manage to see each other in private once more that month. They talk as much as they can and get to know one another's personalities and histories.

Finally, the pressures and troubles of arranging meetings induce them to take the risky step of renting Mr. Charrington's upstairs room. In this room, they start to act like a married couple. As time passes, they grow closer and talk about escaping together, though they know it is impossible.

At about this time, O'Brien, an Inner Party member for whom Winston feels an inexplicable reverence, and some sort of bond, suddenly makes an overture, presenting Winston with his address. This seems to be a sign. Winston and Julia go to O'Brien's flat together. There they are inducted into the Brotherhood, a legendary underground anti-Party organisation founded by Emmanuel Goldstein, a former Party member. O'Brien gives them instructions and details on what to expect and what not to expect.

Winston has received a book, the bible of the Brotherhood written by Goldstein, but has not had time to read it. All workers are given the rest of the day off, and he and Julia head separately for their upstairs room.

There Winston reads a good deal about what he already knows. Julia comes in, and after they make love he settles down to read the book to her. She falls asleep, and shortly after he realises this, he closes the book and goes to sleep too.

After waking up and enjoying the world's nature, they suddenly hear a voice and jump apart. There has been a telescreen in the room, behind a picture hanging over the bed. Winston and Julia have been caught. Helpless, they are taken away by the Thought Police, their momentary glimpse of happiness shattered.

Part III recounts the downfall of Winston and Julia.

After being held in a common prison for a while, Winston is transferred to the Ministry of Love. He sits in his cell, starving, thirsty, tortured by fear, waiting for he does not know what. As he waits, people come in and out, including Ampleforth, the poet from his department, and Parsons, who has been denounced by his seven-year-old daughter. Other people he does not know come in, and through them he hears about "Room 101," which seems to terrify everyone. He thinks longingly of being smuggled a razor blade by the Brotherhood, though he knows he probably wouldn't use it.

At last, the door opens and, to his utter shock, Winston sees O'Brien come in. His assumption is that O'Brien has been captured; but it turns out that O'Brien was never a member of the Brotherhood, and that the whole thing had been a trap.

Winston is tortured and interrogated for a seemingly endless time. Somehow, he feels that O'Brien is behind it all, directing the entire process with a twisted kind of love. Finally he finds himself alone with O'Brien, who tells him he is insane and that they are to work together to cure him. They have a discussion, a discussion which finally answer Winston's former question, "WHY?" The Party, O'Brien explains with a lunatic intensity, seeks absolute power, for power's own sake. Winston cannot argue; every time he does he faces an other system that has answers to everything. His final attempt to argue with O'Brien ends in O'Brien showing Winston himself in the mirror. Winston is beyond horrified to see that he has turned into a sickly, disgusting sack of bones, beaten into a new face.

After this, Winston submits to his re-education. He is no longer beaten; he is fed at regular intervals; he is allowed to sleep (though the lights, of course, never go out). He seems to be making "progress," but underneath he is still holding onto the last remaining kernel of himself and his humanity: his love for Julia. This comes out when, in the midst of a dream, Winston cries aloud, "Julia! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!"

This thoughtcrime is his undoing. He is taken to Room 101, where he is threatened with the possibility of being eaten alive by rats. Insane with panic and terror, he screams that they should do it to Julia, not him. Physically he is saved by this betrayal; but it has wiped away the last trace of his humanity and his ability to hold himself up with any sort of pride.

At the end of the book, he and Julia no longer love each other; after Room 101, this is impossible for both of them. He is waiting for his death. When he hears that Oceania has won a major victory against Eurasia and that she now has complete control over Africa, Winston is just as triumphantly excited as everyone else is. He gazes up at the portrait of Big Brother with new understanding. At last, he loves Big Brother.

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

Auteur: George Orwell
Titel: Nineteen eighty-four
Uitgeverij: Penguin Books
Jaar van uitgave: 1989
Stippen: 3
Het boek in 1949 geschreven als toekomstvisie van de schrijver, een parodie/waarschuwing voor de dictoriale maatschappijen als in de Sowjetunie onder Stalin. Het eerste mijn eerste boek van Orwell, op aanraden van mhr. van Zutphen (voor geschiedenis is het boek ook goed leesbaar.

Waar en wanneer speelt het verhaal zich af ?
Het verhaal is gesitueerd in het Engelse Londen (in het boek heet het Airstrip one) van 1984 (wat voor de schrijver 35 jaar in de toekomst ligt) een stuk van een van de drie werelddelen: Oceanië. Het feit dat het verhaal in de toekomst afspeelt, heeft tot gevolg dat de schrijver zijn visie naar hartelust kan formuleren en de leefwereld zo grauw en uitzichtloos heeft kunnen maken. Verder heeft de auteur zijn aardrijkskundige fantasie flink in het boek los kunnen laten: Orwell heeft z´n best gedaan om een gloedje nieuwe wereldorde op onze aardkloot te scheppen.

Wat je eerste indruk ?
Op zich had ik het boek nooit gekozen als ik niet het advies van andere enthousiaste lezers had gehad om het te proberen (de kaft ziet namelijk niet bepaald uitnodigend uit). Verder was het eerste stuk van het boek even doorbijten en moeilijk door te komen. Maar na een tijdje wen je aan de setting van het verhaal en wordt het boek goed leesbaar.

Schrijf een korte samenvatting.
Winston Smith woont in Airstrip one, de grauwe metropool ergens in Oceanië. Winston werkt bij minitruth, zijn taak is het verleden te herschrijven. De staat waarin hij leeft is totalitair tot elke hoek van de samenleving is men doordrongen (of hoort men doordrongen te zijn) van de Partij. Overal siert het hoofd van de mythische leider "Big Brother" aanplakbiljetten, overal wordt je in de gaten gehouden en ben je bang het slachtoffer te worden van je eigen gelaatsuitdrukking. In deze omstandigheden komt Winston gevoelsmatig tot het besluit verzet tegen de Partij te plegen. Ergens in een winkeltje in de prolesbuurt (de on-mensen/verschoppelingen) koopt hij een dagboek om zijn waarheden vast te leggen. Winston heeft hoop, want hij heeft een man gezien die waarschijnlijk een medestander is: ook een persoon die zich verzet. Met het schrijven in het dagboek probeert Winston ook iets anders boven te halen, namelijk zijn verleden, Het Verleden. Hetzelfde verleden dat hijzelf aan het veranderen is.
In een van zijn minieme daden van verzet loopt Winston weer eens de eigenlijk verboden prolesbuurt in en huurt bij het "dagboek-winkeltje" (zonder een beruchte telescreen: een apparaat waarmee je dag en nacht in de gaten gehouden kan worden). In dezelfde tijd ontmoet hij ook Julia, (of eerder gezegd, Julia maakt contact met hem) een schijnbaar orthodoxe jonge vrouw, maar in wezen een potentieel revolutionair is. De twee krijgen een verhouding (wat verboden is eigenlijk: liefde is taboe), en maken het kamertje op boven de winkel tot hun geheime ontmoetingsplek. Hun gesprekken hier gaan over de idealen, de dromen, de oorlog en het leven; dingen die voor ons de normaalste zaak van de wereld zijn (nee, niet de HEMA) maar in het "Engeland" van Orwell niet meer.
De festiviteiten rond Hate-week zijn in volle gang, Julia en Winston zien elkaar niet zo veel meer. Rond Winston worden de kennissen vaporized, oftewel verwijderd uit de maatschappij. In deze voor het publiek emotionele tijd maakt O´Brien contact met Winston en nodigt hem en Julia uit in zijn ruime huis. Daar maakt hij zich bekent als iemand van de Brotherhood en vraagt of Julia en Winston zich bereid zijn tot elke actie die hen opgedragen wordt. Ze stemmen in en vanaf dat moment verklaren ze zichzelf als dood.
O´Brien regelt daarna voor hen het boek der boeken (Algemene bijbel voor het Verzet) van Goldstein, een in ongenade gevallen revolutionair uit de tijd voor de partij. In dit boek zet hij uiteen hoe de partij maatschappij is opgebouwd is en gehandhaafd kan worden aan de hand van de principes van de partij:
Ignorance is strength (onwetendheid is kracht)
War is peace (oorlog is vrede)
Freedom is slavery (vrijheid is slavernij)
Nog nadromend in de roes van het boek wordt de rust wreed verstoord: Julia en Winston worden gearresteerd...
In de gevangenis blijkt dat achter de hele operatie O´Brien te zitten, wat Winston overigens niet eens meer verbaasd. De man die dus een eerste klas orthodox is begint systematisch Winston kapot te maken en hem te voeden met het gegeven dat het verleden maakbaar is en alles wat de partij zegt of doet goed is voor de bestwil van ieder individu. En Winston, die nog met het feit leeft dat de geest het enige onaantastbare plekje van de mens is slaat door...
Na zijn verblijf bij O´Brien leeft Winston nog even in afwachting van zijn executie, vervreemd van de wereld, maar met een diep geloof in de partij en een onuitputtelijke liefde voor Big Brother.

