Friday, April 6, 2012

Journal #2: 1984

Motifs:  The glass paperweight with the piece of coral in it is a motif for privacy.  Winston  feels that the coral on the inside is shielded by the layer of glass, protecting it from the outside world.  Winston constantly strives to achieve a similar condition as that piece of coral by finding places where he is protected for the watchful eyes of the telescreen and the Party members.  "He had the feeling that he was inside it, along with the mahogany bed and the gateleg table and the clock and the steel engraving and the paperweight itself.  The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia's life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal" (Orwell 150).  Winston acts on his desire for privacy, and rents out the bedroom from Mr. Charrington.  Winston and Julia now have their own secluded world where they are shielded from the rest of society's judgements.  Winston realizes this is just like the coral which is its own little world inside the glass.  He realizes he is just like the coral in the fact that he has his own privacy in the room, and in the room he and Julia live the life that Winston thinks people have the right to live.  This shows that Orwell is trying to say that privacy is something that everybody should have a right to.

Setting:  The setting in the second third of the book constantly depicts objects representing freedom.  This reflects the fact that Winston has started to find places where he can speak and act freely.  In Winston and Julia's first hiding spot in the bushes, Winston listens to a singing bird.  "The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as thought the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuosity... Winston watched it with a sort of vague reverence.  For whom, for what, was that bird singing? (Orwell 126).  Winston realizes that the bird feels the freedom to sing whenever and wherever it wants, a privilege that is denied to the humans in his society.  Winston develops a lust for this type of freedom, and it leads on to him later renting the bedroom from Mr. Charrington.  There Winston watched out the window as a prole started singing a song as she hung up clothes to dry.  He concludes that all hope lies in the proles because they are the only humans left who still exhibit a kind of freedom by singing whenever they feel like it, whereas all aspects of the feeling of freedom have been eliminated from people in the Party.  This all shows that Orwell believes people deserve freedom because it is natural to just want do something just for the sake of doing it.

Language:  Orwell uses longer syntax when Winston is thinking about love. This shows that the feeling of love is quite knew to Winston, and he is devoting a lot of thought towards what it means.  Near the middle of the novel, Winston suddenly feels very angry when Julia says she can not meet with him that day.  He realizes that "when one lived with a woman this particular disappointment must be a normal, recurring event; and a deep tenderness, such as he had not felt for her before, suddenly took hold of him" (Orwell 142).  The long syntax highlights Winston's long thought process when he is trying to decipher what it feels like to be in love.  The society he lives in is so deprived of it that he doesn't know what to expect, and therefore must analyze his own feelings toward Julia in different situations.  In the situation from the quote, he at first feels jealous and angry that he can't be with her, and then he realizes that he just misses her because he loves her.  The feeling of deep tenderness gives this away to him.  Orwell is trying to say that love can be felt by people who have been deprived of knowing what it is their whole life.  Therefore love is a natural feeling, and shouldn't be taken away from society.

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