1984- George Orwell
Page(1.6.7) (Book, Chapter, Paragraph)
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PassageHe seemed to breathe again the warm stuffy odor of the basement kitchen, an odor compounded of bugs and dirty clothes and villainous cheap scent, but nevertheless alluring, because no woman of the Party ever used scent, or could be imagined as doing so. Only the proles used scent. In his mind the smell of it was inextricably mixed up with fornication.
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Reactions, Comments, Questions
Here we meet Winston who lives in a society entirely controlled by the government, there is a lot of oppression in this novel but women are under represented and have little power. When he says that quote he is referring to the scent of a prostitute because no woman of the party would use any kind of scent. Once again we see that a woman is prostituting herself to a man, and it is his decision of whether or not he would like to sleep with her. Why are women so willing to give their bodies and let them be used as sex objects?
Page(1.6.8)
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PassageWhen he had gone with that woman it had been his first lapse in two years or thereabouts. Consorting with prostitutes was forbidden, of course, but it was one of those rules that you could occasionally nerve yourself to break. It was dangerous, but it was not a life-and-death matter. To be caught with a prostitute might mean five years in a forced-labor camp: not more, if you had committed no other offence.
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Prostitution is not something to be messed with whether in real life or fiction, it is dangerous and it is the women that are doing it. They put themselves into these dangerous situations and for what? A little extra money. Sleeping with a women who is selling herself, putting herself in danger is way less of a penalty then what you would get if you were to commit a "thought crime". This angers me how the one of the first women spoken about in the novel is in reference to a prostitute. It also makes me think about when the book was written and what was influencing the author to write such a way.
Page(1.6.13)
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PassageThey must, she said, produce a child if they could. So the performance continued to happen, once a week quite regularly, whenever it was not impossible. She even used to remind him of it in the morning, as something which had to be done that evening and which must not be forgotten. She had two names for it. One was "making a baby," and the other was "our duty to the Party."
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This passage is about Katherine, Winstons wife whom he hasn't seen since she left him. You think marriage would be a positive thing full of love and emotions but it's not. This marriage is a job that will result, hopefully, in more children for the party to rein over. This is one of the other major women in Winston's life and she is a mindless, party member who loves big brother. So far into the novel not only are women weak, degraded prostitutes but they also easily conform. Katherine truly believes in her country and follows all the rules strictly. What made Winston so special to be the one to rebel, what triggers the rebellion and are those triggers different from man to woman?
Page(2.1.21)
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PassageHe thought of her naked, youthful body, as he had seen it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice. A kind of fever seized him at the thought that he might lose her, the white youthful body might slip away from him! What he feared more than anything else was that she would simply change her mind if he did not get in touch with her quickly.
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Reactions, Comments, Questions
Women get self-coucious about their age if they think of themselves only as valuable as the way they look. To read how bad Winston wants that "youthful body" is disturbing to me as he is quite a bit older then her. Julia is the other major character in this book and plays a huge role when influencing Winston's life. The way she rebels against the government is no surprising after reading about all the other women, she sleeps with many party members. In the present society she would be known as a "slut" but for some reason this is the very thing Winston wants to hear. The loves the fact that she uses her body to get back at the government. This quote also makes women sound like moving on is so easy. when Winston has no problem moving form prostitute to prostitute.
Retell:
The book 1948 by George Orwell is the most extreme type of dystopian novel that I've read in this course. It was full of hate, anger and repression. The people of Oceania are controlled by "Big Brother" who watches their every move, controls the past and ultimately the future. The people are only safe in their thoughts and even sometimes those betray them as though crimes are the wort type of crime. Winston Smith is a seemingly normal party member, he goes to work and participates in societal events but underneath he hates his society. In Oceania there is no such thing as protesting or standing up for what you believe in, unless what you believe in is the party. He doesn't know what to do about his thoughts until he meets Julia, who admits her love for him. They then begin an affair that will be the highlight of their lives not only because they have each other but because they have a way to defy the party. Winston is interested in a rebellion against the government (The Brotherhood) while Julia just does it for her own personal pleasure. While they were having their affair they had been discovered, the owner of the place they would stay was actually a member of the thought police. Both Winston and Julia are taken into custody and go through a tremendous amount of torture, but still stay loyal to each other. Finally the party wins by getting Winston to betray Julia by wishing that she would take his place by have the take the pain of his worst fear, rats. They then release Winston and when he sees Julia again he feels nothing for her. Winston then goes on to realize by last page that he, in fact, loves the big brother.
Relate:
1984 makes me think of the time in everyones childhood when you got stabbed in the back for the first time. You put all your trust in someone, like Winston trusted Mr. Charrington but eventually got stabbed in the back. This novel also reminds me of Brave New World, where there is maximum government control but it actually is the totally opposite of the society. In Brave New World people are allowed to be promiscuous and are pretty much forced to be happy with the help of "soma", in 1984 the primary goal of their government is to rule a miserable society. Dystopias are about control and power which can also relate to life. Without our government our society would be chaos, people need rules and laws but they also need choices and freedom of speech. However, laws are being passed that state that the government can have access to what you search for online, Ms. McCulligh even told me that after that law was passed the sale of dystopian novels skyrocketed!
Reflect:
After reading this book I gained a new perspective which simply is that the good guy does't always win. We are told as kids that bad guys lose and a majority of the time they do, now with this dsytopian novel it is known that our hero has lost his fight. Not being used to seeing this type of ending, I was surprised,shocked and mad all of that build up and he didn't come out victorious. This just makes me think that Orwell was trying to say something, especially with all thats going on about the government getting access to your internet. I think that Orwell was trying to say that if we as a society get in too deep, we won't be able to get out. People have to fight it now and not just let the government walk all over its people. Not that that's what their currently doing, but it makes me want to pay more attention to politics. Rising against your government is all about being careful, Winston wasn't careful anymore and that's how he got caught. If I could talk to him thats what I would say is to "be careful", they were at first, but then they felt safe and in Oceania you are never safe.