Wie zijn de hoofdpersonen ?
De hoofdpersonen in het boek zijn (in order of appearance): Winston Smith, Julia en Mr O´Brien.
b Geef een korte beschrijving.
Smith: Piekeraar, een man zonder toekomst en zonder verleden. Hij werkt op het ministerie van waarheid aan het constant "updaten" van het verleden. Moreel kan hij dit niet voor zichzelf verdedigen, dus hij besluit geestelijk (crimethink) en fysiek tegen het systeem op te komen.
Julia: ze is een jonge vrouw, in de twintig, die op het oog de meest orthodoxe partij-aanhangster is, niet is echter minder waar. Omdat ze na de revolutie geboren is, komt ze nogal naïef over, qua ideeën over bijvoorbeeld haar toekomst-ideaal.
O´Brien is net als Julia, niet wie hij werkelijk is. Alleen het verschil met haar is dat hij precies het tegenovergestelde is: O´Brien geeft de indruk aan Winston iemand te zijn van de legendarische "Brotherhood", terwijl in het diepst van zijn ziel gelooft in de ideeën van de partij. Dat hij een uiterst intelligent en sadistisch persoon is maakt hem tot een buitengewoon gevaarlijk mens.
c Zijn de personen "flat" of round caracters" ?
De hoofdrolspelers in 1984 zijn "rond" beschreven, hun hele ik wordt in het boek doorgelicht. Als je het boek leest weet je van sommige hoofd en bijrollen niet meer of hun belangrijkste eigenschappen nou echt zijn of "gespeeld"
d Is er bij de personen sprake van "caracter development" ?
In het boek wordt een van de meest bizarre en enge karakterveranderingen beschreven. Winstons geest wordt zo gebroken dat O´Brien het volgens zijn eigen visie het weer op kan bouwen. Het is dus niet alleen een karakterverandering maar ook een wijziging in het gevoel en diepste wezen van de mens.

Wat is het perspectief ?
Het is verhaal wordt vertelt door een alwetende verteller, Die zich op Winston richt. Je bekijkt het verhaal dus zeg maar door zijn ogen, waardoor het boek over het algemeen subjectief genoemd kan worden.

a Hoe is het verhaal opgebouwd ?
aanloop: Een beschrijving van de leefwereld van Winston en zijn eerste kleine vormen van verzet tegen INGSOC dat uitmondt in zijn verhouding met Julia en zijn aansluiting (althans dat denkt hij) bij de "Brotherhood"
middenstuk: Het boek van Goldstein. De arrestatie en zijn martelingen bij O´Brien.
slot: Het laatste deel van Winstons leven, als volwaardig partijganger. De climax ligt ook in het slot, en wel in de laatste zin: "He loved Big Brother" dat aangeeft dat de menselijke geest maakbaar is.
b Wordt het verhaal chronologisch verteld ?
Ja, het boek volgt de volgorde van tijd.
c Zijn er flashforwards en/of -backs ?
Ja, Winston probeert zich dingen te herinneren van de tijd voor de revolutie. Daarvan komen soms flitsen van in zijn geheugen terug, meestal in droomvorm over zijn moeder. In andere dromen ziet hij soms het landschap waar hij en Julia voor het eerst bij elkaar zullen komen (flashforward).

Geef een verklaring van de titel ?
"Nineteen eighty-four", deze titel is heel simpel uit te leg- gen, 1984 is namelijk het jaar waarin het boek zich afspeelt, het jaar waarin Winstons hele leven verandert en jaar waarin Orwell zijn in 1949 gepubliceerde toekomstvisie neerpoot.

Wat is het thema van het verhaal ?
Het verhaal is als je het goed bekijkt een flinke waarschuwing voor de toekomst (link naar dictaturen als Nazi-Duitsland en regime van Stalin) en heeft dus een vette moraal. Als thema zou je "Zowel de wereld als de menselijke geest is maakbaar" kunnen nemen.

Wat vind je goed in het boek ?
Ik vond een spannend en tegelijkertijd eng boek. Het plot is erg goed en het "boek van Goldstein" is briljant. Ik prijs mij zelf gelukkig dat ik het gelezen heb.
GOED/MOOI:
newspeak
boek Goldstein
spannend
O´Brien
zorgvuldigheid

SLECHT/SAAI:
kaft
wederom O´Brien (deze man is zo erg de slecht- heid zelve dat gewoon in dit rijtje thuis hoort)
moeilijk in het begin
niet "up to date"
dromen Winston

In tegenstelling tot "Hommage to Catalonia" heeft het lezen van het hele boek heeft mijn eerste indruk niet gestaafd. Het boek was het dus erg waard om te lezen.

De regels die me het meest troffen komen van blz. 227-228 waarin O´Brien Winston naar room 101 (het nummer dat bijna een mythische betekenis heeft gekregen) stuurt en hij een masker op krijgt dat in verbinding staat met een kooi met ratten die zijn gezicht willen verscheuren:
"Do it to Julia ! Do it to Julia ! Not me ! I don´t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me ! Julia ! Not me!"
He was falling backwards, into enourmous depts, away from the rats. He was still strapped in the chair, but he had fallen through the floor, through the walls of the building, through the earth, trough the oceans, through the atmosphere, ito outer space, into the gulfs between the stars-always away, away from the rats. He was lightyears distant, but O´Brien was still standing at his side. There was still the cold touch of a wire against his cheek. But through the darkness that enveloped him he heard metallic click and knew that the cage had click shut and not open.
In dit stuk lees je hoe panisch Winston is: hij zou iedereen behalve hemzelf dit toewensen en hier staat O´Brien (van wie we aan de ene kant in al onze "sadistisch-heid" hopen dat hij het luikje open maakt en aan de andere kant door de sympathie voor Winston hopen dat hij het niet doet) als de grote beul, die natuurlijk voor Winston als deze het luikje niet open doet zijn redder is. Het thema blijkt hieruit, want je ziet dat Winston tot het laatste moment heeft geloofd dat hij opgewassen was tegen O'Brien, maar uiteindelijk toch voor zijn grootste angst heeft moeten zwichten...

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

In 1984 Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth in London, which is now the capital city of Airstrip One, the name England has been gi@,en. [t belongs to Oceania, one of the three totalitarian states into which the carth has been divided. Oceania is always at war with one of the other states, Eurasia and Eastasia.
Winston Smith works in the Records Department, where he deals with news, art and entertainment. He is generally dissatisfied with the system. Therefore he starts a diary. The only place he can do this is an alcove in his flat where he cannot be watched by the telescreens, which work two ways. Starting a diary is a thoughtcrime, a verry serious crime, because it is an individual act.
Winston has been present at the Two Minutes Hate and has been driven into a violent hatred of Goldstein, the most dangerous enemy of the state. After Goldstein Big Brother always appears on the sereen and then the three mottoes of the Party: War is Peace, Freedoni is Slavery and lgnorance is Strength.
That mornitig Winston meets a man called O'Brien and he has the feeling that O'Brien hates the Party jijst as much as he does.
When Winston helps a neighbour with a clogged sink, he is called a traitor and a spy by the neighbour's children. Children now even spy and report on their palrents to the Thought Police.
Sometimes Winston dreams of his childhood, hut since he was young the war has been continuous and it is impossible to remember exactly what happened, because history is continually changed in the interest of the Party. At this moment Oceania is at war with Eurasia, as it has always been, the Party says, but Winston remembers that four years ago the enemy was Eastasia.
Winston's job is to change records, a job he is good at. He has to revise newspapers and books constantly, so that they can be used as evidence for what the Party says. This way the history of Oceania always conforms to whatever ideology the Party is preaching. In these documents Winston often has to use Newspeak, which is without any supertluous words.
This day Winston is changing a newspaper report in which Big Brother praises the comrade Whitbers, who is an 'unperson' now. Winston invents a speech in which Big Brother praises a non-existent man called Ogilvy.
At lurichtime Winston meets Syme, a specialist in Newspeak, who is working on the Newspeak Dictionary. Syme and his colleagues work on the destruction of words, cutting the language down to what is essential. When there are no words left with which to commit thoughtcrime, the Revolution will be complete.
Winston's neighbour, Parsons, joins them and proudiy tells them how his daughter, a member of the Spies, a children's organisation, has handed over a man with unusual shoes to the patrols.
Winston thinks that the only hope for the future lies in the proles, who form 85 per cent of the population. They had been suppressed by the capitalists, the Party says, and now they are treated as inferior creatures whose only interests are sex, alcohol, gambling and other superficial pastimes. They are left alone.
In the evening Winston wanders through the streets and he watches the effect of a rocket bomb which t'alis on some houses further down the street. He very much wants to be on his own, although this attitude is discouraged by the Party. Winston even goes into a pub in the area of the proles, to bring back memories of before the Revolution. He talks to an old man and asks him about freedom and capitalism, hut he only gets evasive and irrelevant answers.
Later that evening Winston enters a junkshop. The owner of the shop, Mr Charrington, shows him an upstairs room, which makes Winston think of old times. Leaving the shop he secs a girl he has seen before and who must have followed him. Winston is convinced that she is a spy who will report him to the Thought Police.
Nothing happens, however, and some time after this Winston passes the giri in the hall. She falls and when Winston heips her up, she secretly passes him a note. When he opens it in private, he reads 'l love you'.
About a week later Winston bas a chance to speak to her and they arrange a meeting in Victoria Square, a crowded place. There the giri gives him precise instructions where to meet her next Sunday. They meet in the woods and begin a love affair. The giri, whose name is Julia, says she had seen something in his face which made it evident that he hated the Party.
Julia works in a section of the Fiction Department called Pornosec, producing pornography for the proles. She understands that the Party is opposed to sex and promotes artificial insemination because the hatred the Party needs can be aroused by depriving the people of sex. Winston does not believe that his relationship with Julia can last for very long. He rents the room above@the junkshop, where they can talk freely and where Julia can be feminine. Winston briefly panies when he sees, a rat in the room.
For Winston it becomes a problem that Julia believes the Party to be invincibie. She does not share his obsession with the Party's distortion of historical truths. Winston thinks that it is this lack of interest which makes tbc Party strong. Later O'Brien speaks to Winston at the Ministry of Truth. He invites him and Julia to his flat. They realize that O'Brien is a rebel, a member of the Brotherhood, although officially O'Brien is a member of the lnner Party. When they visit him, they drink a toast to Emmanuel Goldstein, the leader of the secret Brotherhood. Winston and Julia become members of the organization. One day during the next week Winston is given Goldstein's book, 'the book', and he reads it in the room over the junkshop. He reads that by means of war people remain controllabie and therefore war is the basis of society. Furthermore, none of the three states wishes to destroy either of the other two, because a continuation of the war guarantees the permanence of the three states. As a consequence war no jonger exists, it has become the same as peace.
In another chapter Winston reads that all wealth is in the possession of the Party's ruling group. The proles are allowed freedom of thought because they have no real thoughts. Party members are not allowed this freedom, because this would be dangerous. Party members are taught the concept of doubiethink, which is the ability to erase one's memory. lt makes it possible to believe in two contradictory facts. While Winston is reading part of the book aloud to Julia, she falls asleep. Winston also goes to sleep. When they wake up, a picture falls from the wafi and a telescreen is revealed. The Thought Pohce enter the room and beat up Julia, who is then taken away. Mr Charrington also comes in and Winston recognizes in him a member of the Thought Police. Winston believes that he is being taken to the Ministry of Love. He is locked up in a cell, where a voice shouts at him from four telescreens as soon as he makes a sound. The light is always on and it is too sharp. Later other prisoners are brought in and are treated badly. O'Brien also comes in and Winston thinks that he has also been arrested, hut then Winston realizes that he is not a prisoner. A guard accompanying O'Brien knocks Winston unconscious. More torture follows. O'Brien is the chief torturer and he wants to teach Winston doublethink in order to bring about his reintegration. He even wants Winston to love Big Brother. Eventually Winston agrees to everything and gives the answers O'Brien expects, only to stop the pain. His only consolation is that he has not betrayed Julia.
After a period without torture O'Brien steps into the eell and asks Winston what he thinks of Big Brother. Winston knows that it is useless to lie, so he admits that he still hates him. Then Winston is taken to the notorlous room 101 for the final step towards his reintegration. O'Brien explains that here the prisoner's uitimate horror is exploited. In the room Winston secs a cage of starving rats. The cage has a sort of anttroom into which a, head can be fitted. A lever can then be pulled so that the rats can get at the face. Rats are what Winston fears most and as his head is strapped into the cage, he screams 'Do it to Julia', which he considers the ultimate betrayal of her and himself. He is immediately released. When Winston returns to the worid, he is a physical wreck. He drink s a great deal and does not have to work hard. He is allowed to meet Julia, who has also changed. They confess that in room 101 they have betrayed each other. When Winston listens to announcernents and watches Big Brother on the telescreen, he realizes that he finally loves Big Brother.

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

Samenvatting 1:
The Story starts, as the title tells us, in the year of 1984, and it takes place in England or how it is called at that time, Airstrip One. Airstrip One itself is the mainland of a huge country, called Oceania, which consists of North America, South Africa, and Australia. The country is ruled by the Party, which is led by a figure called Big Brother. The population of Oceania is divided in three parts:
1. The Inner Party (app. 1% of the population)
2. The Outer Party (app. 18% of the population)
3. The Proles The narrator of the book is all-knowing and he is not participating in the action of the book himself.
The protagonist of the book is Winston Smith, a member of the OuterParty, working in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, rewriting and altering records, such as newspaper-articles, of the past. The action of the book starts when Winston develops critic thoughts against the ruling dictatorship of the party, for the first time. Doing so he buys himself a book, which were very rare these days, to use it as a diary. Because the Party forbade individual expression, having a diary was a crime, which could be punished even with death. There were so-called telescreens in each room, which were showing propaganda and political pamphlets, and had a build in camera and microphone, in order to spy on the people. Therefore keeping a secret book was not only forbidden, but also very dangerous. When he makes the first entry in the diary, Winston thinks about an experience he has made during the Two Minutes Hate, a propaganda film that was repeated each day. During this Film he caught the eye of O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, of whom he taught that he might stand also critic to the regime, or that at least there is a bond of some kind between them. After the reflection, he finds that he has written the sentence:"Down with Big Brother" all over the page. In the same night Winston dreams about, his mother and sister, who starved to death in the war, because he was so greedy. Then he dreams of having sex with a girl that he has seen in the Records Department, during the Two Minute Hate. Early in the morning Winston is waken up by the harsh voice from the telescreen. During the performance of the exercises, Winston's thoughts move back to his childhood. The last thing he remembers clearly, is the World War. After the WW the party has taken control of the country, and from then on it was difficult to remember anything, because the party changed the history permanently to their own benefit (see Doublethink - Political System). After the exercises Winston goes to work, to the Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), where his job is to alter records, and once altered, to throw them into the Memory Hole where they are burnt. For example B.B. (Big Brother) has said that there will be no reduction of the chocolate ration, but there has been one, so Winston has to rewrite an old article, where the speech of B.B. is written down. At dinner Winston Smith meets Syme, a philologist, who is working on the 11 the edition of The Newspeak Dictionary (see Newspeak - Political System), and Syme explains the main character of their work on this dictionary. During their conversation the telescreen announces that the chocolate ration has been risen to 20 g a week, whereas yesterday it was cut down to 20 g a week. Winston wonders if he's the only person with memory that isn't inflicted by Doublethink. As he looks around in the dining room, and he catches the eye of the dark-haired girl, he had dreamed the same night. Home again he makes an entry into his diary, of his meeting with a prostitute three years ago. He remembered her ugliness, but nevertheless he had sex with her. Winston had a wife, but she was very stupid and just following the orders of the Party, and this orders said that there may only be Sex to produce "new material" for the Party, and that sex for the personal pleasure is a crime. Then Winston thinks about the Party, and that the only hope lies in the Proles who pose over 80% of Oceanias population. Later he remembered another fact of his past, Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford the last three survivors of the original leaders of the Revolution. They were arrested in 1965, and on trial they confessed all kind of sabotage, they were pardoned, reinstated but not long after were arrested again, and executed. During the brief period Winston has seen them in the Chestnut Tree Cafe. In the same year a half page torn out of the times came to Winston trough the transport tube in the Minitrue. This page of The Times showed the three men in Eastasia on a certain day. But Winston remembered clearly that they have confessed being in Eurasia on that day (At this time Eurasia was at war with Oceania, and Eastasia was an allied). So Winston could proof that the confessions were lies. But Winston had sent this paper down to the Memory Hole (a kind of paper basket). The last entry that Winston writes in his diary is that freedom is to say that two and two makes four. If that is granted all else follows. The next day Winston decides not to participate in the community actions, and so he decides to take a walk in the quarters of the Proles, around St Pancras station. During the walk a Rocket-Bomb explodes nearby. After a while Winston finds himself in front of the junk-shop, where he has bought the diary. There he sees an old man just entering a pub. He decides to follow the man, and to ask him about the time before the revolution, but the old man has already forgotten nearly everything about this time, except for some useless personal things. Winston leaves the pub and goes to the Shop, where he finds a pink piece of glass with apiece of coral inside which he buys. Mr Carrington, the owner of the shop leads him upstairs to show him an old fashioned room. W. Smith likes the room because of its warmth and of course because there are no telescreens. After Winston leaves the shop he suddenly meets the dark-haired girl in the street. He now believes that this girl is an amateur spy or even a member of the Thought Police, spying on him. The next morning he meets the girl in the Ministry of Truth, and in the moment when she passes, she fall down and cries out in pain. Winston helps her up, and finds that she has pressed a piece of paper into his hand. Later, at the first opportunity he opens it and finds that on it is written the startling message: "I love you". For a week he waits for an opportunity to speak with her. Finally he is successful, and he meets her in the canteen where they fix a meeting. Again some time later they meet on the fixed place, there the girl gives Winston precise instructions how to get to a secret place on Sunday. It is Sunday and Winston is following the girl's direction. On the way he picks some bluebells for her. And then finally she comes up behind him, telling him to be quiet because there might be some microphones hidden somewhere. They kiss and he learns her name: Julia. She leads him to another place where they cannot be observed. Before she takes off her blue party-overall, Julia tells Winston that she is attracted to him by something in his face which showed that he was against the party. Winston is surprised and asks Julia if she has done such thing already before. To his delight she tells him that she has done it scores of times, which fills him with a great hope. Evidence of corruption and abandon always fills him with hope. Perhaps the whole system is rotten, and that it simply will crumb to pieces one day. The more men she had, the more he loves her, and later as he looks at her sleeping body, he thinks that now even sex is a political act, a blow against the falseness of the Party. Winston and Julia arrange to meet again. Winston has rented a room above Mr Carringtons junk shop, a place where they can meet and talk without the fear of being observed. It is summer, and the preparation for "Hate Week�, an enormous propaganda event, are well forthcoming, and in this time Winston meets Julia more often than ever before. Julia makes him feel more alive, she makes him feel healthier, and he even puts on weight. One day O'Brien speaks to Winston in the Ministry of Truth. He refers, obliquely to Syme, the philologist, who has vanished a couple of days before, an is now, as it is called in Newspeak an unperson. In doing so O'Brien is committing a little act of thoughtcrime. O'Brien invites Winston to his flat, to see the latest edition of the Newspeak dictionary. Winston now feels sure that the conspiracy against the Party he had longed to know about - the Brotherhood, as it is called - does exist, and that in the encounter with O'Brien he has come into contact with its outer edge. He knows he has embarked on a course of action which will lead, in one way or another, to the cells of the Ministry of Love. Some days later Winston and Julia meet each other to go to the flat of O'Brien, which lies in the district of the Inner Party. They are admitted to a richly furniture room by a servant. To their astonishment O'Brien switches off the Telescreen in the room. (Normally it is impossible to turn it off) Winston blurts out why they have come: they want to work against the Party, they believe in the existence of the Brotherhood, and that O'Brien is involved with it. Martin, O'Brien servant brings real red vine, and they drink a toast to Emanuel Goldstein, leader of the Brotherhood. O'Brien asks them a series of questions about their willingness to commit various atrocities on behalf of the Brotherhood and gets their assent. They leave, and again some days later Winston gets a copy of "The Book", a book written by Emanuel Goldstein, about his political ideas. Now it was Hate Week, and suddenly the war with Eurasia has stopped, and a war with Eastasia has started. This of course meant a lot of work for Winston. He had to change dozens of articles which were about the war with Eurasia. But nevertheless Winston has found time to read the book. The book has three chapters titled, "War is Peace", "Ignorance is Strength" and "Freedom is Slavery", which were also the main phrases of the party.


De hoofdgedachte:
The main ideas of the book are:
1. War is important for consuming the products of human labour, if this work would be used to increase the standard of living, the control of the party over the people would decrease. War is the economy basis for a hierarchical society.
2. There is an emotional need to believe in the ultimate victory of Big Brother.
3. In becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The continuity of the war guarantees the permanence of the current order. In other words "War is Peace"
4. There have always been three main grades of society; the High, the Middle and the Low, and no change has brought human equality a millimetre nearer.
5. Collectivism doesn't lead to socialism. In the event the wealth now belongs to the new "high-class", the bureaucrats and administrators. Collectivism has ensured the permanence of economic inequality.
6. Wealth is not inherited from person to person, but it is kept within the ruling group.
7. The masses (proles) are given freedom of thought, because they don't think! A Party member is not allowed the slightest deviation of thought, and there is an elaborate mental training to ensure this, a training that can be summarised in the concept of doublethink.
So far the book has analysed how the Party works. It has not yet attempted to deal with why the Party has arisen. Before continuing with the next chapter Winston turns to Julia, and finds her asleep. He too falls asleep. The next morning when he awakes the sun is shining, and down in the yard a prole women is singing and working. Winston again is filled with the conviction that the future lies with the proles, that they will overthrow the greyness of the Party. But suddenly reality crashes in. "We are the DEATH", he says to Julia. An iron voice behind them repeats the phrase; the picture on the wall falls to bits to reveal a telescreen behind it. Uniformed man thunder into the room and they carry Winston and Julia out. Winston is in a cell in what he presumes is the Ministry of Love. He is sick with hunger and fear, and if he makes a movement or a sound, a harsh voice will bawl at him from the four telescreens. A prisoner is brought in that is dying of starvation, his face is skull-like. Later the man is brought to "Room 101" after screaming and struggling, and even offering his children's sacrifices in his stead. O'Brien comes in. Winston thinks that they must have got him too, but O'Brien says that they got him long time ago. A guard his Winston, and he becomes unconscious. As he wakes up he is tied down to a kind of bed. O'Brien stands beside the bed, and Winston feels that O'Brien, who is the torturer, is also somehow a friend. The aim of O'Brien is to teach Winston the technique of Doublethink, and he does it by inflicting pain in ever-increasing intensity. He reminds Winston that he wrote the sentence:" Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four". O'Brien holds up four fingers of his left hand, and he asks Winston how many there are. Winston answers four a couple of times, and each time the pain increases (this is not done to make Winston lie, but to make him really see five fingers instead of four). At the end of the session, under heavy influence of drugs and agony, Winston really seas five fingers. Now Winston is ready to enter the second stage of his integration (1. Learning, 2. Understanding, 3. Acceptance). O'Brien now explains why the Party works. The image he gives of the future is that of a boot stamping on a human face - for ever. Winston protest, because he thinks that there is something in the human nature that will not allow this to be so, what he can call "The Spirit of Man". O'Brien points out that Winston is the last humanist, he is the last guardian of the human spirit. Then O'Brien gets Winston to look at himself in the mirror, and Winston is horrified what he sees. The unknown time of torture has changed him into a shapeless and battered wreck. This is what the last humanist looks like. The only degradation that Winston has not been trough, is that he has not betrayed Julia. He will have said anything under torture, but inside he has remained true to her. Winston is much better now. For some time he has not been beaten and torture, he has been fed quite well and allowed to wash. Winston realises that he now accepts all the lies of the Party, that for example Oceania was always at war with Eastasia, and that he never had the photograph of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford that disproved their guilty. Even gravity could be nonsense. But nevertheless Winston has some unorthodox thoughts that he cannot suppress. But now it is time for the last of the three steps, reintegration. Winston is taken to Room 101. O'Brien says that the room 101 is the worst thing in the world. For each person it is his own personal hell. For some it is death by fire or burial alive. For Winston it is a cage containing two rats, with a fixture like a fencing mask attached, into which the face of the victim is strapped. Then there is a lever, that opens the cage ,so that the rats can get to the face. O'Brien is coming nearer with the cage ,and Winston gets the bad smell of the rats. He screams. The only way to get out of this is to put someone else between him and the horror."Do it to Julia", he screams in a final betrayal of himself. Winston is released, and he is often sitting in the Chestnut Tree Café, drinking Victory Gin and playing chess. He now has a job in a sub-committee , that is made up for others like himself. On a cold winter day he meets Julia, the spoke briefly, and had little to say to each other, except that they have betrayed each other. A memory comes to his mind, of a day in his childhood, It is false, he is often troubled by false memories. He looks forward to the bullet they will kill him some day, and now he realises how pointless it was to resist. He loves Big Brother!

De Hoofdpersonen:
Winston Smith
Orwell named his hero after Winston Churchill, England's great leader during World War II. He added a common last name: Smith. The action of this novel is build around the main person, Winston Smith, and therefore the understanding of his personality, and his character is important for the understanding of the whole book. Winston was born before the Second World War. In the War, there was a lack of food, and Winston has taken nearly all of the food that was allocated to the family, although his younger sister was starving to death. In 1984 Winston often dreams of this time, and he often remembers how he has stolen the whole chocolate, that was one day given to the family. I think that Winston now (1984) somehow regrets his egoistic behaviour. He also sees a kind of link between his behaviour, and the behaviour of the children that are educated by the Party. These children prosecute their own family (Parsons). He finally realises his and the Party's guilt. To my mind Winston is a sort of hero, because he is aware of the danger that he has encountered. So for example he knew it from the very beginning of that his diary would be found. And as one can see the things that are written in this book (that freedom is to say that two and two makes four) are later used against him. He also knew that his illegal love affair, that was an act of revolution, would be disclosed by the Thought Police. But nevertheless he is some kind of naive. He opened his mind to O'Brien before he was sure that he is also against the Party.
Julia
Julia is a women around 25, and she works in a special department of the Minitrue, producing cheap Pornography for the proles. She had already a couple of illegal love affairs. Unlike Winston, she basically a simple woman, something of a lightweight who loves her man and uses sex for fun as well as for rebellion. She is perfectly willing to accept the overnight changes in Oceania's history and doesn't trouble her pretty head about it. If Big Brother says black is white, fine. If he says two and two make five, no problem. She may not buy the Party line, but it doesn't trouble her. She falls asleep over Winston's reading of the treasured book by Goldstein. Orwell draws Winston's love object lovingly. Julia is all woman, sharp and funny as she is attractive, but she may also be a reflection of the author's somewhat limited view of the opposite sex.
O'Brien
Probably the most interesting thing about O'Brien is that we have only Winston's opinion of him. This burly but sophisticated leader of the Inner Party is supposed to be head of the secret Brotherhood dedicated to the overthrow of Big Brother. In his black coverall, he haunts both Winston's dreams and his waking moments to the very end of the novel. Another very interesting thing about O'Brien is that the reader doesn't precisely know if he is a friend or an enemy of Winston. Yet even Winston himself doesn't know it precisely. I would say that O'Brien, the powerful and mighty Party member, is a kind of father for Winston. Before the capture of Winston, O'Brien "helps" Winston to make contact with the Brotherhood, and he teaches him about the Ideology and the rules of this secret Organisation. After the capture O'Brien gives Winston the feeling, that he is somehow protecting him. The relation between O'Brien and Winston has all attributes of a typical relation between a father and a child: The father is all knowing, all mighty; he teaches, punishes and educates his child, and he is protecting it, from anything that could harm the child. But I think that O'Brien is only playing his role, due to reintegrate Winston.
Big Brother
Big Brother is not a real person. All-present as he is, all-powerful and forever watching, he is seen only on TV. Although his picture glares out from huge posters that shout, BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, nobody sees Big Brother in person. Orwell had several things in mind when he created Big Brother. He was certainly thinking of Russian leader Joseph Stalin; the pictures of Big Brother even look like him. He was also thinking of Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Big Brother stands for all dictators everywhere. Orwell may have been thinking about figures in certain religious faiths when he drew Big Brother. the mysterious, powerful, God-like figure who sees and knows everything- but never appears in person. For Inner Party members, Big Brother is a leader, a bogeyman they can use to scare the people, and their authorisation for doing whatever they want. If anybody asks, they can say they are under orders from Big Brother. For the unthinking proles, Big Brother is a distant authority figure. For Winston, Big Brother is an inspiration. Big Brother excites and energises Winston, who hates him. He is also fascinated by Big Brother and drawn to him in some of the same ways that he is drawn to O'Brien, developing a love-hate response to both of them that leads to his downfall.
Plot
The plot has three main movements, corresponding with the division of the book in three parts. The first part, the first eight chapters, creates the world of 1984, a totalitarian world where the Party tries to control everything, even thought and emotion. In this part Winston develops his first unorthodox thoughts. The second part of the novel deals with the development of his love to Julia, someone with whom he can share his private emotions. For a short time they create a small world of feeling for themselves. They are betrayed however. O'Brien, whom Winston thought was a rebel like himself, is really a chief inquisitor of the Inner Party. The third part of the novel deals with Winston’s punishment. Finally he comes to love Big Brother. Generally the plot is very simple: a rebel, a love affair with a like-minded, capture, torture, and finally the capitulation. Apart from Julia and O'Brien, and of course Winston, there are no important characters; there is no attempt to crate a range of social behaviour, and the complex personal interactions therein, all traditional concerns of the novel. Indeed one of Orwell's points is that life in 1984 has become totally uniform. So the traditional novel would be unthinkable. In fact Winston is the only character worth writing about; all the other characters are half-robots already. So one could say that the plot was build around Winston’s mind and life. This gave Orwell the opportunity to focus on the reaction of the individual to totalitarianism, love, and cruelty.
Political System
Party
The Party of Oceania poses about 19% of the whole population of Oceanias mainland. Generally one could divide the Party into the Inner Party, which is comparable to the communistic Nomenclature, and the Outer Party. Winston Smith himself was a member of the Outer Party. The members of the Inner Party held high posts in the administration of the country. They earned comparable much money, and there wasn't a lack of anything in their homes, which looked like palaces. The people of the Outer Party lived in dull grey and old flats. Because of the war there was often a lack of the most essential things. The life of the Outer Party was dictated by the Party, even their spare time was used by the Party. There were so-called community hikes, community games and all sort of other activities. And refusing the participation at this activities was even dangerous. The life of a Party member is dictated from his birth to his death. The Party even takes children away from their parents to educate them in the sense of Ingsoc. (you can find this also in the Communist future plans)The children are taught in school, to report it to the police (Toughtpolice) when their parents have had unorthodox thoughts, so-called "Thoughtcrimes". After the education the Party members start to work mainly for one of the four Ministries (Minipax, Minitrue, Miniluv, Miniplenty). The further live of the "comrades" continues under the watchful eyes of the Party. Each thing that the people do is targeted by the telescreens. Even in their homes the people have telescreens. Each unorthodox action is then punished by "joycamps" (Newspeak word for forced labour camps").
Proles
The proles make about 81% of the population of Oceania. The Party itself is only interested in their labour power, because the proles are mainly employed in the industry and in the farms. Without their Labour force Oceania would brake down. Despite this fact the Party completely ignores this social caste. The curious thing about this behaviour is, that the Party calls itself a Socialistic Party, and generally socialism (at least at the beginning and middle of this century) is a movement of the proletariat. So one could say that the Party abuses the word "Ingsoc". Orwell again had pointed at an other regime, the Nazis, who had put "socialism" into their name. One of the main phrases of the Party is "Proles and animals are free". In Oceania the proles live in very desolate and poor quarters. Compared to the districts where the members of the Party live, there are much fewer telescreens, and policemen. And as long as the proles don't commit a crime (crime in our sense / not in the sense of the party - Toughtcrime) they don't have any contact with the state. Therefore in the districts of the proletarians one could find things that where abolished and forbidden for the Party members. E.g. old books, old furniture, prostitution and alcohol (mainly beer) Except "Victory Gin" all of these things were not available for the Partymen. The proletarians didn't participate in the technical development. They lived like they used to do many years ago. To my mind the Party ignores the Proles, because they pose no danger to their rule. The working class is to uneducated and to unorganised to pose a real threat. So there is not really a need to change the political attitudes of this class.
Newspeak
Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984, there was nobody, who has really used Newspeak in speech nor in writing. Only the leading articles were written in this "language". But it was generally assumed that in the year 2050 Newspeak would superset Oldspeak, or common English. The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other methods of thought impossible. Another reason for developing Newspeak was, to make old books, or books which were written before the era of the Party, unreadable. With Newspeak ,Doublethink would be even easier. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings whatever. Generally Newspeak words were divided into three groups: the A,B(also called compound words) and the C Vocabulary.
A-Vocabulary: The A-Vocabulary consisted of the words needed in business and everyday life, for such things as drinking, working, and the like. The words of this group were nearly entirely composed of Oldspeak words, but in comparison, their number was very small. Nevertheless the meaning of this words was much more defined, and it allowed no other interpretation.
B-Vocabulary: The B-Vocabulary consisted of words which had been deliberately constructed for political purpose. Without the full understanding of the principles of Ingsoc it was very difficult to use and understand this words correctly. The B-Vocabulary were in all cases compound words, and they consisted of two or more words, merged together in an easy pronounceable form. Example: goodthink - Goodthing means very roughly orthodoxy, or if it is regarded as a verb "to think in a good manner". The infected as follows: noun-verb goodthink; past tense and past participle, goodthinked; present participle, goodthinking; adjective, goodthinkful; adverb, goodthinkwise; verbal noun, goodthinker. The B-Words were not constructed on any etymological plan. The words of which they were made up could be placed in any order mutilated in any way which made them easy to pronounce (e.g. toughtcrime, crimethink thinkpol, tought police). Many of the B-Words were euphemisms. Such words for instance as joycamp (forced labour camp) or Minipax (Ministry of Peace in charge of the army ), meant almost exact opposite of what they appeared to mean. Again some words were ambivalent, having the connotation good when applied the party, and bad when applied to its enemies. Generally the name of any organisation, building, and so on was cut down to a minimum number of syllables and to a minimum of length, in an easy pronounceable way. This isn't only in Newspeak, already other, especially totalitarian systems, tended to used abbreviations for political purpose (Nazi, Comintern, Gestapo, ....). But the difference is that only in Newspeak this instrument was used with consciousness. The Party intended to cut down the possibility of associations with other words.
C-Vocabulary: The C-Words are consisting of technical and scientific terms. From the foregoing account it is very easy to see that in Newspeak the expression of unorthodox opinions, above a very low level, was impossible. It would only have been possible to say "Big Brother is ungood". But this statement could not have been sustained by reasoned arguments, because the necessary words were not available. Ideas inimical to Ingsoc could only be entertained in a very vague and wordless form, and could only be named in very broad terms. One could in fact use only Newspeak for political unorthodoxy, by illegitimately translating some of the words back into Oldspeak. For example "All mans are equal" was a possible Newspeak sentence, but only in the same sense in which "All man have the same weight" is a possible Oldspeak sentence. It did not contain a grammatical error, but it expressed a palpable untruth i.e. that all man have the same size, weight ..... The concept of political equality no longer existed. In 1984, when Oldspeak was still the normal means of communication, the danger theoretically existed that in using Newspeak words one might remember their original meanings. In practice it was not difficult for a person well grounded in Doublethink to avoid doing this, but within a couple of generation even the possibility of such a lapse would have vanished. A person growing up with Newspeak as his sole language would no more know that equal had once had the secondary meaning of "politically equal" (also free,....). There would be many crimes and errors which would be beyond of the power to commit, simply because there were nameless and therefore unimaginable. It was to be foreseen that with the passage of time Newspeak words would become fewer and fewer, their meanings more and more and more rigid, and the chance to put them to improper uses always diminished. So when Oldspeak had been once and for all superseded the last link with the past would have been severed.
Doublethink
Doublethink is a kind of manipulation of the mind. Generally one could say that Doublethink makes people accept contradictions, and it makes them also believe, that, the party is the only institution that distinguishes between right and wrong. This manipulation is mainly done by the Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), where also Winston Smith works. When a person that is well grounded in Doublethink recognises a contradiction or a lie of the Party, then the person thinks that he is remembering a false fact. The use of the word Doublethink involves doublethink. With the help of the Minitrue it is not only possible to change the written facts, but also the facts that are remembered by the people. So complete control of the country and it's citizens is provided. The fact of faking the history had already been used by the Nazis, who told the people that already German Knights believed in the principles of National Socialism.
Symbolism
In "Nineteen Eighty-Four" Orwell draws a picture of a totalitarian future. Although the action deals in the future, there are a couple of elements and symbols, taken from the present and past. So for example Emanuel Goldstein, the main enemy of Oceania, is, as one can see in the name, a Jew. Orwell draws a link to other totalitarian systems of our century, like the Nazis and the Communists, who had anti-Semitic ideas, and who used Jews as so-called scapegoats, who were responsible for all bad and evil things in the country. This fact also shows that totalitarian systems want to arbitrate their perfection. Emanuel Goldstein also somehow stands for Trotsky, a leader of the Revolution, that was later declared as an enemy. Another symbol that can be found in Nineteen Eighty-Four is the fact that Orwell divided the fictional superstates in the book according to the division that can be found in the Cold War. So Oceania stands for the United states of America , Eurasia for Russia and Eastasia for China. Also the fact that the two socialistic countries Eastasia and Eurasia ( in our case Russia and China ) are at war with each other, corresponds with our history (Usuri river). Also other, non-historical symbols can be found. One of these symbols is the paperweight that Winston buys in the old junk-shop. It stands for the fragile little world that Winston and Julia have made for each other. They are the coral inside it. As Orwell wrote: "It is a little chunk of history, that they have forgotten to alter". The "Golden Country" is another symbol. It stands for the old European pastoral landscape. The place where Winston and Julia meet for the first time to make love to each other, is exactly like the "Golden Country" of Winstons dream.

Eigen mening:
Personally I dislike books like this. Books, in which a dark, depressed view on the world is given. Similar thoughts rised when I read this book. I will not say this book is a bad written book, so I won’t give it the title "Literature". No, on the contary. This book is absolutely literature. After the publication the book has had a major impact on quite the whole world and certainly contains some ways of reality that the work can’t be described as some sort of unimportant piece of writing.
As earlier said I didn’t like the book, because of its contents. The only reason why I have read the book is that it has been ordered to me by force. No offence, I agree that this book is one of those you have to read, as they say " If you haven’t read this book, you haven’t lived". Some things in the book give such a good view on the reality in the future, that it almost scares the present-day reader. Things like the "telescreen" can be compared with the television or maybe the P.C which appeared several years after the publication. The sentence "Big Brother is Watching You" is a sentence that is still used and still appears in movies or in papers. These things were the ones that attract me. But on the other side, the word described is not really what it really is nowadays. I think that will be something of a much further step on the timetable.
I must confess that in some parts I really was taken by the excitement, and also the book is absolutely readable. But still the dark, depressed atmosphere keeps appearing.
It’s a pity, but I think I won’t recommend this book to anyone, at least in the meaning of the word. I will say that you have to read it, but I won’t bring a person on the idea of the existence of the book, if you understand what I mean.

De Hoofdpersonen:
I will only describe the main characters:
Winston Smith: Round Character
39 years old. Works practically his whole life at the Ministry of Thruth. There he rewrites the history. He gets into a love affair with Julia, which is against the rules of The Party. His first rebellion act is writing in his diary. He hasn’t got a past and in some ways he hasn’t got a future to. He has an inconstant mind and he endures a character development.
(might be a personalisation of Orwell)
Julia: Round Character
Young woman, 36 years old. She has been born after the revolution, so she has different ideas about the Party, and her view on the world. She has a love affair with Winston, which is a forbidden one, and for her only a fysical one. She is also a member of The Party. She has rebellious thoughts against the regime.
O’Brien: Round Character
Appears to be a member of an organisation against Big Brother. Turns out to be a member of the Thoughtpolice who takes care of Winstons "rehabilitation".
Big Brother: Flat Character
His existence is uncertain. He is the big mind after the party and the society in Oceania. His face is hanging everywhere so he will see everyone, everywhere. Ofcourse the sentence "Big Brother is Watching You", which is also present everywhere, refers to him.
Title-expaination:
The title 1984 is 1948 in reverse. Orwell wrote the book in ’48 so he just had to change the numbers and 1984 was the title. It’s just written after World War II, where Orwell thinks lays a beginning of a new war, a cold war. It’s the beginning of a run to a Totalitarian State.
He suspects that it will be so in…1984
Deepening:
Structure: The story is in chronological order, which means there are no so called "flashbacks" or "flashforwards". Only in his mind we can speak of them, when he for instance dreams about his mother or refers to his future with Julia.
The Book is build up in three parts:
an introduction to the world and to the living in Oceania. Winstons first acts of rebbelism against the regime. The start of an affair between Winston and Julia.
the book of Goldstein. Winstons arrestation and torture by O’Brien.
Winstons rehabilitation to a good Party-member. He realises in the end that "He loves Big Brother"
Point of view: The narrative perspective is a "third-person" one. The narrator doesn’t appear in the story, so we can conclude that the writer is also the narrator. He’s only an observer. The narrator has omniscient knowledge. He has full knowledge of actions, thoughts and emotions. The narrator (Orwell) gives a personal and coloured version of the events. He warns the reader for the things described in the book.
Sort of Ending: The story has a closed ending. The main event, the character development of Winston, has been closed. It’s not a very surprising ending.
Theme:
The theme might be Orwells "Warning" against the Totalitarian State. At the time when he wrote the book, this was a very actual topic. Hitlers run for total Worlddomination just ended and Stalins regime in Russia was popping up in the news. In for instance, these two regimes, there is one person or one group of personnes who are trying to take over the World or a country. They try to do that by not only defeating the human body but also the human mind and soul. Big Brother and The Party could be compared with Stalin and his regime.
Genre:
It’s a science -fiction novel. It portraits an image of the future with al the gadgets, systems and contraptions SF-writers today write about.
Summary:
As the story starts, Winston has bought a diary, which is very dangerous: he commits thoughtcrime with doing such a thing. Winston has thoughts that are not allowed in the society of 1984. Having such thoughts means committing thoughtcrime. Although Winston knows he will be punished for that, he wants to write down his thoughts. After this, Winston goes to work. His job is to correct the history in a way that the Party’s predictions are always right. The Party is a group in society that has all the power. At work, there are that daily Two Minutes Hate, that are meant to make people hate the enemies of their country. During these Two Minutes, Winston’s eyes meet O’Brien’s. Because of this, Winston thinks O’Brien has the same thoughts. While he’s walking through the corridor, Winston sees a dark haired girl and he thinks she is a member of the Thought Police. Winston thinks when there is hope, it is in the proles. These people must have knowledge of the past, that is not falsified. Because of this, Winston goes to the ghetto and tries to find out some fact by interviewing an old man, but it has no result. He also buys coral in glass in Charrington’s store. Charrington shows him a room without Telescreen. People can be seen everywhere except in this room. As Winston leaves the shop, he sees the dark haired girl again. Winston would prefer to kill her. At night Winston dreams of O’Brien, saying: We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness. Winston meets the dark haired girl again in the corridor and he helps her when she falls. She succeeds in giving him a note, which said that she was in love with him. Winston tries to make contact again with her, but this is very difficult without being noticed. At last he succeeds to meet her outside the city. She is called Julia. The make love together. Julia and Winston meet eachother many times after that day, although they have to be careful not to be seen. They decide to rent Charrington’s room, so they could meet eachother without being noticed. O’Brien invites.

[Hugo Camps]

Orwell, George
1984

LET OP: Dit verslag is uitsluitend bedoeld als hulpmiddel bij het maken van je eigen verslag en niet om zomaar in te leveren bij je docent(e).

The Titlepage
Title
1984
Author
George Orwell
First publication
1949
My edition
Signet Classic, The New Amercan Library inc., 1983
Library
Mill Hill College Goirle library
Title explanation
1984 is the year, in which the story plays. The story is about an negative utopia.
The Contents
Place
The action takes place in 1984, in London. London is a part of Oceania, one of the three big countries in the world.
Background
The story plays in London in a time when everything is watched by Telescreens. Most of the story is about the Middle Class (Outer Party), but the story also shows the ghetto’s, because Winston Smith likes it to be there. The last chapter takes place in the Ministry of Love, which is a sort of prison where people are tortured and brainwashed. In 1984 life has become a nightmare. There are three big countries: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. In all the three countries the life is very similar: the Party has all the power. Everything is being watched by Telescreens; people do not have privacy and they are not allowed to think. History is falsified, so the Party always seems right. There has even been developped a new language, called Newspeak. This is an artificial language, which prevents people from thinking the wrong things: there simply no words to do so. It’s much like a computer language. Oceania’s leader is called Big Brother, but in reality Big Brother is not a person, but the personification of the Party.
Main characters
Winston Smith must be around 50. He has thoughts that aren’t allowed in Oceania. He doesn’t exercise doublethinking (a way of thinking which takes everything the Party tells you for granted, without checking of it is true). He isn’t against sex, on the contrary to the Party members. Winston doesn’t know what to do with his feelings against the Party; he doesn’t know if there is anyone like him. Maybe you can say Winston is a little naïve: he thinks O’Brien is on his side, even after he finds out that O’Brien is the one who tortures and brainwashes him. In the last chapter, Winston is brainwashed: during and after the proces, he isn’t the same anymore. He almost became a machine, just like most other people.
Julia is thirty-nine years old. She has dark hair and looks -in Winstons eyes- very youthfull. Nobody thinks she’s unorthodox (she doesn’t think the same way as the Party members), because Julia does a lot of voluntary work. For example, she is a member of the Junior Anti- Sex League. Unlike Winston who becomes her boyfriend, Julia doesn’t want to make an effort to overthrow the government. She thinks the Party will always have the power, but she tries tolive her own life, although she knows she risks her life with doing that.
O’Brien is the first to be a revolt. He is a member of the Inner Party ( he one of few who got power) and he works for the Thought Police, which is something like the KGB in the former Soviet Union. He pretends to be revolt in order to trap real revolts.
Other characters
Syme Parsons is a friend of Winston. He is a very intelligent person and he is one of the constructors of Newspeak. Because he understands everything too well, he disappears (as usually said: he is vaporized). He is important, because he explains some things of Newspeak and because he is an example of someone who is vaporized, but he isn’t a main character, because he doesn’t have a real personality. He doesn’t play an important role in the story.
Mr. Charrington is a widower, who ownes a sho between the proles. Although he can be considered as a prole, he is very well dressed and looks like a gentleman. Later in the story, Charrington appears to be a member of the Thought Police. Mr. Charrington is not a main character, because he doesn’t really act. He’s an example of a member of the Thought Police. Besides that, it is not necessary for every story that there are shopkeepers, tai drivers, etc.
Behaviour Winston and Julia are lovers. They can’t meet so much as they want to, because they may not be spotted together by the Telescreens. In the beginning Winston thinks Julia is a member of the Thought Police. Even in the Ministery of Love Winston tries not to betray Julia. But with force they make him betray her. On the other hand Julia betrays Winston almost instantly. When they meet eachother after being brainwashed, they have no feeling left for eachother. Winston and O’Brien are friends in a very special way. In the beginning Winston thinks that O’Brien is an enemy of the Party, but in fact he’s a member of the Thought Police. He pretends to be an enemy of the Party to catch real enemies of the Party. Although O’Brien has betrayed Winston and made him suffer a lot, they understand eachother very well.
Summary 1984
As the story starts, Winston has bought a diary, which is very dangerous: he commits thoughtcrime with doing such a thing. Winston has thoughts that are not allowed in the society of 1984. Having such thoughts means committing thoughtcrime. Although Winston knows he will be punished for that, he wants to write down his thoughts. After this, Winston goes to work. His job is to correct the history in a way that the Party’s predictions are always right. The Party is a group in society that has all the power. At work, there are that daily Two Minutes Hate, that are meant to make people hate the enemies of their country. During these Two Minutes, Winston’s eyes meet O’Brien’s. Because of this, Winston thinks O’Brien has the same thoughts. While he’s walking through the corridor, Winston sees a dark haired girl and he thinks she is a member of the Thought Police. Winston thinks when there is hope, it is in the proles. These people must have knowledge of the past, that is nnot falsified. Because of this, Winston goes to the ghetto and tries to find out some fact by interviewing an old man, but it has no result. He also buys coral in glass in Charrington’s store. Charrington shows him a room without Telescreen. People can be seen everywhere except in this room. As Winston leaves the shop, he sees the dark haired girl again. Winston would prefer to kill her. At night Winston dreams of O’Brien, saying: We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness. Winston meets the dark haired girl again in the corridor and he helps her when she falls. She succeeds in giving him a note, which said that she was in love with him. Winston tries to make contact again with her, but this is very difficult without being noticed. At last he succeeds to meet her outside the city. She is called Julia. The make love together. Julia and Winston meet eachother many times after that day, although they have to be careful not to be seen. They decide to rent Charrington’s room, so they could meet eachother without being noticed. O’Brien invites Winston to come to his home, so called to get the Newspeak dictionairy. Winston knows O’Brien has other plans and decides to take Julia with him. O’Brien tells him about the Brotherhood, an organisation which want to overthrow the government. He promises to do almost everything to overthrow the government. Winston will recieve The Book, a book written by the leader of the Brotherhood, Goldstein. After readiing this book, Winston will be a member of the Brotherhood. Winston and Julia read The Book, but they are caught by the Thought Police. It seems that they have been betrayed by Charrington. In the beginning Winston is tortured very heavily. Winston confesses almost everything, but he doesn’t betray Julia. Winston notices the presence of O’Brien. O’Brien starts to brainwash Winston. After the brainwash Winston is a complete different person. In the conversations between Winston and O’Brien the power of the Party is often the subject. Winston doesn’t understand for what purpose this power is used. Winston still hates Big Brother and O’Brien knows that. He takes Winston to room 101, the room with the worst things of the world. For Winston this is rats. When he is threatened with these animals Winston says: Don’t do this to me, do this to Julia". This is the first time that he betrayed Julia. When Winston meets Julia at the end they are both brainwashed and they are both ashamed that they betrayed eachother. When Winston is sitting in the Chestnut Tree Cafe, a bulletin appears on the Telescreen. It announces that Oceania has won an important battle in the war. Now Oceania controls entire Africa. Something changes in Winston, now he completely normal. His brainwash is completed. As he walks down the white tiled corridor and gets shot, he loves Big Brother.....
Atmosphere
It is a very sad story, because at the end the Party wins and Julia and Winston lose, although they don’t know it.
Type of story
1984 is a satire on future society.

Storyteller
A third person tells the story.
The Author
Life
George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Blair. He lived from 1903 until 1950.
Main reason
He wanted to show, what future society would look like if the society let the government do what they wanted to do, until it was to late.
Background
The WW II was just over. Russia was an communist society and more and more countries became communistic countries.
My own opinion
Opinion
I liked the book because it had a sad ending for a change. I liked also because I like reading books about the future, like Brave new world and Fahrenheit 451.
Comparison
I could compare this book with Brave new world and Fahrenheit 451.
Recognition
Yes I could recognize myself in Winston. I also couldn’t life in a such a society.